Eight wins guide L-S boys to team title at Baxter

BAXTER — Conner Maston, Corder Noun Harder and James Gruver all were part of four wins for the Lynnville-Sully boys’ track and field team on Thursday.

The Hawks registered eight wins and 14 top-three finishes guided them to an easy team triumph at the Baxter High Schools Boys Invitational.

L-S scored 166 points at the top of the standings. Half of its wins came in relays and the Hawks also placed second in another relay.

“It was the best night weather-wise for competition of the three outdoor meets we’ve had,” L-S head boys track and field coach Darin Arkema said. “They clearly were ready to go and hungry to get back into competition. It was fantastic efforts by everyone from top to bottom.”

After Lynnville-Sully in the team standings was host Baxter, who scored 132 points. PCM (126.5), Bondurant-Farrar (103.5), AGWSR (56), Pleasantville (55), Ankeny Christian Academy (27) and Colfax-Mingo (18) completed the eight-team field.

There were issues with the timing system for the meet. Some of the races were hand-timed and others were automatically timed. There were no results for the shuttle hurdle relay and official results for the 4x400 relay were not available at press time.

The event most affected by the timing system was the 400-meter dash. Maston won the event and his time of 50.52 seconds was near the Drake Relays Blue Standard time of 50.2. The time also ranks fourth in Class 1A.

Maston’s other individual win came in the high jump and his winning leap was marked at 6 feet, 2 inches.

Noun Harder and Gruver claimed the other individual victories. Noun Harder won the 100 in 11.62 seconds and Gruver grabbed the gold in the 400 hurdles with a time of 56.5, which currently ranks fifth in 1A.

Maston, Noun Harder and Gruver also teamed up to win the 4x400 relay. The fourth teammate was Bryce Richards and the group won the race in a season-best 3 minutes, 37.29 seconds, which ranks seventh in 1A.

The other wins came in the 4x100, 4x200 and sprint medley relays. The 4x800 relay also was second.

“Some of these performances put our guys in the top five, 10 or 15 of Class 1A in a number of events,” Arkema said. “We scored points in all but two events and didn’t even have a shuttle hurdle relay competing.”

In the 4x100, the team of Kyle Squires, Richards, Noun Harder and Maston won the race in 44.84 seconds, which ranks seventh in 1A.

The sprint medley relay team of Squires, Noun Harder, Richards and Gruver won the race in 1:38.24 and that time ranks fifth in 1A.

The final win came in the 4x200 relay and the team of Gruver, Richards, Caleb Rea and Squires scored a winning time of 1:36.04, which sits in the top 15.

The 4x800 relay team of Terran Gosselink, Gentry Walston, Ethan Dunsbergen and Michael Spooner placed second in 9:32.29.

The Hawks scored double points in the 100, 400, 800, 1,600, 3,200, high jump and long jump.

“With opportunities for extra participants and relays, I gave everyone a full night with almost everyone competing in three or four events,” Arkema said. “I know they were tired at night’s end but tonight wasn’t just a competition but also training to keep getting guys in shape and improving.”

Hendrick Lowry and Zach Morningstar scored top-six finishes in the three distance races.

Lowry was second in the 3,200 (11:06.28), third in the 800 (2.14.24) and third in the 1,600 (5:14.24). Morningstar finished fourth in the 3,200 (11:19.72), fifth in the 1,600 (5:16.24) and sixth in the 800 (2:18.24).

Rea was third in the 200 with a time of 23.9 and finished fifth in the 100 with a time of 12.01. He also gave the Hawks double points in the high jump with a leap of 5-4.

Jack Bowlin (17-10 1/2) and Walston (17-6) were 4-5 in the long jump, Squires placed third in the shot put with a heave of 42-7 and Walston took fourth in the 400 with a time of 56.69.

“We are over halfway through our season and the weeks are going to fly by,” Arkema said. “So we’ve got to keep working hard, take care of our bodies and stay focused on what we want to accomplish.”