Norwalk relay breaks program record

SPRINGFIELD — The Norwalk Indoor track and field girls 4x400-meter relay had another big performance on Sunday. Competing at an indoor meet at Wittenberg University, the quartet of senior Shyla Gruhlke, junior Xavi Immel, senior Zuri Immel and sophomore Grace Norris broke a program record with a time of 4:17.75. The Truckers were runners-up by 0.68 seconds to Dayton Meadowdale (4:17.17) in their heat, which placed them eighth overall. The time is currently ranked No. 4 in the Division II state indoor rankings. The top 16 teams as of Feb. 23 will compete at the OATCCC Indoor state championships at Spire Institute in Geneva. Sunday's time also qualified the relay for the Adidas Indoor Nationals, set for March 23 in Virginia Beach, Va. The team also met the minimum standards for the Penn Relays, held April 24-26 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. "This same relay team qualified last year to Penn Relays by just making the minimum standards, but it was decided not to participate," Norwalk head coach Phil Oglesby said. "We wanted to be competitive, not to run for the sake of running. That team also got a late start conditioning." Oglesby said this year's relay team is putting up similar times from the end of last season's outdoor schedule in May. "And they did this with the team fighting various illnesses," he said. "They went on to reach the district finals last season by running a 4:04.07. This same team qualified to the Adidas Nationals, but could not run due to previous commitments. "This year, they have been conditioning and competing since November," he added. "If all goes well, by the time the Penn Relays are run in late April, the goal is a sub-four minute time, which is a competitive time." Also Sunday, Alex Christophel competed in the indoor high school meet at Baldwin-Wallace University in Berea. He placed 19th in the 1600-meter run in 5:17.45.