GILBERT – With two major gaps in its usually strong lineup and adverse conditions to deal with, the Webster City girls’ track and field team did what it could to stay in contention near the top of the Class A leaderboard at Monday’s Bengal Relays.

Missing key cogs Haley Flaws and Haley Johnson due to illness, the Lynx plugged the holes as well as they could en route to 98 points and a third-place team finish behind meet champion Gilbert (149 points) and runner-up Prairie City-Monroe (117).

“Both of those girls were out sick and that just kind of dominoed everything,” WCHS head coach Clint Howard said. “We had girls do a great job of jumping in, but we didn’t have our peak lineup.”

Just how big were the losses? Flaws and Johnson combined to

score 25 1/2 points at last week’s Hannover Relays in Algona where WCHS was the meet runner-up.

But the Lynx were still in possession of their two biggest points producers – senior sprinter Allie Flaws and sophomore thrower Cassidy Nerland – and they once again didn’t disappoint.

Allie Flaws accounted for the Lynx only two gold medals, as she again won the 100-meter dash in 13.55 seconds and the 200 in 27.66. Neither time was close to her best of the season, but with a constant rain spitting from the sky and windy conditions, Howard says times weren’t of the utmost importance.

“The times were higher across the board. It affected everybody, not just us,” he said. “I thought Allie looked as strong as she has all season. She looked very strong in the 200.”

The soggy conditions didn’t play well into Nerland’s game. In a head-to-head battle with Gilbert’s Mia Davis in the shot put, Nerland was forced to settle for second with a best throw of 37 feet, 10 1/4 inches. Davis scooped up the gold on her first throw that traveled 39-11 1/2.

Davis placed fourth in Class 3A and Nerland was eighth at last spring’s state meet. They current sit fourth and seventh, respectively, in the state rankings.

Nerland was also the silver medalist in the discus. Her best throw was 105-7 3/4.

WCHS double-placed in four individual events. Zoey Woodle (14-2 1/4) and Abbey Ferrari (14-0 1/4) were fourth and fifth in the long jump. Woodle was also fourth in the 100 (14.67) and Marisa Garrels took fifth in the 200 (29.40). Cassidy Bultena (2:50.28) and Courtney Biere (2:50.85) went stride for stride to place sixth and seventh in the open 800.

Ashley Flaws went out of Lane 1 all the way to the silver in the 400 (1:08.07).

“They weren’t great conditions to run in, but Ashley Flaws ran a strong 400 to get second,” Howard said.

Allie Flaws was on the anchor of the Lynx runner-up 4×100 and 4×200 relays. Kali Dawson ran the opening leg on both relays.

Biere and Ashley Flaws were joined by Ann Marie LaSourd and Darrien Peck on the third-place 4×800 (11:25.33).

WCHS will get the chance to run in front of its home fans on Thursday when it hosts the Lynx Invitational.