PCM boys win team title at Baxter

BAXTER — Without Aidan Anderson, PCM’s boys track and field team still has a lot of speed.

With Anderson, the Mustangs will be deeper in that department and present an even bigger challenge in the team races.

Anderson is not back to 100 percent health yet but he did take part in a JV relay on Friday during the Baxter Bolts High School Boys Relays.

PCM didn’t Anderson to win though as the Mustangs claimed six victories and were top three in 11 total and won the team title with 134 points.

“The kids are doing a good job with how they are preparing and how they are running,” PCM coach Collin Harrison said. “Our guys ran close to the same times tonight in this wind that they did in other meets. That showed me something. Our times were pretty darn good.”

Four area schools competed in the 10-team field. Colfax-Mingo placed fourth with 83 points, Lynnville-Sully (53) was seventh and host Baxter (52) was one point back in eighth.

Bondurant-Farrar (121) finished second behind PCM. Pleasantville (88) was five points in front of C-M in third. The Tigerhawks were 23 points better than Roland-Story (60), which defeated PCM earlier this season at its home meet.

The rest of the 10-team field included Collins-Maxwell (64) in fifth, a small contingent of ADM athletes (46) in ninth and Ankeny Christian Academy (35) in 10th.

Four of PCM’s six wins came in relays. Jacob Van Winkle did win the 100-meter dash in 12.07 seconds and Landon Fenton was the 400 winner in 53.63.

The sprinters got double points for the Mustangs as Justin Maggard (12.43) was third in the 100 and Mitchell (24.89) took fourth in the 200.

Gatlin Boell (18.52) and Trey Broderson (18.64) also doubled up in the 110 high hurdles in second and third, respectively.

The other top individual finishes were Beau Webb (2:20.59) in fourth in the 800, Maggard (17-5 1/4) in fifth in the long jump and Durant Van Dyke (38-11 3/4) in sixth in the shot put. Dylan Masterson was sixth in the 3,200 in 12:56.37.

The Mustangs won the 4x100, sprint medley, distance medley and shuttle hurdle relays and were second in the 4x400 relay.

Mitchell, Maggard, Boell and Van Winkle won the 4x100 in 45.93 seconds.

Mitchell, Kaden Hale, Van Winkle and Fenton won the sprint medley in 1:40.79. Hale, Mitchell, Boell and Webb won the distance medley in 4:02.21.

The shuttle hurdle team of Maggard, Broderson, Gavin Fenton and Boell took first in 1:08.03.

In the 4x400, Carter Burns, Webb, Landon Fenton and Gavin Fenton finished second in 3:47.22.

“It’s just working out that we have so many quality sprinters that someone is left over to use to double up somewhere else,” Harrison said. “That can get you a lot of points.”

Colfax-Mingo’s lone individual win came from Grant Alexander in the discus. His first career win netted a personal-best mark of 124 feet, 3 inches.

“I am very happy for Grant getting his first varsity discus gold,” C-M coach Matt Barkalow said.

The Tigerhawks also won the 4x200 and 4x400 relays. The 4x200 team of Joe Earles, Zach Steenhoek, Justin Myers and A.J. Gibson finished in 1:41.14. The winning 4x400 team included Carter Gibson, A.J. Gibson, Colton Hernandez and Myers and they finished in 3:46.01.

“Justin Myers had a huge night for us with two silvers and two golds,” Barkalow said. “He showed a lot of guts chasing down the PCM anchor from 10 meters back for 4x4 gold.

“A.J. Gibson had a huge 4x2 anchor carry, taking us from fourth to first in a three- or four-way photo finish for gold.”

Myers was second in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:00.62. He also anchored the shuttle hurdle team to second. The rest of that foursome included Josh Kite, Hernandez and Nate Jones and they finished in 1:12.98.

Trey Hockemeier was the runner-up in the high jump with a leap of 5-6. Coleman Craig (10:58.96) took third in the 3,200, Kite (18.76) and Hernandez (19.22) went 4-6 in the 110 high hurdles, Carter Gibson (56.89) was fifth in the 400 and Connor Wood (17-2 1/4) took sixth in the long jump.

Because C-M’s indoor meet was canceled this season due to the pandemic, Baxter allowed the Tigerhawks to have a Senior Night on their track. C-M recognized seniors A.J. Gibson, Andrew Gorman, Kite, Hernandez, Haydon Harlow and Steenhoek midway through the meet.

“It was a first-class gesture by Baxter, allowing us to celebrate our seniors,” Barkalow said.

Baxter and L-S were both shut out in the win column, but the Bolts and Hawks were second in two events.

All of Baxter’s top-six finishes came in individual events. Leading the way was Rory Heer, who was second in the 800 (2:15.01), third in the 400 (55.57) and fourth in the long jump (17-7 1/2).

“I was proud of Rory’s effort,” Baxter coach Josh Russell said. “We have lots of young guys trying to figure out where they can be successful. We just need to learn how to compete. And we have a quick turnaround so we have to get ready to go again.”

Baxter doubled up in the shot put as Trice Clapper (40-11 3/4) was second and Nate McMinamen (40-1 1/4) placed fourth. Treyton Travis took sixth in the high jump with a leap of 5-2.

Six of the eight top-six finishes for the Hawks were in individual events.

Josh Hardenbrook led the way with a runner-up finish in the 100 with a time of 12.14.

James Gruver finished third in the 400 hurdles (1:02.45) and fourth in the 400 with a personal-best time of 56.09. Corder Noun Harder was fifth in the 200 (25.29), Isaac Johnson finished sixth in the 800 (2:21.4) and Zach Morningstar was sixth in the mile (5:24.13). That time for Morningstar was a personal best by more than 20 seconds.

“This meet was a good chance for us to see some other teams we aren’t regularly competing against,” Arkema said. “We need to step it up when the competition is stronger, and not fear the challenge but see it as an opportunity to better ourselves for the future.”

The Hawks were second in the 4x100 and third in the sprint medley. In the 4x100, Kyle Squires, Ryan Annee, Hardenbrook and Noun Harder finished in a season-best time of 46.76 and the sprint medley relay team of Squires, Noun Harder, Hardenbrook and Conner Maston hit the finish line in 1:45.71.

“The guys were prepared for the change in weather, but we have a few who are nursing some small ailments that we didn’t compete in as many events tonight,” Arkema said.

ADM brought a few distance runners and they were impressive. Cooper Greenslade won the mile in 4:30.43 and Nate Mueller set a new track record with a 9:13.86 in the 3,200. Mueller will run at Iowa State University in college and is the favorite to win the Drake Relays in the 3,200.

PCM’s Harrison plans to work Anderson into the lineup slowly as he recovers from a broken leg suffered during football season.

Anderson had the quite contingent watching him run for the first time this season.

“There were 15 kids and some coaches over there by where he was running,” Harrison said. “There’s excitement around it for sure. He had a devastating leg break in football. And now he’s running in a track meet. Everyone knows how much he loves track, too.

“Aidan has some special speed. If he can get back to fully healthy, it should be fun to watch. If he can run even 100s for us, that just adds to our depth and makes us even more dangerous in the team races.”