L-S boys win team title at BGM Bear Trax Classic

BROOKLYN — The Lynnville-Sully boys’ track and field team was powered by eight wins during the BGM Bear Trax Classic on Tuesday.

The Hawks registered 15 top-three finishes and won the Class B Division with 160.5 points.

Three of the eight wins came in relays and Conner Maston won two individual events to lead the Hawks.

Host BGM was the closest to L-S in second as the Bears scored 104. Belle Plaine (83.5), Iowa Valley (81) and English Valleys (69) rounded out the top five and HLV (45), Meskwaki Settlement School (10) and Keota (7) completed the eight-team field.

“We had the opportunity to go against a number of conference opponents tonight,” L-S head boys track and field coach Darin Arkema said. “And with our conference meet being only two weeks away, I was looking forward to seeing us in head-to-head competition. Overall, they did not disappoint.

“Once again, I was proud of our focus on effort and competing. They scored points in 18 out of the 19 events, missing only the 3,200 that we didn’t have anyone competing in.”

Maston’s two individual wins came in the high jump and the 400-meter dash. He also anchored the 4x100 relay to a win.

In the 400, Maston won the race with a time of 51.48 seconds and Hendrick Lowry was fifth in 57.22.

Maston won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 10 inches and Connor Deal finished tied for fifth with a career-best mark of 5-4.

The Hawks scored double points in the 400, high jump, 800, 1,600, long jump and shot put. L-S scored 46.5 points in field events.

“It was disappointing for all the competitors to once again have to battle the wind,” Arkema said. “It was blowing quite strong at times, right in their face as they came to the finish line.

“Guys showed their versatility to score points a number of ways.”

Terran Gosselink won the 800 with a career-best time of 2 minutes, 15.98 seconds and Ethan Dunsbergen was third in 2:30.37.

Kyle Squires had a season-best winning toss of 44-2 in the shot put and Dawson James placed fourth with a career-best throw of 39-7 1/2.

The other individual win came from James Gruver. He won the 400 hurdles in 56.56 seconds.

Gentry Walston and Jack Bowlin were 2-3 in the long jump. Walston placed second with a career-best leap of 18-6 and Bowlin wasn’t too far behind in third with a jump of 18-5 3/4.

The Hawks were 2-5 in the 1,600 with Lowry and Michael Spooner. Lowry finished second in 5:05.35 and Spooner placed fifth in a career-best 5:37.37.

Corder Noun Harder (12.01) finished third in the 100, Bryce Richards (25.52) placed third in the 200 and Isaac Vos took third in the discus with a career-best toss of 105-9.

Austin Larson also finished fourth in the 110 high hurdles with a time of 18.81 seconds.

The Hawks’ three relay wins came in the 4x100, 4x400 and sprint medley.

The 4x100 relay team of Squires, Noun Harder, Richards and Maston won the race in 44.96 seconds.

The 4x400 relay team of Walston, Bowlin, Dunsbergen and Gosselink placed first in 3:55.03.

“We closed out the night with double victories in the 4x100 and 4x400,” Arkema said. “It was a great start to our week and team effort to claim our third meet championship of the season.”

Squires, Richards, Noun Harder and Gruver won the sprint medley relay in 1:38.37.

The Hawks also were third in the shuttle hurdle and 4x800 relays. In the 4x800 relay, Spooner, Dunsbergen, Mitchell Miller and Lowry placed third in 9:43.36 and the shuttle hurdle relay team of Larson, Gosselink, Deal and Walston took third in 1:14.65.