With a new school record, Frey leads Highland girls to State Track Meet in four events

Highland girls track coach Nick Schaible was hopeful that his top athletes could make the cut and qualify for next weekend’s Class 2A state meet in Charleston.

Mission accomplished.

Highland qualified four entries on the Class 2A sectional meet at Civic Memorial High School in Bethslto for the Class 2A meet in Charleston next weekend. That result left Schaible and his staff pleased with the Bulldogs showing on the track.

“Overall, I was very pleased with their performance given that we had very windy conditions there,” Schaible said. “They crushed it and they exceeded all expectations.”

Peyton Frey led the Highland qualifiers with a second-place finish in the 800-meter run clocking a new school record time of 2:19.64.

“Peyton Frey, she crushed at two minutes, nineteen seconds and that’s a new Highland High Schools record,” Schaible said.

Julianne Lindsco qualified in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.4 good for third place. “She ran a 60.04 and her previous PR was a 60.075 and to get to state you need a 60.07, so he beat it by just a third of s second but that’s only her second time ever running the open 400.”

The Bulldogs 4x400 relay team of Lindsco, Maya Pollard, Sophia Thomas, and Frey qualified with a fifth-place finish (4:09.30).

“They weren’t quite at their PR and they were second slower than their PR,” Schaible said. They are two seconds off our school record and our school record’s a 4:07 and state qualifying is 4.13, so they were well within it.”

Rowan Passmore rounded out the state qualifiers for the Bulldogs. Passmore took fourth place in the 3200-meter run in (13:03.16). “She was great in the 3,200,” Schaible said.

Highland finished eighth overall in the team standings with 37 points.

Highland will travel to Charleston on Thursday to compete in the Class 2A meet on Friday morning at Eastern Illinois University.

While the girls were busy with state qualifying, the Highland boys were at home last Friday hosting the Mississippi Valley Conference Championship meet at Highland High School.

Highland finished fourth overall behind Mascoutah (196), Triad (162), and Civic Memorial (75) with 51 points ahead of Waterloo (44) and Jerseyville (26).

Bulldogs coach Joe Shannon felt his club competed well given the tough competition at the top of the conference with Mascoutah and Triad. “I thought we competed pretty well,” Shannon said. The top two teams, Mascoutah and Triad have probably double the size of the roster we have on our track team and those are probably two top 10 track teams.”

Dallas Mancinas and Christian Knobloch continued their strong work in the 1,600-meter run finishing third (4:30.05) and fifth place (4:36.40) respectively.

Mancinas had a big day for the Bulldogs

“Dallas had an amazing day,” Shannon said. “He had a third place in the 4 x 800, then came back in the mile and he had then he was the anchor in the 4 x 400 and passed Mascoutah to get second (place) so Dallas shined on the track this past Friday.”

The Bulldogs 4x200 relay team of Hunter Friday, Dylan Beadle, Cole Parsons, and Rome Wallace placed third (1:35.13) while the 4 x 400 relay team of Donnie Miller, Fridley, Walker Nehrt, and Mancinas took second place with a time of 3:32.14.

“That 4x400 is only a little over a second from sending the team to state, so we’ll have to load that 4x4 up for sectionals this Thursday,” Shannon said.

Highland’s 4 x 800 relay team of Mancinas, Adin Roach, Avery Brock, and Miller finished in third place (8:12.72).

Miller also shined in the 400-meter dash thanks to a third-place time of 51.52. “Donnie Miller also shined on the track and he was also on the 4x8 team that got third and Donnie ran an amazing race in the 400 to get third,” Shannon said. He was also on that 4 x 4 team that got second and was a huge contributor to that team getting second.”

In the field events, Liam Kobbeman came up big with a fourth-place finish in the discus (42.36 meters). “He’s figuring out his arm slot a lot better and hat’s off to Liam for being a hard-working athlete,” Shannon said.

The Highland boys will head north to Rochester for the Class 2A sectional meet on Thursday.