L-S boys track team finishes third at Belle Plaine

BELLE PLAINE — Lynnville-Sully’s boys track and field team claimed one win and eight top-three finishes at the Belle Plaine Boys Invitational on Thursday.

Blake Rea’s win in the 400-meter hurdles helped the Hawks to a third-place team finish.

Grundy Center won the meet easily, scoring 191 points. Alburnett was next with 81 followed by L-S (69), South Tama County (68), North Mahaska (62), North Linn (53), Sigourney (35) and Iowa Valley (25).

“Grundy Center was clearly the top team of the meet, but I was very pleased with our third-place finish, not far behind Alburnett and one ahead of South Tama,” L-S coach Darin Arkema said. “We were tops of our conference teams in our class. No one on our team competed in four events so I believe there was an opportunity to score more points, maybe take that second-place spot.”

Rea’s winning time in the 400 hurdles was clocked at 1 minute, 2.51 seconds.

The Hawks also were second in three relays and Carter Dunsbergern finished second in the 110 high hurdles. Corder Noun Harder finished third in the 200 and two other relays were third.

Dunsbergen’s time in the 110 high hurdles was 16.91 and Noun Harder finished the 200 in 24.39.

The 4x100 relay team finished second with a time of 47.89. That foursome was Kyle Squires, Ryan Annee, Josh Hardenbrook and Noun Harder.

“The guys are running fast, we just need to get a little better on the baton exchanges,” Arkema said.

The distance medley relay team also finished second with Noun Harder, Hardenbrook, Caleb Rea and Conner Maston. They were clocked at 3:56.25.

“The distance medley had a real tight finish, just getting edged out of first place,” Arkema said. “Fast splits by all four of those guys, so this may be a relay we continue to look at for those four.”

The 4x100 weight person relay did not score team points but the Hawks’ foursome of Noah Johnson, Benjamin Orchirbat, Jaden Norman and Gage Elscott finished second in 55.59.

The Hawks’ 4x800 relay was third with Mason Jansen, James Gruver, Isaac Johnson and Zach Morningstar and they finished in 9:35.33.

The shuttle hurdle relay team of Dunsbergen, Blake Rea, Jansen and Bryce Richards finished third in 1:13.33.

The Hawks were top five in a few other events. Gruver finished fourth in the 400 in 57.39 and fourth in the 1,600 in 5:14.4, Isaac Johnson was fifth in the 800 in 2:23.63 and Caleb Rea tallied fifth in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 8 inches.

The 4x400 relay team also was fifth. That foursome included Caleb Rea, Maston, Hardenbrook and Blake Rea finished in 3:56.29.