Gillingham, Drietz light the way in the cold

Lizzy Gillingham stepped off the track, still breathing hard, shivering, yet defying the cold of the Montevideo track.

She'd just won the 100-meter dash in 13.5 seconds and helped her 4x800-meter relay team to second behind Lac qui Parle Valley-Dawson/Boyd.

It was a day of shivering, shaking and run all out during a abbreviated track meet that defyed Mother Nature and punched a hold in the weather-dominated spring sports season.

As for the distance runners, Grace Drietz picked up where she left off last year and won the 1600-meter run in 5:41 with teammates close behind.

Faith Traen was third in six minutes flat with McKenzie Ruether in fourth, just nine seconds behind Traen.

Another success story happening for the Canby-Minneota track team is the running of Makenzie Hemish. The Canby runner came in second to a tough Sydney Weber of LqPV-DB in the 200-meter dash. She was just four-tenths of a second behind Weber.

Kameron King  was fourth in the 400-meter dash; Abby Rost took third in the 800-meter run and Aidyn Bruns was second in the high jump at 4-6. It was won by Sierra Plotz of Lakeview at 4-10.

Canby-Minneota's Norah King won the indoor shot put at 34-10 with Rose O'Malley of Montevideo at 30-1 in second.

The 200-meter dash went to Olivia Butterfield of Lakeview in :28.9 with the Canby-Minneota runner Kalli Jelen in second at :29.0 — just a tenth of a second behind Butterfield.

In the relays it was:

4x200-meter relay: 1. Canby-Minneota, 1:58; 2. LqPV-DB 2:00.

4x400-meter relay: 1. Canby-Minneota, 4:39.5; 2. Montevideo, 4:42.6.

4x800-meter relay: 1. Canby-Minneota 10:50; 2. LqPV-DB 11:05.

Although no team scores were kept, Canby-Minneota showed themselves as a strong team, with wins in the distance, short races and shotput.

All-in-all, it was a cold, abbreviated but successful day for the C-M runners.