Golden Hawk boys step up in state-qualifying meet

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 5/15/22

The Golden Hawk sprint medley gave the Mid-Prairie boys track & field team a state meet qualifier in the first event of the day. By the end of the meet, six of the seven Mid-Prairie relays had …

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Golden Hawk boys step up in state-qualifying meet

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The Golden Hawk sprint medley gave the Mid-Prairie boys track & field team a state meet qualifier in the first event of the day on Thursday at E-B-F.

By the end of the meet, six of the seven Mid-Prairie relays had turned in times that would qualify for state, and the Golden Hawk boys were celebrating with a state-qualifying meet banner. 

“There were a lot of highlights for the evening, but one of the things that I love is when our opening races run well, and kind of set the tone for the rest of the night,” coach Dain Jeppson said. 

The sprint medley nearly matched its best time of the season, finishing second. In the next race, senior Thaddeus Shetler and freshman Emmett Swartzentruber finished first and second in the 3200-meter run to qualify as well. The 4x800-meter relay finished fourth, but would later qualify easily with the time of 8:36.43.

“That early part of the evening where guys are seeing our guys have success, I think that's been huge for us,” Jeppson said. 

After the additional qualifiers were known on Friday evening, the Mid-Prairie boys had 15 entries in the state track & field meet, including three from freshman Jayden Stafford who won the 100, 200, and 400-meter wheelchair races unopposed.

Cain Brown won the high jump with a jump of 6-5, and finished second in the 110-meter hurdles.

Tyler Helmuth, Will Cavanagh, Carter Harmsen and Kaden Meader finished second in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays to qualify in both races. 

An injury to Brown put Meader into sprint relays a couple weeks earlier. 

“I’m really proud of Meader. He stepped it up,” said senior Tyler Helmuth. “He hadn’t run a 100 in his life, and in these last three meets, he’s run a 100. That was my highlight, him stepping up. 

“We didn’t run that well in our 4x200 tonight, but we still got second and I’m proud of our guys.”

Thaddeus Shetler won the 1600-meter run in addition to the 3200, and he anchored a pair of qualifying relays as well. 

“He’s amazing, nobody will outwork him,” Helmuth said. “He's always working. He takes Sunday off, but every other day, he's out running, and nobody works harder.”

Jayse Yoder finished third in the 1600-meter run, and qualified with a time of 4:45.

The distance medley of Brown, Harmsen, Cavanagh and Shetler finished third, but ran a season-best time of 3:41.46, which was the tenth fastest time out of the 24 qualifiers. 

The strong showing from the Golden Hawk senior class was another highlight for Jeppson. 

“We had seniors that stepped up and qualified in four events like Will, Carter, Thaddeus. And it’s very gratifying to see with their hard work, those guys get rewarded for it.”

Senior Jackson Gehman also qualified for the state meet with the sprint medley and senior Justice Jones qualified in the shuttle hurdle relay along with Meader, Brown and Braden Hartley.

The 4x800 of Yoder, Robert Nagy, Blake Creed and Shetler had to wait until Friday night to find out whether its fourth-place time would be fast enough to qualify. 

“On the way home, we would text people from other districts, we kept looking at twitter feeds or any results that we could find, up until (Friday) night when Jeppson found some results and texted us that we made it,” said Nagy, who had been to the state meet only as an alternate in the past.

“It’s really exciting. This is the first year that I get to go and run. And that was my big goal this season, to make it there. So I’m really excited to do that.”

Boys Results

1, Mid-Prairie, 124; 2, Mediapolis, 114; 3, Central Decatur, 108; 4, Albia, 62; 5, EBF, 58; 6, Davis Co, 57.5; 7, Cardinal, 56; 8, Van Buren, 51; 9, Chariton, 36; 10, Louisa-Musc, 35.5; 11, Central Lee, 25; 12, Centerville, 14. 

100-METER DASH: 1, Isaac Lett, Cardinal, 11.73; 2, Tyke Hullinger, Central Decatur, 11.78; 11, Peyton Tshilumba, M-P, 12.79; 14, Cobi Hershberger, M-P, 12.90.

