March 18, 2024

Hawk track teams compete in SICL indoor meet

GRINNELL — Starting a tradition, the South Iowa Cedar League held its first league indoor track meet last Thursday at Grinnell College. Lynnville-Sully’s Hawk track teams competed and used it as a good warm-up “practice” for the 2014 outdoor track season.

There were no team scores nor awards given to individual or teams.

“It was a great opportunity for our team to compete and see where we are at without the pressure of worrying about team scores, medals, and get on a track surface inside the tremendous facility at Grinnell College,” Hawk girls’ head coach Darin Arkema said.

Lynnville-Sully’s girls and boys each had three first-place finishes at the meet.

Alexa Vander Leest won the 1,500-meter run in 5 minutes, 27.05 seconds with Line Ascanius in fourth place at 6:36.83. The Hawk boys’ individual winners were a bit faster — Caden Doll won the 60-meter hurdles and Meliek Meyer was the 60-meter dash winner.

Doll combined with Darin Hofer, Brandon Dunsbergen and Bailee Samson to win the boy’s 4x200-meter relay race. The Hawk girls’ 4x400-meter relay team of Madison Rasmusson, Tara Vos, Kasiah Ehresman and Lizzy Van Manen won in 4:35.91.

Ehresman, Rasmusson and Vos teamed up with Cori Rice to win the distance medley relay race in 4:46.41. The 4x800-meter relay team of Emma Schnell, Shelby Foster, Olivia Ritter and Kristine Jaennette was fourth in 12:27.16. Lynnville-Sully’s girls took fourth in the 4x200-meter relay race in 2:01.43 with the team of Haley James, Makenzy Rozendaal, Brenna Lanser and Van Manen.

For the Hawk boys, Hofer was third in the 60-meter hurdles and Samson was fourth in the 60-meter dash. Ross Van Wyk placed sixth in the 200-meter dash and Doll was sixth in the long jump.

The boys’ distance medley relay team of Meyer, Noah Engle, Van Wyk and Canyon Kuhlmann was fourth as was the 4x400-meter relay team of Payton Haack, Engle, Dunsbergen and Meyer. Dunsbergen, Colton Arment, Haack and Kuhlmann combined for fifth in the 4x800-meter relay race.

In the girls’ 60-meter dash, Ehresman finished second in 8.65 seconds and James was 12th in 9.40. Rasmusson claimed third in the 200-meter dash in 28.96 seconds and Kristy Sevcik was 20th in 35.01.

Van Manen placed fourth in the 400-meter dash in 1:10.06 and Schnell was seventh in 1:15.34. Rice ran third in the 800-meter race in 2:49.45 and Foster placed ninth in 3:08.66. Lanser took 10th in the 60-meter hurdles in 11.39 seconds and Sevcik was 16th in 12.38.

Cassie Cullen cleared the high jump bar at 5 feet to place second. Kaley Exline was 10th in the long jump with a leap of 12’4”. Jelissa Rozendall placed 10th in the shot put with a throw of 27’6” with Naomi Shinkle taking 13th at 25’8 1/4”.

In the junior varsity events, Marissa Vos was sixth in the shot put at 22’11” and Jamie Leavens was 10th at 19’1/4”. Exline placed ninth in the 60-meter hurdles in 13.25 seconds, while Sevcik was eighth in the 60-meter dash in 10.01 seconds. The girls’ junior varsity 4x200-meter relay team of J. Rozendaal, Ritter, Jaennette, Leavens was fifth in 2:18.06.

“I didn’t know what to expect from a lot of the girls and many of them didn’t know what to expect either. I wanted the girls’ focus for the meet to be a competitor in whatever events they were in and make the night the best ‘practice’ that we’ve had so far. It’s the only indoor meet on our schedule, so we wanted to learn from it and get better going forward to our first outdoor meet,” Arkema said.

Lynnville-Sully’s track teams open the outdoor season April 1. The girls are at Belle Plaine and the boys are at Pella Christian.