M-S track and field wins l Salt Fork Invitational
By Fred Kroner
The Bulldogs stacked their relay foursomes on Tuesday (June 1) and recorded season-best times in three of the four, helping M-S to team honors in the seven-school Salt Fork Invitational in Catlin.
M-S amassed 124 points. Runner-up Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond had 75 points.
The Bulldogs’ relay highlight was the 3,200-meter unit, which stepped off a winning time of 8 minutes, 18.42 seconds, the fourth best this spring in the state in Class 2A. The runners were Jonah Singer, Taylor Fan, Joseph Scheele and Kyle Nofziger.
M-S captured the 1,600-meter relay with a season-best clocking of 3:35.44. Deangelo Hughey, Singer, Nathan Lundstrom and C.J. Shoaf were the runners on the triumphant unit.
The school’s 800-meter relay group of Skyler Yancy, Hughey, Will Parrott and Nick Golden placed second, but recorded their top time of the year, 1:34.78.
M-S also prevailed in the 400-meter relay with Yancy, Hughey, Tyler Lewis and Cole Marshall sharing the baton. Their collective time was 45.48 seconds.
Shoaf was the meet’s most dominant athlete. Besides anchoring the 1,600-meter relay to victory, he took first in each of his three individual events.
He raced to wins in the 110-meter high hurdles (14.20 seconds) and the 300-meter hurdles (40.10 seconds) as well as the high jump (6 feet, 5 ½ inches).
Parrott accounted for the other M-S individual win, leaping 20 feet in the long jump.
Yancy was fourth in the long jump (19 feet, 1 inch) and Gabe Labbe was seventh (17 feet, 2 inches).
The Bulldogs had at least three top-10 placers in the other three field events that were contested.
Marshall was the triple jump runner-up (38 feet, 6 inches). Jacob Louis was eighth (35 feet, 7 inches), Nick Golden was ninth (35 feet) and Ellis Tira was 10th (32 feet, 1 inch).
In the discus, Karson McKee took second (127 feet), Robert Byron was third (125 feet, 6 inches) and Sam Garber was sixth (115 feet, 6 inches).
In the shot put, Garber finished third (40 feet, 5 inches), McKee was fifth (38 feet, 1 inch), Byron was seventh (34 feet, 2 inches) and Caleb Boykin was eighth (30 feet, 3 inches).
M-S showed its depth in the six running events from the 100 meters through the 3,200 meters. In each race, the Bulldogs had at least three top-10 placers, including the runner-up in four of the events.
Hughey ran second in the 100 meters (11.99 seconds), just ahead of teammate and third-place finisher Christopher Brown (12.01 seconds). M-S’ Jayvon Irwin was ninth (12.35 seconds).
Lewis was the 400-meter runner-up (54.38 seconds). Trailing him were teammates Lundstrom (third in 55.86 seconds) and Avery Seaman (sixth in 59.07 seconds).
Matthew Sims ended in second in the 800 meters (2:09.12). Fan took fourth (2:16.94) and Karsten Waisath was seventh (2:25.72).
Hayden Grotelueschen captured the runner-up position in the 3,200 meters (10:28.65). Hot on his heels was teammate Ben Wallace (third in 10:28.66). Waisath wound up in sixth (10:51.28) and Grant Smysor took seventh (11:38.62).
Golden (24.71 seconds) and Erik Christianson (25.30 seconds) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 200 meters. Alex O’Brian was 10th (26.55 seconds).
In the 1,600, Scheele led the Bulldog contingent. He finished fourth (4:35.90). Nofziger was seventh (4:41.73). Singer was ninth (5:07.40) and Sims was 10th (5:13.31).
The meet at Catlin was the final tuneup for M-S before the Class 2A Metamora Sectional on Thursday (June 10).
