Woodbury track & field: Relays shine for Royals’ boys at Eagan

The Woodbury boys and girls track and field teams kicked off last week with the Wildcat Invitational in Eagan on Tuesday. The Woodbury girls then traveled down the road to Cottage Grove for the Park Wolfpack True Team Invitational on Friday.

In Eagan, the Woodbury boys took second place in Eagan and the Royals girls placed eighth at Eagan and fifth at Park.

At the Wildcat Invitational, the Woodbury boys scored 96 points to finish second to Apple Valley (159 points), while the Woodbury girls had 50 points. Lakeville South won the girls portion of the meet with 189 points.

The Woodbury boys did very well in its relays in the Eagan meet. Woodbury’s 800-meter relay team of Dimeji Iselewa, John Osifuye, Abiloa Abodunde and Kyle Haugen won the event with a meet-record time of 1 minute, 32.01 seconds and Woodbury’s 1600-meter relay team of Matt Waterhouse, Davis Johnson, Abodunde and Haugen won the event with a meet-record 3:23.50.

In addition, Abodunde, Iselewa, Quaran Al-Hameed and Osifuye teamed up to take third place in the 400-meter relay with a time of 44.02 and Nathan Orf, Taylor Voit, Steven Jessen-Howard and Sam Evans earned third place in the 3200-meter relay with a time of 8:37.67.

In individual events, Kyle Haugen and Matt Waterhouse finished in second and third place in the 400-meter dash with times of 51.25 and 51.48, respectively. Davis Johnson earned second place in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 40.13, while Ladi Lawal took fifth in the race with a time of 43.09. Osifuye took second place in the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, 3.50 inches and finished second in the triple jump with a distance of 43-07.50.Josh McClain earned third place in the shot put with a heave of 45-11.75. Luke Wittman placed fourth in the 3200-meter run in 10:31.76. Kyle Schmidt placed fifth in the discus toss with a throw of 130-10.Nick Wareham placed sixth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:53.70. Al-Hameed earned sixth place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.88.

For the Woodbury girls, the Royals’ 1600-meter relay team of Grace Rogers, Lauren Smith, Emily Twohig and Lisa Huska took second place in the event with a time of 4:11.01.

In the field, Woodbury scored a bunch of points in the triple jump, where Maddy Haut, Kat Herzberg and Grace Rogers finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively. Haut had a jump of 33 feet, 02.25 inches. Herzberg jumped 32-10.50 and Rogers jumped 32-05.75.

In individual events, Twohig earned third place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:27.85. Christina Doherty placed fourth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.15. Manasa Melachuri earned fourth place in the 3200-meter run in a time of 11:58.55. Huska took fourth place in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 47.57. Wakpor Ighovojah placed fifth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.35 and Rogers finished in seventh place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.42.

A few days later at Park, the Woodbury girls totaled 769 points to take fourth place. Stillwater won the True Team meet with 1054.50 points.

In the True Team competition every competitor scores points for their team. In individual events the first place finisher is awarded 24 points, the second 23 points and so on. The 24th place finisher earns one point. In relays the first place team is awarded 32 points, the second 28 points, the third 24 points down to the eighth place team that earns four points.

Woodbury’s big even of the day was the triple jump, where the Royals finished first, second and third. Rogers won the event with a leap of 34 feet, 9 inches. Haut placed second (34-03) and Herzberg took third place (33-06). Herzberg also placed eighth with a leap of 15-01 in the long jump.

Allyson Rock had the Royals’ other first place finish on the day, in the discus throw with a toss of 105 feet, 2 inches. Woodbury’s Olivia Alston placed fourth with a distance of 91-09. Rock was also third in the shot put with a heave of 32-05.5. Alston was ninth in the shot with a toss of 29-04.

Woodbury ran well in the 100-meter run, where Maria Versaguis took third place with a time of 17.76, Taylor Malmgren placed fifth (18.28) and Ighovojah was seventh (18.84). Ighovojah also did well in the high jump, taking second by clearing 4 feet, 10 inches. Melachuri earned second in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:32.83 and fourth in the 3200-meter run with a time of 11:58.37. Doherty earned fourth place in the 200 with a time of 28.00.Devan Roman and Versaguis placed fifth and sixth in the 300-meter hurdles with times of 51.75 and 52.42, respectively, and Karina Winkelman placed seventh in the 400 with a time of 1:05.39.

Tags: track and field, sports, woodbury, royals, prep, updates