A winning start and a victorious finish

Victories in their first and final relay races highlighted the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn boys' track team's performance at the Unity Christian Invitational. The meet was held April 11 at Orange City.

The Hawks got off to an impressive start in the running events, as Ryan Borden, Ethan Diehm, Kooper Ebel and Connor Dodd won the sprint medley relay. Their time for the 800-meter event was 1:38.79.

That group then gave H-M-S a big finish, as they won the 4x100 relay in a time of :45.13.

Individually they also contributed toward the team point total. Ebel placed second in the 200-meter dash (:23.0); Diehm was runner-up in the long jump (20'7") as well as a sixth-place finisher in the 800-meter run (2:29.43); Dodd (:11.52) and Borden (:11.75) finished No. 3-4 in the 100-meter dash; and Borden came in third in the 400-meter dash (:56.05).

Despite missing several athletes who were attending the state FFA convention, H-M-S had other strong performances in running and field events.

Bradley Zamudio competed in two hurdle events, finishing third in the 400-meter hurdles (1:06.08) and finished sixth in the 110-meter hurdles (:17.93). Justyn Vasquez Alcantara placed sixth in the 3200-meter run (12:57.55).

In the field events, Keevyn Jacobsma was runner-up in the discus (124'5"). Adam Schierholz was a two-time place finisher in the throws. He was fifth in the shot put (38'2-3/4") and sixth in the discus (110'1").

Among the best JV performers were Zamudio who won the 100-meter dash (:12.04) and placed fourth in the long jump (16'8-1/2"). Jacobsma was second in the JV shot put (37'1/2").

MOC-Floyd Valley won the boys' team title with 182 points while Western Christian was second (104) and Unity Christian finished third (100). H-M-S was fourth with 72 points, followed by West Sioux (51), Storm Lake (48) and Whiting (1).

Next up on the boys' schedule are the H-M-S Relays on April 22 and the Okoboji Relays at Milford on April 25.