200: 1, Anthony Isley, Mediapolis, 22.81; 2, Isaac Lett, Cardinal, 23.12; 7, Cleveland Hoffman, M-P, 25.29; 14, Irman Ganibegovic, M-P, 26.53.

400: 1, Kadin Salek, Mediapolis, 51.87; 2, Anthony Duncan, Van Buren, 52.21; 5, Jackson Gehman, M-P, 54.37; 11, Chander Hershberger, M-P, 59.30.

800: 1, Ethan Stalzer, Albia, 2:03.58; 2, Vincent Carcamo, Central Decatur, 2:03.93; 6, Blake Creed, M-P, 2:08.78; 8, Robert Nagy, M-P, 2:10.80.

1600: 1, Thaddeus Shetler, M-P, 4:40.13; 2, Solomon Zaugg, Mediapolis, 4;43.38; 3, Jayse Yoder, M-P, 4:45.03.

3200: 1, Thaddeus Shetler, M-P, 10:54.50; 2, Emmett Swartzentruber, M-P, 11:05.

110-HURDLES: 1, Jack Scrivner, Central Decatur, 15.68; 2, Cain Brown, M-P, 15.82.

400- HURDLES: 1, Anthony Duncan, Van Buren, 56.90; 2, CJ Ratliff, Albia, 57.66; 5, Kaden Meader, M-P, 1:02.39; 11, Landry Gingerich, M-P, 1:05.63.

100 WHEELCHAIR: 1, Jayden Stafford, M-P, 20.38.

200 WC: 1, Jayden Stafford, M-P, 36.69.

400 WC: 1, Jayden Stafford, M-P, 1:12.64.

4X100: 1, Central Decatur, 45.01; 2, Mid-Prairie (Will Cavanagh, Carter Harmsen, Tyler Helmuth, Kaden Meader), 45.20.

4X200: Central Decatur, 1:32.28; 2, Mid-Prairie (Cavanagh, Harmsen, Helmuth, Meader), 1:35.46.

4X400: 1, Mediapolis, 3:28.68; 2, Albia, 3:29.25; 7, Mid-Prairie (Jackson Gehman, Robert Nagy, Blake Creed, Cleveland Hoffman), 3:48.16.

4X800: 1, Mediapolis, 8:28.72; 2, Central Decatur, 8:33.05; 4, Mid-Prairie (Jayse Yoder, Nagy, Creed, Thaddeus Shetler), 8:36.43.

SPRINT MED: 1, Mediapolis, 1:35.40; 2, Mid-Prairie (Helmuth, Gehman, Harmsen, Cavanagh), 1:37.51.

DISTANCE MED: 1, Mediapolis, 3:39.24; 2, Davis County, 3:39.65; 3, Mid-Prairie (Brown, Harmsen, Cavanagh, Shetler) 3;41.46.

SHUTTLE HURDLE: 1, Central Decatur, 1:02.01; 2, Mid-Prairie (Justice Jones, Meader, Braden Hartley, Brown), 1:06.00.

HIGH JUMP: 1, Cain Brown, M-P, 6-5; 2, Tyler Stoltz, Van Buren, 6-1; 5, Shawn Dodds, M-P, 5-8.

LONG JUMP: 1, Jack Scrivner, Central Decatur, 21-02.5; 2, Jesse Cornelison, EBF, 20-10.25; 8, Jackson Gehman, M-P, 19-2.

SHOT PUT: 1, Spencer Kessel, Louisa-Musc, 55-07.5; 2, Alec Rachford, Cardinal, 45-01.5; 6, Burke Berry, 41-8.25; 15, Jackson Zahradnek, M-P, 37-6.

DISCUS: 1, Spencer Kessel, Louisa-Musc, 163-5; 2, Drew Chance, Albia, 142-8; 4, Shawn Dodds, M-P, 130-5; 10, Jackson Zahradnek, M-P, 106-4.