Woodbury track & field: Royals boys earn second, girls third at True Team meet

The Woodbury boys and girls track and field teams showed it has strength in numbers last week at the Section Section 2AAA True Team Meet, held at Stillwater High School.

The True Team meet, originated by the Minnesota State Track and Field Coaches Association, is exactly that: a team meet. True Team meets take into account results from the whole team, awarding points based on performance to all participants in a given event.

At the section True Team meet, the Woodbury boys finished in an impressive second place with 699 points – just back of first-place Stillwater (851.5 points). The Woodbury girls nearly matched the boys, taking third place with 569.5 points. The Stillwater girls also won the meet, with 717.5 points. The East Ridge girls finished in second place with 669.5 points.

The Woodbury boys team used its strong relays to propel itself to second place. The Royals boys won the 800-meter relay and the 1600-meter relay, finished second in the 400-meter relay and third in the 3200-meter relay.

The four relay finishes gave the Royals 116 total points.

Woodbury’s 800-meter relay team of Dimeji Iselewa, John Osifuye, Matt Waterhouse and Kyle Haugen won with a time of 1 minute, 31.64 seconds, beating Stillwater (1:32.03) and the 1600-meter relay of Waterhouse, Davis Johnson, Abiola Abodunde and Haugen won its race with a time of 3:24.72 – ahead of the Ponies’ 3:26.63 second-place time.

In the 400-meter race, the Woodbury sprinters Quran Al-Hameed, Abodunde, Iselewa and Haugen finished second to Park with a time of 43.53 seconds. The Wolfpack won the race in 43.11. In the 3200-meter relay, Taylor Voit, Sam Evans, Steven Jessen-Howard and Nathan Orf took third with a time of 8 minutes, 38.18 seconds. Stillwater was first in 8:22.65.

Individually, for the Woodbury boys, the Royals did some major damage in the hurdles as well. Johnson, Fatai Lawal and Ben Tucker took second, fourth and seventh in the 110-meter hurdles for 62 points and finished second, seventh and 14th in the 300-meter hurdles for another 52 points. Johnson led the way in both races with times of 15.76 and 40.09 – just coming in behind three-time state champion R.J. Alowonle from Park in each race.

The jumps were another area where the Royals racked up points. Abodunde, Osifuye and Ethan Tuner took third, fourth and ninth, respectively, in the long jump for 59 points and Osifuye, Abodunde and Turner earned second, fourth and fifth in the triple jump, respectively, for 64 points. Abodunde leaped to a distance of 20 feet, 9 inches in the long jump and Osifuye had a mark of 44 feet, 4.5 inches in the triple.

Woodbury’s throwers also made a big impact. Josh McClain earned fourth place and Quintin Schmalz took seventh place in the shot put with marks of 44 feet, 10.5 inches and 44-01.5, respectively and Kyle Schmidt took second place in the discus toss with a throw of 133 feet, 10 inches, while McClain took 10th in the event with a toss of 115-05.

Also, Wareham, Luke Wittman and Taylor Voit earned fourth, fifth and eighth in the 3200-meter run, respectively with times of 10:23.62, 10:24.89 and 10:34.59 for a total of 56 points. Waterhouse finished third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.51. Al-Hameed was sixth in the 100-meter dash in 11.94. Evans took eighth place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:10.73 and Turner was ninth in the high jump, clearing a distance of 5 feet, 8 inches.

For the Woodbury girls, Lisa Huska won the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 46.78 and finished in seventh place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.39. In addition to Huska, Devan Roman took fifth place and Jessica Griffin placed eighth in the 300 hurdles with times of 49.93 and 51.27, respectively, giving the Royals 52 points in the event.

Woodbury also scored big in the triple jump. Kat Herzberg leapt to a second-place finish with a mark of 34 feet, 00.75 inches, followed by Madeline Haut, who took third (33-10.25) and Karina Winkelman was 10th (30-10.75) for 51 total points. Herzberg was also fifth in the long jump with a leap of 16-03.

Allyson Rock flexed her muscles in the throwing events, winning the discus toss with a throw of 107 feet, 11 inches and taking second place in the shot put with a mark of 33-09.0 to earn 41 points by herself.

In addition, Lauren Smith earned fourth place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:28.80. Christina Doherty placed fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:02.15. Taylor Malmgren and Maria Veraguis took seventh place, respectively, in the 100-meter hurdles with times of 17.00 and 17.67. Manasa Melachuri placed eighth in the 3200-meter run with a time of 11:52.66 and Wakpor Ighovojah took fourth and Malmgren was seventh in the high jump, clearing distances of 4 feet, 10 inches and 4-8, respectively.

The Woodbury boys and girls head to Park for an invitational meet on Thursday as they gear up for the Suburban East Conference Championships, which will be held on Tuesday, May 22, and Thursday, May 24, at East Ridge High School.

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