Separate ways, 2 miles apart

LISBON -- For 25 spring seasons, girls track athletes from Mount Vernon and Lisbon came together.They coined unique nicknames and they assembled quality teams. Sometimes, championship teams.A new day has dawned, though: Lisbon has claimed independence and is going solo.No more Zebras, T-Rexes, Mermaids or whatever off-the-beaten-path mascot the seniors could conjure up each year. In Southeast Linn County, it's back to Mustangs and Lions."The girls were really excited to break out on their own," said Lisbon Coach Keri Speidel. "I'm very thankful. We've gotten along great."Last year, there were 15 Lisbon girls on the combined team. Now, there are 35 girls wearing brand-new Lisbon gear."Quite a few of them didn't want to go to Mount Vernon every day," said junior thrower Makayla Kamberling. "The coaches at Mount Vernon were great, and the girls were great. But it's good to have our friends back out and back with us."The concept of split programs had swirled periodically at Lisbon though the years. But talks got serious last spring, after last season ended."There were girls that hadn't gone out, and there were girls who didn't want to go back out," said Speidel, a former Cornell College track athlete and an art teacher at Lisbon. "They wanted to run for their own school."Mount Vernon-Lisbon had enjoyed vast success in recent years, winning Class 3A state championships in 2009 and 2010. Those titles wouldn't have been possible without heavy contributions from both schools."I went to the Lisbon administration and shared reasons why the program whould stay together," said Mount Vernon Coach Maggie Willems. "I thought it was best for the kids. We had a history of success."But Lisbon felt different, and they went their own direction."Lisbon sprinter Addison Heiken said, "I liked it over there, I didn't have any problems. But this is fine too."Mount Vernon will compete in Class 2A this season; Lisbon is a 1A school.Lisbon has good numbers and is able to fill every event. But it has no on-campus track on which to run."We have to be creative," said Speidel, whose team won an invitational title April 8 at Wilton. "There's a lot of cross training. We do a lot of running in the gym and the hallways, and we run on the track at Cornell."We've got a big range of talent. We have some girls who have never done track, and we have some seniors, who it's their last year, and they want to go out with a bang."Kamberling has tossed the shot 34 feet, 2 inches, an effort that leads the 1A Belle Plaine region."I really want to go to state," she said.Mount Vernon has a squad of about 30 girls -- "Our philosophy has always been quality over quantity," Willems said -- led by Lauren Wilch, who is ranked in the top five in 2A in the 800 and 1,500."I'm very encouraged," Willems said. "We have great middle-distance kids, and our freshman class has tremendous potential."Speidel is a middle-school art teacher, which gives her a head start on attracting kids to her program. "It gives me a chance to recruit," she said. "And our middle-school team has a huge number of kids out."Eventually, we want to have a track of our own. Our boys' team has 34 kids out. That's one-fourth of the kids in the (student body) that are out for track."