ROCK RAPIDS-Both the Central Lyon and George-Little Rock girls’ and boys’ track teams had certain athletes out due to state FFA, forcing teams to make changes to their normal lineups at the Central Lyon Relays Tuesday, April 11. But those changes did not affect how both schools ran as the Lions took third place and fourth place, respectively on the girls’ and boys’ side with the Mustangs seeing various individual performances to build on.
The Central Lyon girls finished the meet scoring 116.5 points, good for third place behind Sioux Center and Sheldon. The Lions got the meet started as usual with Hope Rasmussen in the discus throw, heaving a third-place toss of 106’3.5”. Adding to those early points was Becca Knobloch in the high jump with a leap of 4’8”.
In the open running events Elle Petersen took gold in the 200-meter run with Carly Snyder coming in fifth. Taking silver in the 400-meter dash and earning a silver in the 800-meter run were Kiley Metzger and Lexie Ramsey, respectively. The final highlights in the open running events were Sami Ebel with a third-place run in the 1500 and Callie Yeakel with a gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles.
Finally, Central Lyon continued to show its depth in the relay events highlighted by Ashley Boer, Becca Roskam, Yeakel and Petersen taking first place in the 4×200-meter relay. Other relay highlights included second-place finishes by the 4×100, 4×400, sprint medley and the distance medley teams and a fourth-place finish by the shuttle hurdle relay team.
“It was a good meet. We lowered our times in a number of events and the girls are getting into mid-season shape,” said Lion girls’ coach Toby Lorenzen. “They (the relays) are getting better. We just need to keep working on our exchanges and putting good splits on the board each meet.”
The George-Little Rock girls also saw success early in the meet with Kayla Gerken grabbing fifth in the long jump. But what the Mustangs were most proud of were Michaella Johnson, Lauren Jurrens and Greta Ackerman in their open running events. Johnson claimed third in the 100-meter dash, Jurrens claimed second in the 1500-meter run and Ackerman claimed third in the 3000-meter run.
“At this point we are going to do what we can. We’re seeing girls run really, really hard and we’re seeing good things happen all the time,” said Mustangs’ co-coach Curt Fielder.
But with limited numbers, George-Little Rock was only able to place in two relay events, the 4×200 and the 4×400 that both placed fifth, and Fielder noted his team will continue to experiment in that area.
“I think we can really shift things around. We’re either going to have two sprinters, or two middle-distance runners and two long-distance runners. So we’re still trying to figure out where these kids fit,” he said.
On the boys’ side Central Lyon took fourth with 99 points behind Sheldon, Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley and Sioux Center. A few of those points were scored early by the Lions with Nick White claiming third place in the long jump, Zed Heimensen claiming third in the high jump and state-qualifier in the discus from last season, Austin De Noble, with a fifth-place toss in the discus throw. Later in the meet, Heimensen carried that early momentum into the 400-meter hurdles, winning the race with a time of 1:02.
“Austin De Noble had a good throw and he’s starting to get into form. Then Zed Heimensen had a good night in the 400-meter hurdles, but he still needs to get into shape,” said Central Lyon boys’ coach Dan Snyder.
The main highlight of the night was Gable Sieperda taking first place and breaking a meet record by 10 seconds in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:21.
Other top performances in the open running events included Riley Van Wyhe with a first-place finish in the 200-meter dash with Van Wyhe and Mitch Van Beek going one-two in the 100-meter dash. Luke Schriever took fourth in the open 800 and Taeron Olson claimed fifth in the 3200-meter run.
The top relays were the sprint medley relay team taking second and a third-place finish by the 4×100-meter relay team. The other relays that Central Lyon placed in took fifth.
“The sprint med did well and that was the first time Gable ran a 400 in a meet. Then Mitch and Riley ran hard in the 100 and 200,” Snyder said. “In the relays we need to work on our hand-offs and figure out who is going to run them. We know that Mitch and Riley will be at the end, we just need to figure out who is going to give the stick to them.”
As a whole, Snyder felt his team ran well but hopes to have a full team going into next week.
“We had a good night to run. We are still not in track shape yet, and we had kids missing due to family events and school events, so it’s hard right now to get kids into form,” Snyder said.
The Mustang boys were highlighted early by some surprises in the field events as Payton Mauldin took fifth in the long jump and Caleb Terhark claimed second in the high jump with a leap of 6’.
“Caleb jumped earlier in the week and he just struggled. We had him at 5’6” in the gym and he just struggled with that. Then we go to the meet and I saw him warm up with the low jumps and he really jumped them with ease,” Fiedler said. “Then after I came back from watching some of the other events, he jumped 6’ pretty dang easy. Then at 6’2” he just nicked the bar. He’s really jumping well. Payton (Mauldin) is going to get better and better at the long jump.”
