From what she saw, Wright City Track Coach Sue Wright was pleased.

The Wildcat girls track team finished third in Thursday’s Wildcat Invitational, finishing with 86 points.

O’Fallon Christian won the meet with 122 points.

“In big meets like that, I want us to fall anywhere middle or above,” Wright said. “So to find ourselves in third is awesome. I feel bad that I didn’t get to see anything, but it was a great night.”

Between helping with specific events and making sure the meet — which featured 30 teams — ran as smoothly as possible, Wright didn’t see as many Wright City events as normal.

“It’s very rare that you can take a group of kids and have them compete without someone directing them,” she said. “I can’t say enough about this team.”

The Wildcats were led by sophomore Danielle Dyer and senior Jynna Fritz.

Dyer finished second in the 200-meter with a time of 27.42 seconds, and helped the 400 relay team collect a second-place finish in 53.42.

Fritz finished second in the 800 (2:38.53) and was on the 3,200 relay team that finished in 11:18.00, good enough for a second-place finish.

Fritz also finished fifth in the 400 in 1:07.23, and Wright said she wants to break the school record in the race this year.

“But I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” Wright said. “She would have to run the 400 before the 800, and I really think she needs to focus on the 800.”

Fritz qualified for the state meet last year in the 1,600, but is working more on the 800 this spring.

She was joined on the 3,200 relay team by junior Erin Tomschin, but Wright is unsure how long that will last.

“That’s another thing I’m playing with,” she said. “Taking them (Fritz and Tomschin) out of the relay so they can be more competitive in their individual races. But I also think it’s nice to run before you run the race you really want to focus on for state.”

Wright said the 3,200 relay is something that is often “squeezed” into a meet, and not something she expects Wright City to qualify for the state meet in.

“Right now, we’re just playing with stuff and seeing how we fall,” she said.

One thing she won’t be messing with is Kyle Christopher’s discus technique.

The senior won the event with a final toss of 148 feet, 1 inch, nearly 14 feet past his closest competitor.

Wright said he put too much pressure on himself to perform well at his home meet, and the results reflected that.

Christopher’s best distance of the season was a 162-1 toss two days earlier at North Callaway.

“But for him to have a bad day and still throw 148 is awesome,” Wright said. 

Christopher finished fifth in the shot put with a throw of 39-10, but Wright hopes he focuses more on the discus going forward.

“He’s improving in the shot, but you need to decide if you even want him worrying about the shot,” she said. “Just throw the shot and totally focus on the discus.”

Junior Jacob Mueller joined Christopher in the win column, winning the 800 in a personal-best 2:05.34.

“He’s another one that we abuse,” Wright said with a laugh. “He runs so many events for us because he’s such a good runner.”

Mueller also ran the 1,600 and 3,200 relays Thursday, but he might see his workload diminish in an upcoming meet.

“One of these meets I’m going to run him in just one event and see how he does,” Wright said. “Because if he needs to have those beginning events, I want him to have that. My only goal is to improve your times.”

The Wildcats head to Orchard Farm Friday at 4 p.m.