While the season is still young for the athletes at St. Clair/Immanuel Lutheran, the track teams took their lumps on April 11 as both the Men and Women teams struggled at the JWP meet. The men finished dead last out of nine teams while the Women finished seventh. With many extracurricular activities winding to a close, the teams will hope to get back to full strength as Coach Ashley Swanson mentioned before the events kicked off. “We’re still not at 100% when it comes to what this team can do, but that isn’t going to stop our athletes from giving it their best effort today.”
For the Men’s side, there were a number of athletes who finished in the top ten of their events, but St. Clair/Immanuel Lutheran struggled throughout the meet. Peter Dumdei has been a consistent competitor for the track team and while he finished seventh in the 1600 Meters, he was able to bounce back with a second-place finish in the 3200 Meters; Levi Thompson continued his impressive season with another first-place finish in Shot Put with a heave of 43-07.50 and a second-place finish in Discus with a throw of 122-00. Overall, the team finished ninth at the meet with a total of 36 points.
The Women fared slightly better at the meet, but a recovering Valerie Quast left much to be desired for the young team. Brooklin Hinze showed her blazing speed by finishing fifth in the 100 Meter Dash; Lila Quast continued to get better with each meet as she finished fifth in the 400 Meters;
the relay teams of St. Clair/Immanuel Lutheran have ran well over the past few seasons and the group of Steph Cink, Ashley Mills, Brooke Hagen, and Hinze finished in fourth place in the 4×100 Relay, the group of Hagen, L. Quast, Mills, and Hinze took third in 4×200, while the group consisting of the Dalys (Paige & Kate), Jordyn Mariner, and L. Quast took fourth in the 4×400; Bergan Loeffler has been a steady competitor in the field events as she finished fourth in Shot Put; K. Daly kept her leaping abilities fine-tuned as she tied for first place in High Jump with a leap of 4-10.00; K. Daly also finished fourth in Pole Vault. Overall, the Women finished in seventh place with a total of 53 points.
It is still early in the season for the Cyclone track teams as this meet featured some prominent schools and will be a great teaching moment for Swanson to help guide her athletes to improve. “It’s definitely a meet that we’re going to learn from, but it’s impressive to see how well the young athletes on this team are competing. Lila Quast and Ashley Mills are some of the youngest students, but they have stepped up and excelled when we need them the most.” The track teams will look to bounce back in a big way as they’ll travel to Maple River on April 16 and will venture to Mountain Lake on April 19. Go Cyclones!
