HCHS girls take 3rd at Monarch Relays; boys take 4th

HCHS Girls

The HCHS girls track and field team is coming off a strong performance at Thursday’s Monarch Relays in which they earned a third place finish with 122 points, 18 behind the winner, Atlantic with 140.

“We had so many positives from tonight’s meet,” said Cyclone Head Coach Jenny Hamilton. “We scored points in 17 of 19 events with 20 different athletes. The girls spent time writing and sharing personal goals this week. It was neat to see their focus and intention transfer into competition.”

In field events, multiple Cyclones were able to finish in the top 10, including in high jump, Aubree Wegner had a jump of 4’8”, while Josie Sonderman came in seventh place in the long jump event with a jump of 14’1”.

On the track, in the 400 hurdles event, Abby Broeckelman, Brinley Van Baale, and Aspen Bieker finished second, third, and fourth, with times of 1:16.04, 1:17.23, and 1:19.48. Morgan Botos of Atlantic won the event with 1:13.65.

Brylee Schechinger achieved a new personal record in the 1500m run with a time of 5:17.28. Her teammate Lindsey Sonderman, won the event with 4:49.06.

In relays, the distance medley team which featured, Ashley Tunender, Ellerie Nelson, Sadie Alberti, and Ava Freund finished in second place with a time of 4:50.38, just under 30 seconds behind Lewis Central, who finished with 4:21.25.

The Cyclones had two runners finish in the top 10 in the 200m dash, including Lily Schechinger in fourth place with 28.67, and Josie Sonderman right behind her in fifth place at 28.90. The shuttle hurdle relay team which had, Van Baale, Ari Daniels, Ainsley Mages, and Jaylee Schmitz earned a third place finish with 1:14.77, a few seconds behind Atlantic with 1:11.56.

The Cyclones next meet will be Thursday at home at the Koos Relays where they will be one of nine schools competing. It will also be Senior Night as Schmitz, Broeckelman, Brylee Schechinger, and Lindsey Sonderman will be honored.

“A huge part of this sport is reflecting honestly on your progress,” Hamilton said. “These girls are serious about their goals, and we’re confident they’ll stay hungry in the pursuit.”

HCHS Boys

The HCHS Cyclones boys track and field team finished fourth Thursday at the Monarch Relays at Denison High School. The Cyclones had 95 points, 46.5 points behind the winner, Lewis Central with 141.5.

“I think it was a good step forward for us,” said Cyclone Head Coach Sam Brummer. “The first meet out, especially with such a young inexperienced group, is always kind of tough sometimes. It’s just different, but we made good strides from the first meet to the next. Overall, I thought for a fourth place finish and a meet that had a lot of good teams in it, I think that’s definitely a really good start to the season, and we definitely have to work on building off of that.”

On the track, in the 100m dash, the Cyclones had two athletes who finished in the top 10 with Hagen Sorensen and Landon Nihsen, who came in third and fourth place with times of 11.58 and 11.67. Cole Jeppesen of Riverside won the event with 11.37.

“It was good,” Brummer said. “Competition will breed excellence. When we’re setting things up in a meet, we always try and make sure we have somebody to run with as much as possible. Sometimes that just can’t happen with the meet settings and things of that nature. There were a lot of good people there last night that helped with that. I thought Hagen and Landon overall had really good nights. Those are two guys we’re going to continue to count on as the year goes forward to hopefully keep lowering those times in whatever events they’re in.”

In the 200m dash, Ayden Redmon, Cade Nelson, and Jozef Reisz finished in the top ten with Redmon finishing third with 24.37, Nelson finishing sixth with 24.75, and Reisz taking seventh with 24.75.

In relays, the 4x100, 4x200, and 4x400 team managed to have strong finishes, including fourth in the 4x100 with a time of 44.96, the team of Redmon, Nihsen, Sam Shields, and Sorensen finished right behind LeMars, who won the event with 43.94.

In the 4x200, Redmon, Nihsen, Shields, and Sorensen, finished in third with 1:34.81, a few seconds behind LeMars, who won with 1:32.25. In the 4x400, Sorensen, Nihsen, Shields, and Nelson, finished third with a time of 3:38.80, just under 10 seconds behind Riverside with 3:29.53, who won the event.

“We definitely didn’t want to go up from those relay times,” Brummer said. “They weren’t the best showing for our first meet, so it was nice to see those times get back down to where maybe we thought they would be. Each year is different, and obviously we had a lot of success last year and the year before that. We’re focused on this years group and trying to make them the best they can be and last time was a good step in the right direction for a lot of those kids.”

In long distance events, Jeffrey Gross and Erik Heslink, competed strong. Gross won the 3200m run with 10:26.48, beating out Evan Estrada of Woodbine with 10:33.41, and Heslink came in at 10:36.20. In the 1500m run, Gross came in third with a 4:56.88 and Heslink finished ninth with 5:17.12.

“Both of those guys have been really good,” Brummer added. “Not surprises. We obviously know what they can do, but to think they’ve been running those times this early, we think maybe can get them down to the upper 4’s there in the mile, and then the low 10’s in the two mile. They’re getting there quick, which is a good sign. We can expedite that process a little bit. Those guys put in the times and they’re putting in the miles needed to run those distance races successfully.”

In field events, freshman Kreed Boggess finished eighth in long jump with 17-06.50, and Foxx Argotsinger competed in high jump, taking third place with 5-06.00 tying teammate Dallas McDowell and Blake Pekarek of West Monana. Jozef Reisz also managed to finish third in discus with 123-09.

“We’re freshmen heavy, which is a good problem and a bad problem,” Brummer said. “It’s good that we have the numbers and we’re able to grow them and develop them in the program, but bad in the sense that they don’t know everything they need to do to be successful yet, but that will come with experience, and we will get there.”

The Cyclones next event will be Tuesday at Glenwood High School, where they will be competing against eight other schools.

“I like that Glenwood meet, because it’s an unlimited entry meet,” he said. “It’s a smaller meet, but you can load up everybody as many events within the four events they can run and participate in. We can take our whole squad and we can give everybody a lot of work, so that’s the part I really like about that, and the quality is good.”