ALAH’s Goodman earns first in shot put

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

SOV’s nucleus of four girls (Emily Neuhauser, Amanda McClain, Mollie Bowman, and Ashlynd Risley), qualified for six events at the indoor state track meet last Saturday in Bloomington. And while the meet did not, this year, tally team scores, head coach Kali Taylor says, according to her math, the team would have finished near fourth place overall.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.

“It’s a great start to the season,” said Taylor. “As we get ready for outdoor, it’s great to close the indoor season on this note.”

Before competing in any of their events, Taylor first pulled her group aside and used a little March Madness inspiration to motivate them.

“I went with the basketball theme and told them, ‘This is your big dance. You will see a lot of the underdogs prevail. Seeds don’t mean anything.’”

McClain started things off, coming in as the no. 10 seed in the long jump with a jump of 15 feet, 11 inches.

“I asked her, ‘Are you satisfied being no. 10 in the state?’ She looked at me and said, ‘No.’”

McClain shattered her seed jump by more than a foot going 17-6 1/2.

“She set the tone early,” said Taylor. “She wanted it more than they did.”

Neuhauser then finished sixth in the 60m dash with a time of 8.24 seconds after coming in as nearly last in the rankings.

“That kind of got the ball rolling,” said Taylor.

Neuhauser went on to take 11 out of 14 in the 200m dash with a time of 27.77.

McClain also wasn’t finished. She went on to earn second out of 11 runners in the 400m dash behind Fisher’s Miranda Marry. McClain ran a 58.27, more than 70 one-hundredths of a second better than her seed time.

“It puts her in the top 125 nationally,” said Taylor. “You can’t ask for a better start than that.”

Coming together for their famed 4x2 relay, the group took second after entering as the no. 7 seed.

“Again, I pulled them aside and asked, ‘Are you satisfied with being no. 7 in the state?’,” said Taylor. “I knew it would be close.”

The team would run a 1:49.97, besting their seed time of 1:52.69.

“We cut off three seconds from our time at EIU and were close to being two seconds faster than this time last year,” said Taylor. “You can’t complain about that.”

Bowman rounded out the team’s competition with her triple-jump event, in which she placed seventh with a distance of 33-10 3/4.

“I think this gets the rest of the team fired up,” said Taylor of the indoor state accomplishments. “I know a lot of the team wants, when May rolls around, more than just four going to Charleston.”

Goodman, Just Too Good

Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond’s Karly Goodman once again demonstrated early in the track season just how dominant she plans on being her senior year.

Goodman qualified to compete in the shot put with a throw of 39-1. The Arthur senior did more than an inch better, throwing 39-2 3/4, though not that it was necessary. Pleasant Hill’s Rachel Clowers took second over three feet back with her throw of 36-11.