The other main highlight for the George-Little Rock boys was Joe Anderson in the 1600- and 3200-meter runs. Anderson claimed first in the 3200 and had a respectable second-place finish to Sieperda in the 1600, but Fielder noted that Anderson felt he could have done better.
“Joe doesn’t feel he’s quite where he needs to be this year, but we’re going to take this just like we did last year,” Fielder said. “We’re going to run early and we’re going to race, but at the end of the year we ‘really’ want to be ready to race.
The two relay events that placed for the Mustangs were the 4×800-meter relay taking second and the 4×400-meter relay placing fourth.
“The 4×800 ran really, really well. We ran 10 seconds faster than the first night out. We made one switch because Brady (Klaassen) was at the state FFA convention, but all our other runners ran well and ran hard,” Fielder said. “From here on in it’s about improvement, and from here on in it’s about where we can shift people. But I am pleased right now with where we are at and I think we’ll continue to see some improvements.”
Central Lyon Relays
Girls’ team results:1. Sioux Center 132, 2. Sheldon 130.5, 3. Central Lyon 116.5, 4. Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley 99, 5. West Lyon 70, 6. George-Little Rock 26
Boys’ team results:1. Sheldon 147, 2. Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley 111, 3. Sioux Center 100, 4. Central Lyon 99, 5. West Lyon 85, 6. George-Little Rock 40.
Individual results
Girls’ discus:3. Hope Rasmussen (CL) 106’3.5”, 6. Carly Snyder (CL) 87’3”
Girls’ high jump:3. Becca Roskam (CL) 4’8”
Girls’ long jump:5. Kayla Gerken (GLR) 14’1”
Girls’ 100-meter dash:3. Michaella Johnson (GLR) 14.12 seconds
Girls’ 200-meter dash:1. Elle Petersen (CL) 28.23 seconds, 5. Carly Snyder (CL) 29.48
Girls’ 400-meter dash:2. Kiley Metzger (CL) 1:09
Girls’ 800-meter run:2. Lexie Ramsey (CL) 2:34
Girls’ 1500-meter run:2. Lauren Jurrens (GLR) 5:53, 3. Sami Ebel (CL) 6:16
Girls’ 3000-meter run:3. Greta Ackerman (GLR) 13:03
Girls’ 100-meter hurdles:6. Sutton Schlumbohm 18.58 seconds
Girls’ 400-meter hurdles:1. Callie Yeakel 1:11
Girls’ 4×100-meter relay:2. Central Lyon 54.12 seconds
Girls’ 4×200-meter relay:1. Central Lyon 1:53; participants: Ashley Boer, Becca Roskam, Callie Yeakel and Elle Petersen, 5. George-Little Rock 2:04
Girls’ 4×400-meter relay:2. Central Lyon 4:27, 5. George-Little Rock 4:57
Girls’ 4×800-meter relay:3. Central Lyon 11:37
Girls’ sprint medley relay:2. Central Lyon 2:00
Girls’ distance medley relay:2. Central Lyon 4:35
Girls’ shuttle hurdle relay:4. Central Lyon 1:15
Boys’ shot put:6. Parker Metzger (CL) 43’7”
Boys’ discus:5. Austin De Noble (CL) 129’1.5”
Boys’ long jump:3. Nick White (CL) 18’6.25”, 5. Payton Mauldin (GLR) 17’9.5”
Boys’ high jump:2. Caleb Terhark (GLR) 6’, 3. Zed Heimensen (CL) 5’8”
Boys’ 100-meter dash:1. Riley Van Wyhe (CL) 11.5 seconds, 2. Mitch Van Beek (CL) 11.7
Boys’ 200-meter dash:1. Riley Van Wyhe (CL) 23.57 seconds
Boys’ 800-meter run:4. Luke Schriever (CL) 2:11
Boys’ 1600-meter run:1. Gable Sieperda (CL) 4:21 NEW MEET RECORD, 2. Joe Anderson (GLR) 4:58
Boys’ 3200-meter run:1. Joe Anderson (GLR) 10:36, 5. Taeron Olson (CL) 11:25
Boys’ 110-meter hurdles:6. Jaydon Baker (CL) 18.11 seconds
Boys’ 400-meter hurdles:1. Zed Heimensen (CL) 1:02
Boys’ 4×100-meter relay:3. Central Lyon 47.08 seconds
Boys’ 4×200-meter relay:5. Central Lyon 1:42
Boys’ 4×400-meter relay:4. George-Little Rock 3:43, 5. Central Lyon 3:48
Boys’ 4×800-meter relay:2. George-Little Rock 8:34, 5. Central Lyon 9:40
Boys’ sprint medley relay:2. Central Lyon 1:39
Boys’ distance medley relay:5. Central Lyon 4:10
Boys’ shuttle hurdle:5. Central Lyon 1:10
