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The Wildcats girls finished eighth in the 12-team State Class AA Girls’ True Team track meet, held Saturday, May 20 at Stillwater High School.  The only Wildcat to win an event was Annika Hall, whose time of 11:28.74 was over 22 seconds faster than second-place finisher Laina Viere of Rocori.

In a true team meet, every participant who finishes an event is awarded points.  In the state true team meet, which had 24 participants – two per team – in each individual event, the 24th place finisher earns one point, the 23rd place finisher, earns two points, and so on, all the way through the first-place finisher, who earns 24 points.  So, finishing high, even if an athlete doesn’t win an event, can significantly help a team’s score.

Hall was the biggest individual contributor to the Wildcats’ 386-point total, earning 46 points for winning the 3200-meter run and finishing third in the 1600-meter run.  Kaia Osmundson earned 42 points for coming in second in the 1600-meter run and finishing sixth in the 800-meter run  Ava Bringgold and Lily Hubbard, who finished, respectively, sixth and seventh in the high jump, earned the Wildcats 37 points in that event.  Bene Smith and Catharine Larson finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in the pole vault, earning 32.5 points.  

Other Wildcat athletes who earned ten or more points in an event included Smith, 12 points, 100 meters; Lauren Kowarsch, 12, 3200 meters; Hattie Killeen, 18, 100-meter hurdles; Bringgold, 17, 300-meter hurdles; Madelyn Luger, 11, 300-meter hurdles; 4x400 meter relay team, 24; Olivia Hallstrom, 18, discus; Addyson Barrett, 13, long jump; and Larson, 14, triple jump.

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