NRHEG girls’ track wins conference meet; USC/A-C boys win 6th consecutive

Published 2:36 am Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The United South Central/Alden-Conger boys’ track and field team made it six consecutive Gopher Conference championships Tuesday at the conference meet in Medford while the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva girls’ track team finally dethroned USC/A-C for the championship.

The Rebels girls’ team beat the Panthers by 15 1/2 points in each of the past two conference meets, but this year NRHEG finally claimed the top spot with 222 points, clipping USC/A-C by 28 points.

“Our girls performed about as well as they possibly could,” said Panthers head coach Duey Ferber.

Email newsletter signup

NRHEG set two school records and won seven events. Junior Alyssa Kerkhoff won four events herself.

Kerkhoff set a school record in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.81 seconds and picked up victories in the long jump, the 200 and the 100 while eighth-grader Carlie Wagner set a school record in the high jump by clearing 5 feet, 1 inch.

Jill Kalis won the discus with a throw of 114-3 3/4 and Amber Schmit took second in the shot put with a throw of 32-10 1/2.

The Rebels boys’ team scored 198 points and had a comfortable 68 1/2 point lead over second-place Blooming Prairie. NRHEG finished third with 118 1/2 points.

Panthers senior David Lindell set a meet record in the discus with a throw of 160 feet to win the event. The previous record had stood since 1974. Senior Kevin Klocek won the 100 and 200 and the 4×100 relay team of Lindell, Klocek, Geoff Ramaker and Matt Young won with time of 46.71 seconds.