Five wins propel L-S boys to win in home meet

SULLY — The Lynnville-Sully boys track and field team got a good look at a handful of conference rivals during its home meet on April 8.

And the Hawks were up to the challenge against everyone in the field as five wins and 11 top-three finishes powered L-S to the meet championship at the L-S Hawk Coed Invitational.

“The first of three home meets we are scheduled to host this season, and the Hawks brought the effort, determination and teamwork to earn the meet championship,” L-S head boys track and field coach Darin Arkema said. “It’s always exciting to compete at home. It’s even more exciting when at the end of the night, the team gets to take a victory lap.”

The Hawks scored 150 points at the top of the standings. Pleasantville (139.5) was close behind in second, and the rest of the eight-team field featured South Iowa Cedar League foes.

Colfax-Mingo (121), Sigourney (105) and BGM (76) finalized the top five and HLV/TC (62.5), Montezuma (51) and North Mahaska (32) completed the field.

The Hawks won a pair of relays and Colton Alberts was a double winner in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter run.

Dawson James started the night with a win in the shot put. His winning throw covered 44 feet, 5 inches and Cameyon James finished fourth with a career-best toss of 38-3 1/2.

Alberts and Blake Wilmesmeier went 1-2 in the 3,200 and Alberts and Hendrick Lowry finished 1-3 in the 1,600.

Alberts won the 3,200 in 10 minutes, 37.59 seconds and Wilmesmeier was second in 10:43.33. Alberts posted a career-best time by 13 seconds and Wilmesmeier had a 14-second PR.

Alberts won the 1,600 in 5:02.76 and Lowry was third in 5:13.37.

Lowry also anchored the 4x800 relay to a win. The rest of the group included Sawyer Veldhuizen, Ethan Dunsbergen and Michael Spooner and they won the race in 9:08.59.

The shuttle hurdle relay team of Terran Gosselink, Connor Deal, Matthew Mintle and Ashton Rozendaal won the race and posted a season-best time of 1:05.77.

“We had some improved performances to better season marks, but we also had some pretty substantial personal bests,” Arkema said. “And we are only in the third meet of the season.”

Burt Johnson, Jaiden Richards, Mintle and Lowry finished second in the sprint medley relay in a season-best 1:42.92.

Gosselink (2:13.24) also was second in the 800, Deal (5-10) and Gosselink (5-6) went 3-5 in the high jump and Deal (17.25 seconds) and Veldhuizen (18.26) were 3-5 in the 110 high hurdles.

Richards finished fourth in the 100 in a career-best 12.07 and Veldhuizen was fourth in the 400 hurdles in 1:01.46.

Sam Terlouw’s career-best time of 57.67 secured him fifth in the 400, Ethan Dunsbergen took fifth in the long jump with a career-best leap of 17-8 3/4 and Wyatt Mathis (97-7) was sixth in the discus.

“We had a lot of guys contribute to the team scoring, and we don’t win the meet on just our first-, second- and third-place finishes,” Arkema said. “In fact, we scored points in all 19 events, which is a great testament to our balance and depth and the efforts from all of our guys.”