Hawk trio headlines L-S boys in 1A state qualifier

BROOKLYN — Conner Maston, James Gruver and Corder Noun Harder will represent the Lynnville-Sully boys’ track and field team in four events at the state meet this week.

The Hawks clinched four automatic bids at the Class 1A state qualifier hosted by BGM on Thursday and then added a trio of events to their schedule one day later.

“All the work, preparation and competing throughout the year gets you ready for this meet and the opportunity to advance to the state meet or see the season come to a close,” L-S head boys track and field coach Darin Arkema said. “We are looking forward to competing at state to try and score a number of team points and bring home a lot of hardware.”

Lynnville-Sully’s big night led to 116.5 points, which was good enough for second in the district standings. Lisbon won the district title with 174 points and the Hawks edged BCLUW (113.5) by three points on a wet and rainy night.

The rest of the 13-team field featured North Mahaska (63), BGM (56), Moravia (47), Montezuma (46.5), Seymour (33), HLV (31), GMG (23.5), Melcher-Dallas (23), Meskwaki Settlement School (4) and Twin Cedars (2).

“Great overall team effort to battle, endure the weather elements and make improvements once again in a number of areas,” Arkema said.

Maston and Gruver led the way for the Hawks. The senior duo went 1-2 in the 400-meter dash and were separated by just .01 seconds. Gruver also grabbed the automatic bid in the 400 hurdles and the Hawks were either first or second in four relays.

The top finisher in each event at each state qualifier secured an automatic berth into the state meet. The next best 14 performances in each event earned at-large bids.

Maston won the 400 in 50.61 seconds and Gruver was right there with him at the line in second with a time of 50.62. Those times were the fourth- and fifth-best qualifying marks in 1A.

“Conner and James went head-to-head again in the open 400,” Arkema said. “However, early in the race, other competitors were pulling ahead or hanging close by until they got onto the homestretch and then both Conner and James found more gears.

“Back and forth all the way to the line where we had a photo finish that determined Conner edged him out by the smallest of margins. But a tremendous race by both guys.”

Gruver’s winning time of 56.32 seconds in the 400 hurdles was the seventh-best qualifying time.

The other wins came in the sprint medley and 4x400 relays.

Bryce Richards, Corder Noun Harder, Gruver and Maston won the sprint medley relay in a season-best 1 minute, 34.14 seconds. That was the second-best qualifying time.

The 4x400 relay team featured Caleb Rea, Noun Harder, Gruver and Maston and they won the race in a season-best 3:28.59. That also was the second-best qualifying time.

The final at-large bids came in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays.

In the 4x100, Kyle Squires, Richards, Rea and Noun Harder finished second at districts with a time of 45.36 seconds, which was the 17th-best qualifying mark.

Richards, Noun Harder, Rea and Maston took second in the 4x200 relay in a season-best 1:32.4 and that time was the sixth-best qualifying mark. The Hawks are the defending state champions in the event, too.

“The Hawks came with great a mindset, focused on the task at hand and seized the opportunity to compete against some great opponents that helped push us to a number of season and personal bests,” Arkema said.

L-S finished fifth in both the 4x800 and distance medley relays. In the 4x800, Michael Spooner, Ethan Dunsbergen, Terran Gosselink and Hendrick Lowry finished the race in 9:32.11 and Gentry Walston, Isaac Ver Ploeg, Jack Bowlin and Spooner posted a time of 4:10.18 in the distance medley relay.

Zach Morningstar was second in the 3,200 with a career-best time of 10:49.81.

“Zach believed in himself and executed a race strategy to near perfection,” Arkema said. “An absolutely fantastic race, the best of his career. He had never gone under 11 minutes and broke that by 22 seconds. He gave it everything he had.”

Lowry and Morningstar went 2-4 in the 1,600 in 4:50.49 and 5:06.23, respectively. That was a career-best time for Morningstar.

Gosselink’s career-best time of 2:11.45 in the 800 was good enough for fifth place.

Conner Deal registered a career-best leap of 5 feet, 8 inches to place fourth in the high jump, Bowlin finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 19-1 and Squires took sixth in the shot put with a heave of 42-6.

Maston, Gruver and Noun Harder qualified for the state meet in four events, while Richards and Rea are qualifiers in three events.

The Class 1A portion of the Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships begins at 9 a.m. on Thursday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.