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By Rich Winter
605 Sports
Last spring Edgemont junior Morgan Peterson decided to give the 300-meter hurdles a try. A three-time state qualifier in the 100 hurdles and a regular on the Moguls 4x400 team, Pederson wanted to try something different.
Her first time on the track she clocked a 53-second effort in the 300 hurdles. By the end of the season she shattered the school record and claimed a state championship producing a :47.23 effort at the state meet.
“She’s pretty strong in the 400 and she really likes the 100 meter hurdles,” Edgemont coach Joey Martin said. “When you put those two events together she’s good and she’s very strong over the final few hurdles.”
Peterson passed several people over the final hurdles last May to claim that state championship. Peterson did the same thing at Saturday’s Douglas Early Bird meet, passing several people late to finish in fourth place (:51.17)
Peterson was eighth in the 100 hurdles at the 2021 Class B state track meet. Saturday she opened her 100 hurdles year with a sixth-place finish against mostly AA and A schools.
As Pederson enters her senior year she does so with an expanded group of girls around her.
“Last year we had five girls out. This year we have nine,” Martin said.
One of those returners is Bridget Neville, a three-time state qualifier in the 400-meter dash and the school record holder in that event (1:01.63). Neville opened her season with a 1:06.46 effort to claim ninth at the Douglas meet.
“Her effort has me pretty fired up but she was not pleased with her time,” Martin said. “She’s already been to state three times and her expectations for the season are so high.”
Just behind Neville in that Douglas 400-meter dash was freshman Tavian Urban (1:07.69).
“I think Bridget has the opportunity to get under 60-seconds by the end of the year and Tavian Urban will be right behind her,” he said.
Suddenly Edgemont has several state caliber athletes and with nine girls out Martin feels like the Edgemont relay record book could take a beating this year.
In Tavian Urban’s first race of 2021 she anchored the medley relay (800 meter carry) to a region championship and a school record (4:42.79). On April 2, the quartet of Peterson, Jackie Heisler, Neville and Urban ran (4:55.5) to finish third.
“We’re going to work on that medley relay and I think we can run somewhere in the 3:30’s,” he said.
For now Martin is getting everyone in shape and thinking about who might run the fourth leg on some of these relays.
“Jackie Heisler is off to a good start,” he said. “Addison Neville is going to push for a spot along with Olivia Ellstrom.”
While the Edgemont athletes will be working on their specialties, Martin says one of the goals this spring is to get every relay qualified for state.
Martin calls his track team diverse and he means more than just on the playing field.
“All of these girls had activities this week. Some of them were part of our quiz bowl championship team,” he said. “Many of them put on a play that lasted for two hours on Thursday and Friday night. That personal diversity kind of extends to the track.”