Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
H-M-S relay teams set school records at state meet
Kooper Ebel runs his leg of the 4x100 relay after taking the baton from Ethan Diehm on Saturday. The team placed fifth in Class 1A.
Connor Dodd turns on the burners during the Class 1A 100-meter dash prelims last Thursday at the state track meet in Des Moines.
Ethan Diehm lands on a long jump attempt last Thursday.
Ryan Borden explodes from the starting blocks during the Class 1A 4x100 prelims last Friday in Des Moines.
The old adage about saving the best for last could apply to Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn's final events at the 2022 state track meet. The Hawks ran school record times in the Class 1A sprint medley and 4x100 relays during the final day of competition at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
Those results culminated a successful three days for H-M-S.
"It was fantastic," said Hawk coach Kyle Borchers. "In most of our races we out-performed our seed placings."
The 4x100 team of juniors Ryan Borden, Ethan Diehm and Kooper Ebel, and senior Connor Dodd qualified for the finals with a sixth-place finish in Friday's prelims (:44.04). They ran an even faster time on Saturday (:43.99) to place fifth overall and earn state meet medals.
"Our place-finish was fantastic," Borchers said. "The guys were excited to get out of the 44s and into the 43s. It was a great way to end a great season."
The same foursome ran the 800-meter sprint medley, except that Ebel and Dodd switched spots in the relay order. The quartet was seeded No. 20 entering the meet but won the first heat. They slipped to fourth after the second heat and eventually finished 10th overall. Even so, Borchers was pleased the group set a new school record time of 1:37.83.
Individually, Diehm also out-performed his seed placing in the 1A long jump. Coming into the meet's opening event seeded No. 24, Diehm placed 10th with a leap of 20'6". That was a foot longer than his jump at the state qualifying meet.
"He was pretty happy about that," Borchers said.
Dodd competed in the prelims in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Seeded 11th and 24th, respectively, he placed 12th overall in both with times of :11.77 and :23.52.
"He competed well against a pretty tough field," Borchers noted.
Ebel was disqualified in the 400-meter dash for a lane line violation. Borchers said it was something to which judges pay particular attention at the state meet.
H-M-S scored four team points and finished in a tie for 33rd place. Fifty-three teams in Class 1A scored at least one point.
This season is Borchers' last at H-M-S, as he has accepted a teaching position at LeMars. Seniors concluding their high school track and field careers are Alan Abonce, Connor Dodd, Jesse Garcia, Aiden Jensen, Brenton Thomas and Justyn Vasquez Alcantara.
