Baxter boys tie for second, L-S finishes fourth at East Marshall Early Bird

LE GRAND — Three wins and a trio of runner-up finishes highlighted the Baxter boys track and field team’s night at its outdoor opener at East Marshall on Friday.

The Bolts and Lynnville-Sully Hawks made up the East Marshall Early Bird Invitational after it was postponed on Tuesday. Baxter scored 80 points to finish in a tie for second, while L-S was fourth with 68 points.

Iowa Valley won the meet with 115 points and East Marshall (80) tied Baxter in second. The rest of the field featured BCLUW (60), Gladbrook-Reinbeck (54), Dike-New Hartford (53), BGM (52) and AGWSR (25).

The make-up date created meets on back-to-back nights for the Hawks. L-S head boys track and field coach Darin Arkema said it rained on the Hawks’ drive over, but there was no rain and not a lot of wind during the meet.

“Back-to-back nights of competition is challenging at any point in the season, but especially early on when athletes aren’t in top conditioning and the weather is cool,” Arkema said. “We had a lot of different looks and places we put guys tonight, but the attention to being warmed up and ready, the focus to details we work on and the effort to compete was there again across the board just like the night before.”

Baxter’s three wins came from Carter Smith in the discus and Matt Richardson in the 1,600-meter run as well as the Bolts’ distance medley relay team.

Both of Lynnville-Sully’s victories were registered by Hendrick Lowry, who won the 800 and 3,200.

The Bolts went 1-2 in the 1,600. Richardson (4:59.33) edged Max Handorf (4:59.94) for the win and Lynnville-Sully’s Blake Wilmesmeier finished fourth in a career-best 5:18.39.

Smith’s win came in the discus as his best toss was marked at 141 feet, 7 inches. Cody Spurgeon was fourth with a career-best 111-4 for the Bolts.

Lowry won the 3,200 in 11:25.25 and Madden Gunsaulus finished fourth in a debut time of 12:04.29.

Lowry’s winning time in the 800 was clocked in 2:14.85 and Colton Alberts placed sixth in 2:30.24.

The Bolts’ other individual runner-up finish came from Logan Rainsbarger. He took second in the 110 high hurdles in 15.82 seconds. That’s the same time winner Dakota Heishman of BGM posted. Lincoln Betterton of Baxter was fourth in 16.86.

Lynnville-Sully’s Dawson James was the runner-up in the shot put with a toss of 42-9 1/2. Smith took fourth with a heave of 42-6 1/2.

Rainsbarger also placed fourth in the long jump with a leap of 18-6 1/2, Lynnville-Sully’s Terran Gosselink placed fourth in the 200 with a time of 24.42 and Hayden Burdess of Baxter was sixth in the 400 hurdles with a debut time of 1:07.46.

Baxter’s James Esqueda and Lynnville-Sully’s Trace Carlson both had a mark of 5-2 in the high jump and finished sixth and seventh, respectively.

Esqueda was fifth in the 400 in 57.91 and Sawyer Veldhuizen placed sixth in 58.36.

The Bolts won the distance medley relay in 3:43.75, which currently ranks fourth in 1A. That group included Rainsbarger, Betterton, Handorf and Richardson.

Lynnville-Sully’s foursome of Burt Johnson, Jaiden Richards, Jack Bowlin and Connor Deal placed fifth in 4:15.29.

Baxter also was second in the 4x400 relay. The team of Esqueda, Cody Travis, Handorf and Richardson were clocked in 3:49.14 and Lynnville-Sully’s foursome of Veldhuizen, Carlson, Sam Terlouw and Tyler Routier placed fourth in 4:01.31.

Lynnville-Sully was the runner-up in the 4x800 relay with Alberts, Wilmesmeier, Evan Arkema and Gosselink. They were clocked in 9:20.93.

The Hawks and Bolts finished 3-4 in the shuttle hurdle relay. The L-S team of Deal, Ashton Rozendaal, Michael Spooner and Veldhuizen finished third in 1:07.84 and Baxter’s foursome of Betterton, Burdess, Esqueda and Rainsbarger took fourth in 1:09.73.

Lynnville-Sully finished fourth in the sprint medley relay and fifth in the 4x200 relay.

The sprint medley relay team of Jordan Dunsbergen, Richards, Ethan Dunsbergen and Spooner finished the race in 1:45.59 and the 4x200 relay team of Johnson, Richards, Bowlin and Deal hit the finish line in 1:39.47.

Baxter’s 4x100 relay team of Burdess, Betterton, Derek Rominger and Coy Mergen placed fifth in 49.89.

“Better handoffs in our sprint relays led to faster splits and overall times,” Arkema said. “I’m thankful for the guys’ efforts without complaints going two nights in a row and taking care of their bodies to stay free of injuries.”