Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
First event sets tone for boys at state qualifying meet
Connor Dodd takes the baton from Dawson Schiphoff during the 4x200 relay. The team qualified for state, as did Dodd in the 100 and 200 meter dashes.
An early win gave the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn boys' track and field team a promising start at the Class 1A state qualifying meet, held on May 13 at Lawton.
Senior Noah Adams started things with a leap of 21'8.5" in his first attempt to win the long jump. That distance was the best by a long jumper in any 1A state qualifying meet.
"That was a shocker to a lot of us, but maybe not to him," said Hawk coach Kyle Borchers. "No. 1 is awesome. It puts pressure on him, but he is a guy who responds to that in a good way."
Connor Dodd crossed the finish line ahead of the field in his heat to win the 100 meter dash, running a time of :11.33. The junior also placed second in the 200 meter dash with a time :23.46.
"We look for him to get into the finals in the 100 and score some points for our team," Borchers said. "He could shock some people in the 200."
Kooper Ebel was runner-up in the 400 meter dash. The sophomore qualified for state with a time of :52.53; however, an injury may prevent him from competing in that event as well as in a relay.
"He is day-to-day," Borchers said. "Kooper wants to run, but we'll do what's best for the athlete."
The Hawks' times in three relays also punched their tickets to compete at state. H-M-S finished second in the 4x100 (:44.87) and 4x200 (1:33.05), both of which were run by Adams, Ryan Borden, Dawson Schiphoff and Dodd. Adams, Schiphoff, Borden and Ebel ran third in the sprint medley relay and qualified for state with a time of 1:38.29.
Borchers is hoping for good things from the 4x100 and 4x200 squads. The Hawks established their best time in the sprint medley after setting their previous standard in the season's first meet.
"We fully expected to run a personal record in the sprint medley," Borchers said. "It was a great time."
H-M-S also had good performances in several other events. Ethan Diehm finished third in the long jump (19'6.5"); Brenton Thomas placed fourth in the 400 meter hurdles (1:02.42); and Gabe Bronstad was seventh in the shot put (40'9").
The 4x400 relay team of Borden, Travis Kamradt, Diehm and JP Mutombo finished sixth (3:49.03) and the distance medley relay team of Trenton Vollink, Bradley Zamudio, Mutombo and Bryce Dodge placed seventh (4:08.82).
As a team, the Hawks finished fourth with 76 points. Finishing ahead of them were champion Gehlen Catholic with 141 points, MMCRU with 87.33 and Lawton-Bronson with 86.
"As a team we probably performed to my expectations and maybe above them," Borchers said.
The remaining team scores were George-Little Rock 68, South O'Brien 64.66, Westwood 56, Siouxland Christian 55, Harris-Lake Park 41, Akron-Westfield 31, Trinity Christian 10, Remsen St. Mary's 9 and River Valley 6.
