OSKALOOSA — Monday was a beautiful night to run and the Oskaloosa eighth-grade girls made the most of their opportunity to run. 

With their home meet canceled last year, the girls were ready to prove to their fans what they could do. All the girls ran hard setting many personal records and season best times. 

The Indians got a huge boost from the field events getting both entries in the top 4 in all four events. Taylor Crawford and Kathryn Wilson led the charge finishing first and third in the shot put and first and fourth in the discus respectively. Each set personal bests in their throws.

The jumpers were able to follow in the throwers success with Shania Cubit winning high jump and Makena Veldhuizen finished tied for third. Long jump was the only field event for the Indians, but they were able to get second and fourth behind jumps from Whitney Newman and Hannah Grahek. After the field events, the Indians had scored a whopping 55.25 points, with the next closest competitor Pella at 20.

The running events started with the 4x800 team of Steph Smith, Claire Denniston, Grahek and Brooke Beers improving their best time by 23 seconds to finish fifth in a time of 11:50. Next came the shuttle hurdle team of Kylie Hill, Morgan Flander, Emily Peters and Allie Christenson improving their best time by over 2 seconds as they finished in third place running in 57.59 seconds. 

As the night continued, so did the terrific races. The 100- and 200-meter dashes didn’t disappoint fans with their great finishes  In the 100, Makena Veldhuizen was able to lean to victory in a time of 13.5 seconds. In the 200, Veldhuizen’s lean was a little early and she ended up finishing third in a time of 28.06 seconds, just a quarter of a second behind the winner. Kirsti Edwards finished fifth in the 100 with a time of 14.46. Aubrey Netten was able to get third in both the 400 and the 800, with season best times of 1:06.62 and 2:41.93. Andrea Brown won the second heat in the 400 with a personal best 1:09.56 to finish fifth. The longest open race was possibly the most exciting of the night with the Indians’ Meghan Toubekis leading for three laps before being overtaken. She was still able to finish second in a time of 5:45, 18 seconds faster than her previous best. Smith was able to go under 6 minutes in the mile as well, finishing in fourth place. The Indian hurdlers were able to lower their previous marks for the season as well. Morgan Flander ran 14.06 to finish fifth in the 7-flight hurdles. Allie Christenson finished sixth in the 7-flight at 14.12 and fourth in the 200 hurdles running a 34.12.

The Indians did an excellent job in the relays with many close finishes. The 4x100 team of Veldhuizen, Newman, Paige Smith and Edwards finished in second with a time of 55.63. The 4x200 team of Joslyn Schaffner, Newman, Smith and Edwards finished in third.The 4x400 team of Brown, Beers, Grahek and Netten got third as well, running a season best time of 4:50.1. The sprint medley and the Distance Medley relays both got fourth place. Participating in those were Schaffner, Shelby Allgood, Shawni Wills, Marissa Sharp, Smith and Brown.

The B relays were dominant through the night. The 4x200 team of Allgood, Crawford, Peters and Brook Van Helton took the blue ribbon, as well as the 4x100 team of Flander, Allgood, Wills and Ashley Nimtz. The 4x100 time of 1:00.76 would have been good enough for a fourth-place finish in the A group. The sprint medley B team of Crawford, Peters, Van Helton and Beers were able to capture second place in a time of 2:20.

In the end, it was a successful night for the Indians with more than 20 personal records and 4 season best times in relays. When the races were completed the good news wasn’t done for the Indians as their 142 points were enough to beat a talented Pella team by 12 points a win the McCormick Relays.