Cold, wind knock down times for Chickasaws

Depending on one’s perspective, Thursday’s Wahawk Invitational was a half-full or half-empty kind of day for the New Hampton girls track team.  The Chickasaws got a chance to run against a host of Class 4A schools they don’t normally encounter, but the weather conditions — cold and windy — made posting great times and distances almost an impossibility.  “We were hoping to see what kind of times we could put up against competition like that,” New Hampton coach Jeanette Laures said, “but with the weather, it wasn’t just us. No one really put up the times we were expecting.”  The Chickasaws got just one win — a 16-foot, 1-inch long jump from Darian Wegner — and finished in fifth place in the team standings.  But at the same time, Laures found some positives in running in a meet that was won by Class 4A Cedar Falls, which easily beat Decorah 133-102 for the team title.  “You’re right, if we go to a predominantly 2A meet around here, we’re in the hunt in a lot of those races,” Laures said.  The rest of the story may be found in the April 25 Tribune.