With many students returning to the track full time, the St. Clair/Immanuel Lutheran boys and girls track teams are slowly coming back to full force as they competed in two track meets with varying success. The Boys team finished in the top five at the Blooming Prairie Invitational on April 22 while the Girls finished seventh.
For the Boys team, three runners finished in the top six of the 200 Meters as Oliver Schull, Jacon Olmanson, and Alex Kruse came in third, fifth, and sixth respectively; Kaiden Hainlen set a Personal Record in the 400 Meters and took fifth place; Wyatt Lien set a PR of his own with a third place finish in the 1600 Meters; Peter Dumdei continued his impressive season with a third place finish in the 3200 Meters; the 4×100 Relay team of Kruse, Olmanson, Carter Bilitz, and Schull took fourth place; Levi Thompson remained a top competitor in the Shot Put as he finished in second place and championed in Discus; Andrew Clobes set a PR in Pole Vault on his way to a three-way tie for fourth place; Kruse set a new School Record for St. Clair/Immanuel Lutheran in a third place finish with a leap of 18-05.00. The Boys finished in fifth place with 87.5 points.
The Girls have endured a few key injuries throughout the season including Valerie Quast, but were still able to clinch several top five finishes at the meet. Brooklin Hinze finished fifth in the 100 Meters; Lila Quast took fifth place in the 400 Meters as her first season starts off strong; three Cyclones finished neck-and-neck in the 300 Meter Hurdles as Kate Daly, Cloe Busse, and Jordyn Mariner took sixth, seventh, and eighth respectively all within a few second or two of each other. The relay teams for the Cyclones have been consistent throughout the season as the 4×100 Relay team of Brooke Hagen, Ashley Mills, Busse, and Hinze finished fifth; Hagen, Janessa Carstensen, Quast, and Hinze would take fourth in a tightly contested 4×200; Quast, Mariner, K. Daly, and Paige Daly would take fourth in the 4×400. K Daly had an impressive outing in the field events as she took third in the High Jump and set a PR in Pole Vault on her way to securing a first place finish; Hinze would set a new School Record of her own as she took third in Long Jump with a leap of 15-00.75. The Girls finished in seventh place with a total of 66.25 points. While her teams are slowly returning to full force, Coach Ashley Swanson congratulated Hinze and Kruse for setting new records in the Long Jump, “It’s not every day you have two athletes from the same school set records in the same event; these two are some of the hardest working during practice and they’re extremely competitive. They’re going to push not just themselves, but everyone around them to get even better.”
The Mike Vrklan Relay Invitational held on April 25 featured a lot of incredibly skilled athletes and ended with the Girls team finishing in sixth while the Boys finished in eighth. The highlights for the Girls team came through in the 4×200 Relay as Hagen, Carstensen, Hinze, and Mills narrowly edged out Sibley East for a first place finish, but took second by a second and a half. Morgan Roemhildt set a PR in Discus with a throw of 96-02; K. Daly remained a top competitor in High Jump with a second place finish and finished second in Pole Vault; Hinze took fourth in Long Jump. The Girls would finish in sixth place with a total score of 55 points.
The Boys seemed to hold their own in certain events as Huntly Lentz set a PR in the 400 Meters as he finished in fifth place; Dumdei took fourth in the 3200 Meters; Thompson set a new PR for him in Shot Put as a heave of 48-09.00 resulted in a second place finish–he would also finish third in Discus. Overall, the Boys would finish in eight place with a total of 43.5 points. In a bizarre experimental event Mixed Throwers 4×100 Relay, the team of Thompson, Gaius Hensley, Bergan Loeffler, and Roemhildt took fifth place on the track instead of the field. In fact, a second separated fifth from second place, so not bad for the hurlers.
As the track season enters its final month in May, Coach Swanson is thrilled her team has returned to full force, but knows the preparation for Sections and State looms, “We’re preparing for our True Team at this time which is our primary focus. Our distance boy runners and girl throwers are really impressing us with the work they’re putting in during practices and us coaches will have to make tough decisions as we fill our spots as the competition gets tougher.” The St. Clair/Immanuel Lutheran track teams will look to hone their skills even further as they compete at Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial on April 30 and Fairmont on May 3. Go Cyclones!
