(Sentinel photo by Roy Tucker) Gehlen Catholic senior Ashley Langel carries the baton during a leg of the 4x800 relay Friday in Westwood. Langel joined Linden Sitzmann, Erica Janning and Ellen Sitzmann to win the event in 10:42.1. [Click to enlarge]

"It was sunny, nice, a perfect night," Gehlen girls' track coach Betty Loutsch said.

Unfortunately, that sentence only describes the first half hour of Friday night's track meet in Sloan.

"A half hour later, it was a downpour," she said. "It was windy with heavy rain."

And due to that inclement weather, only a couple of events took place Friday afternoon.

In field events, Kayla Hatting placed fourth in the shot put. The junior recorded a toss of 33 and one half inches against some of the competition she will face at the upcoming regional meet, according to Loutsch.

Other field events, including the high jump, were started but not completed and therefore no results were tabulated.

In the opening run of the night, the 3000 meter run, Sana Naqvi came in fifth for the Lady Jays. She recorded a time of 14:10.5 in the race.

As the weather started to turn, the Lady Jays 4x800 relay team of Linden Sitzmann, Ashley Langel, Erica Janning and Ellen Sitzmann were focusing on their race.

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In the midst of the conditions, the girls finished in 10:42.1 to take first.

"It's just been a really sad year for the girls," Loutsch said of all the weather-related complications this spring. "They want to bring that 4x8 time down [to compete at the regional meet]. But they ran a decent time [Friday night] considering the weather."

After those events, the night was over. "It started raining during the 4x8," Loutsch said. "And the boys ran the 3200 in the rain, and then they called the meet."

The Lady Jays have one more chance to test their competition before Saturday's regional meet. Tonight they compete at Hinton in a make-up meet from earlier this season.

As far as the region goes, Loutsch said, "It's going to be a tough one."

The Gehlen girls are focused on a few events in which they hope to come out on top.

The first is the shuttle hurdle relay. The team of Hatting, Megan Sauer, Kayla Holtgrewe and Danielle Gunter has been winning the event very consistently all season. "The shuttle hurdle has the fastest time," Loutsch said. "If we just run safe and get through the race, we should be okay."

Earlier this season, at the Sioux City Relays, the shuttle team placed second in a battle between all classes at the meet, running a time of 1:09.77.

As far as hurdles go, the Lady Jays have proved very competitive all season. Hatting and Sauer both have high hopes for the 100 hurdles. According to Loutsch, the two are sitting around second and fourth, respectively, in the event. For much of the season, the two have been taking first and second and Hatting even placed second in the Elite 100 (against all classes) at the SC Relays.

The two main competitors Loutsch sees for Hatting and Sauer are Abbie Ackerman from Central Lyon and Hinton's Kinsey Bak.

According to Loutsch, Hatting is also sitting around second place in the 400 hurdles.

These hurdling events and the 4x800 relay look to be the Lady Jays' main focus as they head into the regional this Saturday.