Behind a strong early start in the field events during action at the H&H track and field meet, held Tuesday, April 14, in Henderson, the Sandy Creek boys track team claimed third place overall in the 10-team meet.
The host Bearcats won the team title going away, outscoring second-place Mc-Cool Junction 130.5-87, while Sandy Creek tallied 69 team points to place third.
Out of the 15 total medals earned in Henderson, the Cougars came out of the field event portion of the meet with nine total medals, led by five total medals in the two throwing events.
In the discus, Christian Lorena-Parks led a trio of medalists with the win in the event with his 144’ 2” throw. Christian Shaw placed third with a 135’ 8” throw, while Wes Biltoft hit the 134’ 6” with his toss, to score 20 of the Cougars’ 69 team points in the meet.
In the shot put, Sam Watts and Shaw added 10 more points to the team cause, with Watts placing third with a 45’ 3.25” effort, while Shaw was fourth with a 43’ 4.5” throw. Event winner, Karsten Zweiner of Hastings St. Cecilia hit the 48’ 6.75” mark for the gold medal.
Freshman Asher Eitzmann earned a third-place finish in the high jump, sailing over the bar at 5’ 10”. Grady Holtzen of BDS earned the win with a 6-foot jump.
In the long jump, two more medals came to the Cougars, as Kaeden Schmidt’s 19’ 2” jump placed him fourth, while Ben Burger gained sixth place with a 19’ 0.5” leap. Wyatt Kempf of BDS earned the long jump title with a 21’ 0.25” leap.
The final field event medal for the Cougars came from Alex Watts in the pole vault, as the sophomore cleared 10’ 2” to place fifth. Waylon Tessman of H&H won the event with an 11’ 8” vault.
Six more medals came the Cougars way on the track, paced by Burger, who won the 400-meter dash and placed fourth in the 200-meter dash.
In the 400, Burger claimed gold with a time of 53.2 seconds to hold off Holden Switzer of H&H for the win, as Switzer finished with a time of 53.31 seconds.
In the 200, Burger finished fourth with his time of 24.37 seconds. Event winner, Samuel Friesen of H&H, hit the finish line in 23.68 seconds.
The Cougars 4x100-meter relay team, made up of Ian Zikmund, Schmidt, Alex Watts, and Burger, finished third with a time of 45.66 seconds. H&H won the relay with a time of 45.25 seconds, while Blue Hill finished just ahead of the Cougar four with a second-place time of 45.56 seconds.
Owen Spray, Brockett Reed, Embry Frazier, and Dawson Black finished fourth overall in the 4x800-meter relay, running to a time of 11 minutes, 0.22 seconds. H&H also won this relay with a time of 8:37.1.
In the 4x400-meter relay, Zikmund, Eitzmann, Logan Tomky, and Alex Watts placed sixth with a time of 3:50.55. Again, H&H claimed gold with a winning time of 3:37.49.
Sandy Creek’s final track medal came from Reed in the 3200-meter run, as the freshman placed fifth in the eight-lap race with a time of 11:54.78.
Team Scores: H&H 130.5, McCool Junction 87, Sandy Creek 69, Hastings St. Cecilia 63, Blue Hill 48.5, BDS 38, Sutton 30, Centennial 27.5, Harvard 14.5, Shelton 14.
The Sandy Creek duo of Asher Itzmann, left, and Ben Burger, right leg it out towards the finish line against an H&H sprinter in the 400-meter dash. Burger won the event with a time of 53.2 seconds, while Eitzmann fell just short of medal contention, in seventh place by five-tenths of a second. LILY GRIESS | CLAY COUNTY NEWS
