Track and field: Wadena-Deer Creek girls secure the gold and boys grab bronze at Sam Kelderman Meet

Emonie Hammond.jpg — Wadena-Deer Creek's Emonie Hammond lands in the sandy pit for a fourth place finish in the long jump (18' 3") to help the boys team finish third at the Sam Kelderman Invite at Wadena-Deer Creek on May 4.

By Nick Leonardelli

May 08, 2023 at 7:09 AM

WADENA – The Wadena-Deer Creek track and field team hosted nine area schools at the Sam Kelderman Invite on Thursday.

The girls outshined the competition taking home the gold with 136 team points. The boys finished in second place with 92 team points, only one behind second-place Parker Prairie. The Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale boys had a dominant performance with 150 team points to finish atop the podium.

On the girls side, Layla Sharp secured the top spot in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.23. Amber Collins sprinted across the finish line in 1:00.16 for first place in the 400-meter dash. Noele Spicer finished in first place with a time of 5:58.00 in the mile.

Amber Collins.jpg — Wadena-Deer Creek's Amber Collins shoots out of her starting position as the girls team takes first place Sam Kelderman Invite at Wadena-Deer Creek on May 4.

Ellie Hale rocketed her way into a first-place finish in the shot put with a distance of 32 feet, 6 inches. Gracie Arm secured second place with her toss of 31 feet, 1.5 inches. The girls flip-flopped positions in the discus. Arm grabbed first (97 feet, 4 inches) and Hale took second (90 feet, 7 inches).

For the boys, Lyrik Haug soared to a first-place finish in the high jump with a height of 5 feet, 10 inches. Isaac Heppner finished first in the pole vault with a vault of 10 feet, 6 inches.

Ettore Pinnella missed out on second place in the 100-meter dash by two-thousandths of a second to finish in third (10.25). Lane Hoefs crossed the finish line four seconds behind the leader in the 1600-meter dash to secure the silver medal with a time of 4:50.00. He also had a third-place finish in the 3200-meter dash (11.08.00)

Ettore Pinnella to Emonie Hammond.jpg — Wadena-Deer Creek's Ettore Pinnella and Emonie Hammond with the exchange as the boy team finishes third at the Sam Kelderman Invite at Wadena-Deer Creek on May 4.

SAM KELDERMAN MEET GIRLS TEAM SCORES- 1- Wadena-Deer Creek 136, 2- Pillager 103, 3- Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale 101.33, 4- Ashby-Brandon/Evansville 55.66, 5- Pine River/Backus 49, 6- New York Mills 32, 7- Parker Prairie 28, 8- United North Central 27, 9- Rothsay 4

SAM KELDERMAN MEET BOYS TEAM SCORES- 1- Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale 150, 2- Parker Prairie 93, 3- Wadena-Deer Creek 92, 4- Pillager 79, 5- Rothsay 62, 6- Ashby-Brandon/Evansville 34, 7- Pine River/Backus 25, 8- United North Central 16, 9- New York Mills 2

WADENA-DEER CREEK GIRLS TOP EIGHT FINISHERS- 100M- 1st- Layla Sharp 13.23

200M- 2nd- Amber Collins 27.00

400M- 1st- Amber Collins 1:00.16, 3rd- Britta Sweeney 1:04.44

800M- 2nd- Britta Sweeney 2:33.00, 3rd- Ally Pavek 2:37.00, 7th- Noelle Spicer 2:43.00

1600M- 1st- Noelle Spicer 5:58.00, 8th- Leah Osberg 6:29.00

100M HURDLES- 7th- Eva Pulver 20.32

300M HURDLES- 4th- Addison Hillukka 56.93, 8th- Brynna Hoefs 1:00.67

LONG JUMP- 4th- Amber Colins 15’

SHOT PUT- 1st- Ellie Hale 32’ 6”, 2nd- Gracie Arm 31’ 1.5”, 5th- Macey Goeden 28’ 6”

DISCUS- 1st- Gracie Arm 97’ 4”, 2nd- Ellie Hale 90’ 7”

WADENA-DEER CREEK GIRLS TOP EIGHT FINISHERS- 100M- 3rd- Ettore Pinnella 12.25, 4th- Emonie Hammond 12.31

200M- 6th- Micah Segovia 25.36