FORT DODGE - One quarter of an inch provided Marshalltown High School senior Amanda Schrempf with her new personal best in the shot put and the Bobcats' only CIML Iowa Conference event victory.
Schrempf won the shot put with a throw of 35 feet, 2 1/4 inches to help lead the MHS girls to fourth place at the conference meet on Friday night at Fort Dodge High School.
Schrempf, who earlier this season signed with Graceland University, also took second in the discus (110-10) to account for two of Marshalltown's top finishes. Mackenzie Beals, a Minnesota State University-Mankato recruit, placed second in the 200-meter dash in a season-best time of 26.06 seconds and was third in the 100 (13.07).
Waukee (208) and West Des Moines Valley (182) made it a two-team race for the CIML Iowa Conference title, with Ames (87), Marshalltown (63), Mason City (30) and Fort Dodge (17) giving chase.
Schrempf's win in the shot put was the only event victory that wasn't claimed by Waukee, Valley or Ames. Waukee or Valley won every relay race, and Valley's Ashlee Downs won the 100, 200, 400 and long jump.
An additional third-place finish for Marshalltown came from the 4x800 relay team (Michaela Huey, Rachel Blagg, Samantha Hughes and Sarah Shirar) in 10:08.31 - the team's fastest clocking this season by 16 seconds.
Eisha Oden bettered her season-best in taking fourth in the open 400 (1:00.48), while Shirar improved her season-bests in placing fourth in the 800 (2:23.35) and fifth in the 1,500 (5:02.80).
MHS relays also placed fourth in the 4x200 (Abby Keith, Saryn Case, Emily Murtha, Chione Brooks) and the 4x400 (Oden, Case, Keith, Beals).
Thunderstorms that battered the northern half of the state on Friday evening forced a 45-minute delay to the girls' meet due to lightning in the area. The same was true for the boys' CIML Iowa Conference meet, which was held in Mason City. Results from the boys' meet were not available as of press time.