Glenwood boys ninth at state track meet

DES MOINES - Wet and cold conditions may have prevented better times and a higher finish but Glenwood boys track coach Mark Starner couldn’t find fault in his team’s  ninth place finish at the Class 3A Iowa State Track and Field Meet Saturday in Des Moines.

The Rams won five medals, spent much of the final day in the top five of the team standings and finished with 33 points on a chilly weekend that looked and felt more like early April than late May.

“It was a mixed bag with the weather,” Starner said. “We thought we might be able to improve some times but in the same sense, we ran well. Whenever you can come home from the state meet with a gold medal, that’s always good. We scored 33 points and being in the top 10 was our goal to begin with. We could have done better in some events but I think a lot of it had to do with the weather and some first time (at state) jitters.”

Marion ran away with the team title, racking up 69 points to easily out-paced runner up Mount Vernon’s 58 points.

The Rams qualified for state in six relays and placed in three of them. The jewel coming in the first ever boys sprint medley relay finals on Saturday. Glenwood’s quartet of Joey Saddler, Matt Bowden, Mavrick Decker and Nate Kennedy set a blistering pace to win gold in the event with a time of 1:33.68.

The Rams ran the sprint medley with Nate Nebel, who pulled a hamstring in the 4x100-meter relay the day before. Bowden filled in for Nebel and helped the Rams’ to their best time of the year.

Starner admits his team received the benefit of contender Sergeant Bluff-Luton dropping the baton on the second exchange but his team was ahead at the time and pulled out the victory.

“Luckily we held them and a great CPU team off,” Starner. “We ran our fastest time of the year and for one year, we have the state record.”

The gold medal is the first for the Rams in a relay event since 1992.

Kennedy and Decker both had strong state meets.

Kennedy, a junior, set a new school record with a time of 49.33 in the 400-meters to place second. In addition to anchoring the sprint medley he also helped the Rams to a third place medal in the 4x400 and a fourth place finish in the 4x200-meter relay.

Kennedy teamed with Kohen Watson, Seth Little and Decker on the 4x400 and with Saddler, Bowden, and Decker on the 4x200.

“The big thing for him was how he ran in conference and the districts,” Starner said of Kennedy. “He was ready to run. He was focused. He ran here last year and didn’t run his best. A year of maturation has been awesome for him. He ran well at Drake and the Kansas Relays and that bolstered his confidence.”

Decker advanced to Saturday’s 200-meter finals where he placed fifth with a time of 22.88. He also picked up medals in the sprint medley, 4x200 and 4x400.

Tye Austin picked a 22nd place finish in the 400-meter hurdles and Watson was 16th in the open 400-meters.

The Rams’ shuttle hurdle relay team of Kolten Wilwerding, Brady Weddum, Cody Buresh and Tye finished 15th with  a time of 1:01.20.

Wilwerding added a 13th place showing in the long jump.

The 4x800-meter relay team of Christian Stanislav, Little, Mason Parks and Parson Covington ran a 8:24.02 to place 14th.

The Rams’ 4x100m relay team of Saddler, Nebel, Kolten Wilwerding and Bowden finished 23rd in the preliminaries with a time of 45.31.

Caleb Sanders, a state qualifier in the discus, faulted on all three of his trows and did not place.

The Glenwood girls did not medal at state but saw its young team earn valuable experience on the blue oval at Drake.

“Overall, it was a good ending to the year,” said Glenwood girls coach Cory Faust. “Of the 11 girls who competed at state, 10 of them are underclassmen.  With a lot of talent returning and a strong eighth grade group coming to the high school next year, there is a lot of room for  optimism if the girls are willing to buy into the process of being an athlete and competitor year round.”

The Rams’ 4x200-meter relay team of Devin Bomer, Bailey Ostrander, Jaeda Wilson and Sadey Allgood put together a 1:49.74 to place 12th.

Bomer, Wilson, Allgood and Danielle Hardcastle teamed for a 22nd place finish in the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 4:18.55.

The 4x800-meter relay quartet of Hardcastle, Kate Kaufman, Arianna Springer and Jillian Finnegan were 15th with a time of 10:06.37. But, more importantly, Faust said, the group shaved more than six seconds off their season’s best time.

“They ran the third fasted 4x800 of any foursome in Glenwood history,” Faust said.  
Sydney Biermann placed 23rd in the shot put with a top toss of 33 feet, 8.5 inches while Katelyn Wilwerding was 24th in the 400-meter hurdles with a 1:12.84.