Yates Center girls claim third at Neodesha meet

CHERRYVALE  — Yates Center High’s girls scored points in 10 events as they worked their way to a third-place finish at Thursday’s Cherryvale High Invitational track meet.
The Wildcat boys placed in six of the seven events they entered on Thursday.
“I’m really proud of the girls. We are hitting personal bests which is what we want at this time of the year,” said Dan Berg, Yates Center head coach.
“Our guys continue to have strong performances. We are focusing our efforts toward the Tri-Valley League meet and regionals in the next two weeks.”
Brae Adams and Samie Hatch went 1-3 in the discus for the Wildcat girls. Adams won the event with a throw of 118 feet and Hatch was third at 64 feet, 11 inches.
Cherokee Shaffer ended in a three-way tie for second in the high jump. She cleared the bar at 4’6”, with teammate Paige Steinforth placing fifth at 4’4”.
Haley Bedell finished sixth in the javelin. Her best throw was 82’7”.
On the track, Steinforth was the silver medalist in the 400-meter dash in 69 seconds. Mindi Holloway took second in the 800-meter run in a personal-best time of 2 minutes, 49 seconds.
Holloway ran third in the 100-meter high hurdles in 18.8 seconds and Bedell was fifth in 20.8. Bedell claimed the bronze medal in the 300-meter low hurdles in 59.5 seconds.
The Wildcat girls’ 4×400-meter relay team of Steinforth, Shaffer, Bedell and Holloway was second in 4:55.5. The 4×100-meter relay team of Steinforth, Shaffer, Macey Heger and Holloway took fifth in 59.1 seconds.
Berg said Heger ran a personal-best 6:51 in the 1600-meter race but did not place.
“C.J. Stiffler keeps scoring (in events) but missing medals,” Berg said of the Wildcat boys. “Sam (Aguirre) had a rough day in the 110-meter high hurdles.
“He had a false start in the preliminaries, shutting him out of the finals. But he redeemed himself in the 300. David VanHoose did well in his races.”
Aguirre took the silver medal in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. He ran the race in 44.1 seconds. Aguirre also placed fourth in the long jump at 18’21⁄2”.
VanHoose won the 200-meter dash in 23.7 seconds. He was third in the 100-meter dash in 11.6 seconds.
Stiffler placed fourth in the shot put with a toss of 38’11”. He was fifth in the javelin with a throw of 123’5”.