New Life Academy track & field: Eagles girls 1600-meter relay team breaks school record

The New Life Academy boys and girls track and field teams traveled to Princeton last week for an invitational meet on Thursday. Both the NLA boys and girls turned in solid performances at the 11-team meet. The Eagles boys took fifth place with 50 points and the girls placed sixth 54 points. Big Lake won the boys and girls meet. The Big Lake boys scored 213 points and the girls scored 148.5 points.

“The distance team was strong again for us this week, and the hurdlers did well again,” New Life head coach Tim Otto said. “The sprinters are making good progress in their performances. It’s nice to see consistent scoring from the whole team even with a limited numbers of athletes.”

One of the highlights of the meet for New Life Academy was the Eagles’ girls 1600-meter relay team’s finish. New Life’s Abby Gorter, Sydney Mortenson, Tori Rogness and Sarah Olfelt finished in fourth place and set the school record in the event. Gorter, Mortenson and Rogness are all only eighth graders and Olfelt is a ninth grader. The girls finished in a time of 4 minutes, 31.48 seconds, breaking the old record of 4:48.04, which was set in 2006.

In individual running events, Rogness placed fourth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:34.34 and Olfelt was seventh in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:45.51. In the field, New Life’s Emily Sovine earned second place in the pole vault, clearing 7 feet, 6 inches and Gorter took third in the long jump with a leap of 14 feet, 1.75 inches and earned fifth place in the triple jump with a 29-08.50 mark.

For the NLA boys, the Eagles’ hurdlers stole the show once again. New Life’s Dan Otto won the 110-meter hurdle race with a time of 16.14, while the Eagles’ Mark Schreiner earned fourth place in the event with a time of 17.29. In the 300-meter hurdles, Otto took third place with a time of 41.71 and Schreiner was fifth in a time of 43.06.

In addition, Ryan Peterfeso placed fifth in the 3200-meter run with a time of 11 minutes, 10.13 seconds. Sam Hagen also placed fifth, in the 800-meter run, with a time of 2:10.99. Sam Dufault earned sixth place in the 400-meter run with a time of 56.09, while Eby Ketema took 12th place in the event with a time of 58.15. Dan Sleper was 10th in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:57.15. Kyle Linton took 10th place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.58 and Ty Frazier finished in 15th place in the 200-meter dash (25.81). In the field events, Dufault took sixth place in the long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 2.50 inches, while Frazier was 14th in the event with a jump of 17-00.50. In the discus throw, NLA’s Jake Wynia earned 15th place with a toss of 90 feet, 4 inches and Dan Neimeir took 16th place in the shot put with a heave of 34-10.

This week, the Eagles head to Sibley East High School in Arlington Section 4A True Team meet.

Tags: track and field, sports, prep, updates