Although Jefferson is only about thirty miles north of Guthrie Center, for the ACGC girls' track team it may have seemed much further north, as the girls competed in temperatures in the low to mid forties at the Greene County Early Bird track meet last night. In addition to ACGC, teams from Greene County, North Polk, and Ogden competed at the meet. As a team the Chargers finished in third place out of four teams with 59 points.

Despite the frigid temps, the Chargers turned in some good performances, as four different performers picked up firsts in their individual events. Regan Rumelhart won the 100 meter dash in 14.49; Kate Crawford captured the 1500 meter run in 15:16.61; Mady Smith took the 100 meter hurdles in 17.72; and Mady McDermott put the shot 35'11" to claim the gold.

McDermott was the only Charger to finish second in an individual event, as she threw the discus 94'10", while two relay teams also finished second. The 4x200 relay claimed the second spot with a time of 2:04.57. Rumelhart led off the event, followed by Kylie Young, and Jenna Andersen, with Savana Fuller running the anchor. The 4x800 relay also finished second in 10:47.39.with Emma Swanson leading off, Lauryn Embleton and Audrey Stowe running second and third, and Kate Crawford running the anchor.

Finishing in third place in individual events were Emma Swanson in the 1500 meter run with a time of 5:42.1 and Audrey Stowe who ran the 400 meter hurdles in 1:20.2.

Fourth place finishes went to Lauryn Embleton in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:43.91 and Rylie Sloss who ran the 1500 meters in a time of 6:01.07 and the 3000 meters in 12:44.81. Several relay teams finished in fourth place, including the 4x100 (Smith, Reagan Rumelhart, Belle Policky, Savana Fuller) in 59.42; the 4x400 (Kenzie Reinhnart, Reese Coffman, Kylie Young, Sophie Danker) in 5:07.91; the 800 sprint medley (Smith, Fuller, Young, and Danker) in 2:16.74; the 1600 distance medley (Jenna Stringer, Policky, Reinhart, and Danker) in 5:25.27; and the 400 shuttle hurdle relay (Stringer, Coffman, Andersen, and Charlotte Colling) in a time of 1:31.37

The lone fifth place finish for individual events belonged to Mady Smith who went 4'6" in the high jump.

Coach Colin Shawgo seemed to feel pretty good about his teams performances, as he said, "The meet itself went pretty well. Overall, I am pretty happy with the way we performed. Our plan going into the meet was to use it as an opportunity to get a lot of base times and distances, and I think we succeeded at that. A lot of the girls got to try some events they haven't done before, and for them to be successful for the most part was good to see. The meet gives the coaches a chance to sift through a lot of data to determine who we want to put where as the season goes along. As I said, it was overall a pretty good night and a starting point for the season."

Team standings

North Polk 92

Green County 89

ACGC 59

Ogden 54

Both the girls' and boys' teams will compete this Thursday, March 29 at the Perry Relays in Perry, with events beginning at 4:30 according to the Perry High School website. Teams from Carroll, Panorama, Saydel, Winterset, host Perry, and ACGC will compete in the girls' meet, while the ACGC boys' will face competition from Carroll, Des Moines Christian, Panorama, Saydel and Perry.