March 28, 2024

Tigers claw past field at Mt. Ayr

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MOUNT AYR — Mount Ayr had itself a nice night to host its annual Raiders Relays Tuesday.

The Raiders took second in the Class A portion of the meet with 89 team points. Earlham, a squad that several Pride of Iowa schools will see when they travel there for the state qualifying meet, placed first with 166 points.

Nodaway Valley was not far behind the Raiders with 86 team points, while Southwest Valley took seventh with 26 team points.

The Wolverines put up a blistering time of 8:25.74 in the 4x800 for first place. The time represents the fifth best time in the state in Class 1A this season, and a stadium record. The Wolverines also took first in the sprint medley.

The Wolverines excelled namely in several individual events. Brycen Wallace and Skyler Rawlings earned first and second in the 3,200 meter run while Brayten Funke and Shane Breheny took first and second respectively in the 1,600. Jared Corder was third in the open 400 and the 200 meter dash.

Southwest Valley got a first-place spot from Christian McCuen in the high jump and grabbed a second-place finish from its 4x200 group.

Lenox, EU pace Class B

In the Class B division, Lenox was a runaway winner with 144 team points. East Union earned second with 90 points, Murray was fifth with 51, Diagonal was eighth with 20 and Orient-Macksburg picked up 10th with 16 points.

The Tigers stacked their sprint medley team to see what could happen. What happened was a first-place finish in Class B by the group of Jeremy Daye, Jared Hensley, Dawson Tullberg and Trenton Barnette in a time of 1:42.93. It was the third-best overall time at the meet behind Earlham and Clarinda.

Lenox also grabbed first in the 4x100 in 47.17.

Elsewhere, Lenox tried to mix and match kids in new spots, while putting several kids in new individual events.

This helped the Tigers rocket up the leader board.

“One thing that really helps our numbers is, I will ask a kid to get in an event they’ve never done before,” Lenox coach Matt Malausky said.

Thus far this season, Malausky can’t recall anyone responding negatively to such requests.

Other strong performances came from the first-place shuttle hurdle team, Daye and Sam Donaldson’s respective finishes of second and fifth in the 100 meter dash, third and fourth respective finishes from Bret Myers and Barnette in the 400, Aaron Schmitz, who was third in the long jump with a length of 18-2 and third in the 200, and Trey Whipple with a throw of 115-5 in the discus. Colton Gordon added team points with his second spot in the open 800.

Daye’s 23.87 in Class B earned him first while he had the fourth-best time among all in competition.

Lenox swept the top two spots in the 110 hurdles as Brenden Christensen and Tullberg went one-two. Christensen and Barnette grabbed first and second respectively in the 400 hurdles.

“We’re definitely not the favorite but there’s some things that we can compete with the bigger schools in our conference and hopefully get some place winnings,” Malausky said.

East Union had a number of strong relay performances but coach James Hardy was quite happy with several of his field competitors.

“We went out and performed well,” Hardy said. “We had some individuals performances as well as some relay performances that stood out.”

Casey Walter leaped 5-6 in the high jump to take first and Brayden Martinez threw well past his personal best in the discus with a toss of 109-2 to take sixth place and also grabbed fifth-place in the shot put.

Hardy had to make some decisions about where to gear down on Tuesday night.

“We had to make a decision about whether we’d load up about some of those points,” Hardy said.

The Eagles loaded up and stayed consistent with their first-place 4x400 unit, second-place shuttle hurdle quintet that took second in 1:13.06 and second in the sprint medley. Individuals like Gabe Nixon, first in the 400 in 54.41 and fourth in the 200, Mason Gossman, first in the open 800 in 2:08.79.

The Eagles found themselves competing against fierce competition, the likes of which provides a good test as the conference meet in Afton and state qualifying approaches.

“That kind of competition helps us to get better in the long run and it helps us to determine where we can compete at districts,” Hardy said.

The Mustangs’ leading performances came from Jack Jones with third place in the long jump despite having just one attempt due to aggravating his foot. Levi Snyder tossed well enough for third in shot put, Bryce Keller took fourth in the discus and the Mustang 4x100 and 4x200 teams both sprinted to third-place finishes.

Diagonal’s top performances came from its 4x800 group of Brevin Deskin, Kade Klommhaus, Blake Alden and Clayton Hansen and Deskin and Hansen in the long jump, who went fifth and seventh respectively. Klommhaus went for third in the 1,600 meter run and Alden also picked up sixth in the 400 hurdles.

For Orient-Macksburg, Blake Sevier took first in the shot put with a heave of 42-2.25 and Owen Hensley took third in the 800.

Full results will be in a future edition of the News Advertiser.