(Sentinel photo by Ty Capron) Hinton's Kinsey Bak (center) cruises to a win in the 100 hurdles, flanked by A-W's Jordan Harris (left) and Lauren Blinde (right) Monday at the Blackhawk Relays. [Click to enlarge]

Monday afternoon's beautiful weather wasn't the only exciting part of the Blackhawk Invitational Girl's Track Meet in Hinton. Several schools featured girls recording personal bests in their respective events.

Two Remsen-Union girls broke school records--which they set in the first place.

In the shot put, Nicole Rogers' toss of 36-8 broke the R-U record she set earlier this season. Her record-breaking toss was also good enough to beat out Gehlen's Kayla Hatting and earn the Lady Rockets' only gold medal of the night. Hatting's toss of 33-11 was good for second.

Placing second in the 400 hurdles, Tasha Wurth's time of 1:12.16 also broke her own school record. However, her time wasn't quite enough to defeat Hatting, who took one of her trio of golds in the 400 with a time of 1:11.28.

RSM's Emma Krier placed third in the same event with a time of 1:12.79.

In other field events in Class B, Krier topped the high jump by clearing 4-8 and earned first place points for the Hawks.

Winning a pair of golds for RSM was Holly Kockler. She started the afternoon with a personal best in the long jump with her distance of 14-6. Gehlen Catholic's Rachel Koopman took second in the same event, reaching 14-1 1/2.

Kockler went on to place first in the 800 with a time of 2:33.33. She was trailed by Ashley Langel from Gehlen, who crossed third in 2:38.20.

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RSM senior Amy Wiederholt continued her hot streak in the 100 meter dash and took home another gold Monday afternoon for her time of 13.05 seconds.

Wiederholt joined Kockler, Krier and Brielle Biezuns to take home the gold in the distance medley, finishing in 4:31.45, which was their best time in nearly two years, according to Coach Craig Hoffman. "We're really happy with how that turned out tonight."

Less than two seconds behind them was Gehlen's team of Megan Sauer, Kelsey Sitzmann, Erica Janning and Ellen Sitzmann (4:33.04).

Other top individual finishes for RSM include Stacie Ahlers finishing second in the 3000 (13:05.43) and Biezuns taking third in the 200 (28.59). The Hawks' sprint medley team of Wiederholt, Krier, Biezuns and Trisha Schroeder ran their season best time of 2:01.38 to place second in the event.

The Hawks placed third in team standings with 79 points.

"We've been pretty consistent yet continued to see improvement," Hoffman said. "We're peaking at the right time. Except for the questionable weather, this has been an absolutely fantastic year for us."

Second place went to the Lady Jays, who earned 105.5 team points.

As usual, Gehlen was led by their team of hurdlers. In addition to Hatting's gold in the 400 hurdles, she also took the gold in the 100 (15.50). Sauer was right behind her to take second in 15.97. R-U's Tasha Wurth was fourth in 16.56.

In the shuttle hurdle, Hatting, Sauer, Kayla Holtgrewe and Danielle Gunter took yet another gold as they finished in 1:07.44.

The Lady Jays also took a gold in the 4x800 relay. Linden Sitzmann, Ashley Langel, Erica Janning and Ellen Sitzmann have been working hard all season to clip time off this race and according to Coach Betty Loutsch, "They did exactly what we needed to do by running that time tonight." They crossed first in 10:24.77 to finish over 20 seconds before their closest competitor.

Another pair of Lady Jays' relay teams took home silver medals from Hinton. The 4x200 team of Janning, Holtgrewe, Kesley Sitzmann and Ellen Sitzmann crossed third in 1:56.33. Jess Timmins, Brittany Flack, Linden Sitzmann and Amber Walding ran the 4x400 in 4:44.08 to take third.

Rounding out the top finishers for the Lady Jays were Ellen Sitzmann and Ashley Langel in the 1500 meter run. Sitzmann took the gold in 5:22.35 while Langel was third in 5:34.52.

"Ellen wants to run the 1500 at regionals and she has brought that time down," Loutsch said. "We had also been looking at a couple of our relays to bring their times down and they did wonderful. I was just very pleased with how tonight went."

In Class A, Hinton senior Kinsey Bak won a pair of golds in the long jump (16-10 1/2) and the 100 meter hurdles (15.58).

Behind her in the same event were Akron-Westfield's Jordan Harris (15.93) and Lauren Blinde (17.12) in second and third, respectively.

From there, Hinton, who finished second in team standings with 88 points, behind Unity Christian's 136, went on to collect a third gold from Abby Hageman in the 100 meter dash (12.96).

Hinton earned additional points with top individual finishes from Brandi Schindel, who placed second in the 800 (2:30.76), and Shelbie Derochie, who placed third in the 200 (28.71).

The Blackhawks placed second in the 4x800 (10:55.62) 4x200 (1:51.82), 4x100 (54.59) and 4x400 (4:23.37) relays and came in third in the sprint medley (1:59.58) and shuttle hurdle (1:12.67) relays.

Placing just ahead of the Blackhawks in the shuttle was Akron-Westfield, who finished fourth in team standings with 66 points.

Their second place shuttle hurdle team of Karly Groon, Kristin Martin, Tasha DeRocher and Jordan Harris crossed in 1:11.72.

The Lady Westerners other top relay team was the distance medley. Ambra Coon, Haley Banks, Alison Kusler and Missy Dewey crossed third in 4:50.85.

Dewey also took third in the 800. Her time of 2:46.67 clocked her just behind Hinton's Schindel.

In the 400 hurdles, Jordan Harris was third in 1:11.64 and Lauren Blinde was fourth in 1:15.02.

The Lady Westerners only first place finish on the night came from Shelby Johnson in the discus. The senior's spin of 108-1 was good for the gold medal.

In other field events, Laura Willer took second in the shot put (34-1) and Karly Groon was third in the high jump (5-4).

Class A Team Standings:

Unity Christian 136, Hinton 88, Sergeant Bluff-Luton 86, Akron-Westfield 66, Westwood 47, West Monona 40, West Sioux 34

Class B Team Standings:

Lawton-Bronson 126, Gehlen Catholic 105.5, Remsen St. Mary's 79, Spalding Catholic 57.5, River Valley 54, MMC 46, Remsen-Union 29, Hinton JV 6