MARSHALL — The Dragonflies team at Heritage Pointe have their eyes on hanging up another banner in Lifespark’s annual TRYathlon competition.

The Dragonflies, a team of residents, competed in the Whizzer Walk relay race Tuesday afternoon in the Final Four, and took first place with 4,871 steps, going 2.44 miles. They are currently first place in the standings, and Tuesday was their best outing yet for distance traveled.

“There’s 44 teams … All of the other teams are up in the Minneapolis and Wisconsin area,” coach and Heritage Pointe Community Life Director Laurie Ourada said. “There’s 22 teams in our league (Lightning League), and the top four teams go on today. Then the other league, their top four, so then only one out of each comes together to do the World Championship.”

Out of the three years the competition has taken place, Heritage Pointe already has six banners of accomplishments hanging in a community room, including the 2023 and 2024 TRYathlon Tournament Champions.

“We’ve won those back-to-back, and the other ones, we ended up in the Final Four,” Ourada said.

The athletes began to line up in the main hallway where the event took place as the other teams joined via a Zoom call.

Bette Minehart was one of the first to step at the front of the line for warmups, wearing a dragonfly wings cape, to pair along with the team’s theme.

“I can fly … I fly down the hall,” Minehart said. “I’ve lived here 10 years. I like the cranking challenge we will do on Thursday.”

The TRYathlon also consists of an arm and leg cranking challenge, which the residents will compete in on Thursday. The Dragonflies will advance to the World Championships next Tuesday and Thursday if they secure the victory.

To support their peers, a group of cheerleaders gathered their signs and pom-poms to cheer on the racers.

“I have a loud voice, so they can hear me. They enjoy it. We’ve got special cheers that we can read off,” Ethel Stroup, one of the cheerleaders, said. “They’re so faithful. They just practice, practice and practice … It’s very good for us to all be together.”

Sitting out this week due to knee soreness but is a usual racer, 97-year-old Doris Petracek cheered her teammates on from the sideline.

“I don’t want to see them, I want to participate,” Petracek said laughingly. “It’s (the competition) something to do, first of all. Secondly, this is fun, and I’m a very competitive person.”

Whenever she has the chance to, Petracek enjoys staying active.

“I walked 4 miles a day from the age of 50 to 90,” Petracek said. “All my life, I never had a car. Every place I went (I was walking).”

Although needing to sit out of competition this week, Petracek made sure to come up with an incentive for her teammates.

“We get Dilly Bars every once in a while,” Petracek said. “I told them if they win on Thursday, I will pay for the Dilly Bars. They’re so good.”

The Dragonflies made their way up and down the main hallway for the entirety of the 30 minutes, going one by one. Fellow peers and staff were cheering on each individual along the way.

“Every week, we get better. We keep track,” team captain Bernie Dulas said. “We have a good time doing it … We have somebody cheering us on all the way down the line.”

As the race concluded and the results came out that the Dragonflies performed the best results, cheers, hi-fives and hugs filled the hallway.

The team will now prepare for Thursday’s cranking contest.

“This (Lifespark) runs year round. We do this (TRYathlon) for three months. As soon as this is done, we get about a three week break, but we’re practicing,” Ourada said. “Then we do forklift. When that is done, we do GRIP where we are metering water through a system. Then, we do one where we read textbooks and we answer questions. It’s just testing all our different levels, physical and cognitive.”

Heritage Pointe also has been crowned Forklift World Champions, where participants operate toy forklifts in moving objects around.

Lifespark originally started the Spark Challenges for senior living communities to stay engaged and compete with one another in collaboration with other facilities.

Toward the end of competition, teams are also given cash prizes. Heritage Pointe was recently awarded $2,500 for making the Final Four.

When it came to picking out a team name when the competition started up a few years ago, Heritage Pointe wanted to pick out something that held meaning.

“We needed to choose a mascot, and I wanted something that was inspirational and meant something,” Ourada said. “Dragonflies are a symbol of change and transition.”

The Dragonflies will look to keep their momentum and good stride going as it nears the end of competition, and will try to secure their spot in the championships at Thursday’s cranking contest.