Sigourney girls win meet despite heavy hearts

BELLE PLAINE- A day removed from the tragedy of losing a classmate and boys sophomore track runner, Cale Jarmes, the Sigourney girls track team decided to honor their friend by competing at Belle Plaine, a day after the boys had decided, understandably so, not to compete at Pekin the day of the car accident which took Cale Jarmes’s life as well as local Sigourney resident Joe Snakenberg, instead they saw Cale’s brother, Casey in the hospital in critical condition at the time.

            With heavy hearts and a sense of community pride, the girls competed hard and would have made their friend very proud as Sigourney girls took first place in the Class A division at Belle Plaine on Tuesday, March 28.  Sigourney topped BGM by 12 points, and Montezuma by 19 and a half.

            Autum Barthelman took the gold in the 100 M dash, as she sprinted to a 13.54 seconds time. Brooke Waechter took first place in the 200 M dash clocking in at 29.11, with teammate Sloane Magill not far behind as Magill took fourth place in 31.46 seconds. Makenna Hammes took eighth in the 400 M dash, as she just missed earning team points, as did Ryliegh Leonard who ran well in the 800 M.

            Autum Barthelman took first in the 100 M hurdles with a time of 16.29, while her younger sister Summer took fifth with a 17.73 time. Paige Thompson took second place in the 1500 M run with a time of 5:51.98. Thompson would also take third in the 3000 M run, taking only 13:06.06 minutes to finish. Summer Barthelman would take first in the 400 M hurdles with a time of 1:11.32.

            In the field events Leah Carter finished second in the discus with a long throw of 87’3’’ falling just shy of BGM’s Maycee Cline. Megan Stuhr also earned team points for Sigourney with a best throw of 85’11’’ to take fourth place in discuss. Summer Barthelman took first in a closely contested long jump final, as she edged Montezuma’s Shateah Wetering by 1.25 inches, as she had a 15’3.5’’ long jump. Makenna Hammes again was just shy of scoring team points as she took seventh with a more than respectable 13’9’’ long jump. Sloane Magill’s shot put of 28’2.5’’ was not quite enough to get her over the hump either as she took seventh in the shot put.

            After several bottom half of the pack finishes in the first few relay events, the Lady Savages sprinted out and nearly came away with an extremely close 400 M shuttle hurdle relay which saw Leah Carter, Heidi Clarahan, Sloane Magill and Autum Barthelman lose by only .24 of a second, as Sigourney ran a 1:14.45 time and Belle Plaine, who took first, ran a 1:14.21. Sigourney was runner-up in the 800-sprint medley relay as Brooke Waechter, Carter and both Barthelmans made up the relay team.

            Overall, given the circumstances for these girls to even be able to come out and compete at all shows a lot about their character and the character of their community, as well as the support they offer one another. Coach Jeni Harter had the following to say regarding this event and the circumstances that surrounded it. “Knowing that everybody grieves differently, we tried to give each of the girls what they needed.  Some of them needed time with their families, others time with their friends, classmates and teammates.  We did take a day off and then had practice for those girls who felt like they needed to get back to a routine.  We let the girls know that it is ok to cry and that the feelings that they were having were the natural part of the grieving process.  It was a great feeling to win the track meet at Belle Plaine.  It was something positive to our really negative week.” Sigourney will continue to keep proving the words “one school, one family” right in all their athletics this season and for the future as they continue to mourn the loss of their boys track teammate and friend.

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