Hintz, Marr shine for Dutch women at home track meet
PELLA — High jumper Taryn Hintz (sophomore, Primghar, South O’Brien HS) and thrower Abby Marr (junior, Riceville) set impressive new personal-best marks Saturday for the Central College Women’s track and field team at the Dutch Athletics Classic.
Central finished second at its home meet after compiling 160 points. Buena Vista University edged the Dutch with 162 points.
In her first open high jump competition, Hintz cleared the bar at five feet, 3.75 inches to take home the title, move into the No. 10 spot on the school record board and earn a spot in the top-15 of Division III this season.
“Initially, she was just going throw the javelin for us,” coach Brandon Sturman said. “She decided she wanted to try the multis and did well at Doane. Today, she just focused on the high jump and had three great attempts at a national qualifying mark. We’re really excited and hopefully it can build up some confidence for her.”
Marr added nearly three feet to her career-best weight throw, tossing the fourth-best mark in school history of 54 feet, 9.25 inches. She’s also No. 6 nationally in the event. She finished second in that event and was third in the shot put (39-5.25).
“She’s getting better every week,” Sturman said. “When you’re an upperclassmen, it’s a little easier to be consistent. You know what you need to do over breaks so when you come back you are ready to go. Whatever she did over break, it was awesome.”
A trio of Dutch sophomores took the top-three spots of the 200-meter dash. Abbi Roerdrink (Tiffin, Ohio, Hopewell-Loudon HS) was first (27.95 seconds), Elsie Thoreson (Pella) was second (28.20) and Lauren Brown (Underwood) was third (28.49).
“Hopefully, we can continue to take the work we did today and build off of it and put together something special in seven weeks at conference,” Sturman said.
Roerdink anchored the winning 4×400-meter relay team of Brown, Thoreson and Caroline McMartin (sophomore, Pella) to a winning time of 4:14.94.
McMartin won the 3,000-meter run in 10:44.38 and Addy Parrott (freshman, Danville) was second in 11:10.05.
Stevette Perez (junior, Mission Hills, Calif., Heritage Christian HS) added a second-place time in the 600-meter run (1:54.62) and Kasey Pelzer (sophomore, Pleasantville) was second in the long jump (16-0.5). Amber Vroman (freshman, Seneca, Ill.) was third in her first collegiate pole vault (9-0.25).
The Dutch are headed to the Prairie Wolf Invitational next Friday in Lincoln, Nebraska. The meet will start at 1 p.m.
