Neosho Girls Win KU Relay

From today’s Joplin Globe:

LAWRENCE, Kan. —

Neosho’s girls wrapped up a strong showing at the Kansas Relays by winning the 4x880­yard relay Saturday at Memori­al Stadium.

The team of Jessica Eastin, Jessica Jackson, Morgan Rath­man and Courtney Wood won with a time of 9 minutes, 36.97 seconds, 1.12 seconds ahead of Lee’s Summit West.

Neosho had placed second to Lee’s Summit West by half a second Friday in the girls’ dis­tance medley relay. “We had a great weekend. It was awesome,” Neosho head coach Harry Lineberry said. “We led the entire way (Friday) and got beat right at the end.

“Today (Saturday), Courtney took the lead with one lap to go and just hammered it. Courtney just put it down. Our kids get­ting their first victory, it was great.”

Shynnel Bohanon, who ran in Friday’s distance medley relay, was replaced by Rathman in Sat­urday’s event due to a previous commitment, Lineberry said.

“One of the nice things is they give out nice trophies for the relays,” Lineberry said. “I’m a Missouri grad but KU has always been nice to me every time I’ve been up here.”

Jackson, a junior, placed fourth in the girls’ 1,600 meters Saturday with a time of 5:03.29, which was 2.27 seconds behind winner Samantha Levin, a jun­ior from Ladue Horton.

Jackson shaved 12.5 seconds off her previous personal best time of 5:16.08 set this month at the Carthage Invitational.

“Her time was not in the fastest heat,” Lineberry said. “If she had run in the fastest heat, she might have won.”

Levin, the defending state champion in the 800, edged Jackson in that event Friday by 1.8 seconds. Neither Jackson nor Levin ran in the 1,600 at last year’s state meet, where Wood placed fourth.

Wood ran her best time this spring and placed fifth in the 3,200 meters on Friday.

Carthage placed eighth Satur­day in the girls’ 1,600 sprint med­ley relay with a team of Kas­sidey Borland, Kaylee Morgan, Chloe Shepherd and Ivy Shep­herd.

Joplin’s Ashlee Shimmin was 19th in the girls’ discus with a toss of 110 feet, 2 inches