Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Hawk boys set school, personal records at state qualifying meet
Blaine Finster begins a leg of the 4x800 relay during the state qualifying meet at Sheldon.
Bradley Zamudio ran a time of :56.40 during the 400-meter dash.
Track and field athletes from Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn set a school record and several personal records during the boys' competition at the Class 2A state qualifying meet. Those results were achieved against tough competition on May 11 at Sheldon.
"I could not have been more proud of our kids," said Hawk coach Jay Eilers. "Our meet had to be one of the fastest meets around with extremely talented athletes, and it brought out the best in us."
The Hawks' best included a runner-up finish by Kooper Ebel in the 400-meter dash. He ran a time of :51.53 and automatically qualified for state.
The 4x100 relay team of Ryan Borden, Ethan Diehm, Bradley Zamudio and James Gellerman placed fourth, but was able to qualify for state with a time of :44.09.
The sprint medley relay team of Borden, Diehm, Gellerman and Ebel set a school record with time of 1:36.78. They finished seventh, but were just one second short of the final qualifying time for state.
That group also finished one second short of the final state qualifying time in the 4x200. Their time of 1:34.37 was the best of the season.
Eilers noted several other athletes set personal records: Borden in the 100, :11.93, sixth place; Bryce Dodge in the 1600, 5:09.51, 11th; Zamudio in the 400 hurdles, :58.67, fourth; and Adam Schierholz in the discus throw, 128'8", third.
"We would love to have all these events qualify for state, but to see our athletes continue to improve and compete at the level they did is all we can ask for," Eilers said. "It was awesome to watch them and celebrate their PR's."
Additional individual results for H-M-S were: 100 – Gellerman, ninth, :12.08. 200 – Jr Araiza, 12th, :24.65. 400 – Zamudio, ninth, :56.03. 800 – Ryan Grotluschen, eighth, 2:12.10; Damian Dodge, 16th, 2:32.45. 1600 – George Vargas, 14th, 5:26.60. 3200 – Vargas, ninth, 11:29.67. Long jump – Diehm, fifth, 20'1-1/2". Discus – Evan Eilers, 11th, 112'. Shot put – Jacob Cates, 18th, 36'8".
Jose Perez, Grotluschen, Blaine Finster and D. Dodge placed seventh in the 4x800 relay with a time of 9:48.99.
Okoboji ran away with the boys' team title, scoring 131 points. Central Lyon was runner-up with 88, followed by Sioux Central 73, Sheldon 61, Unity Christian 57, West Sioux and Estherville-Lincoln Central 55, Sibley-Ocheyedan 51, West Lyon 49, Western Christian 42, H-M-S 40 and Emmetsburg 38.
