Lone Tree boys compete at the Ruritan Relays

By TJ Rhodes
Posted 3/29/23

It is an hour bus ride from Lone Tree to Packwood, Iowa, the home of the Pekin Panthers and where the Ruritan Relays were held. With events starting at 4 P.M., Lone Tree needed to be sharp. …

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Lone Tree boys compete at the Ruritan Relays

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It is an hour bus ride from Lone Tree to Packwood, Iowa, the home of the Pekin Panthers and where the Ruritan Relays were held. With events starting at 4 P.M., Lone Tree needed to be sharp. Unfortunately, head coach, Kale Render, believes the team was not sharp after this bus ride, with performance times dipping from their previous meet with an overall “sluggish” start. Lone Tree’s legs did eventually warm up for the later events, as the temps began to drop. It still wasn’t enough to catch up in the overall ranking as Lone Tree got 8th place out of ten schools.

“I think we started a little slow. I thought we were a little sluggish in our first few events, which kind of happens when you have such a long bus ride,” Render said.

Lone Tree participated in almost every event held and did spend time improving from their previous meet in other ways.

“I think our 4x100 and 4x200 got a lot better today. I think our handoffs were way better than they were last week,” Render said. “We did a lot of good things, and we got a couple of [personal records] and should hopefully keep improving throughout each week.”

In the 4x100, Lone Tree had a 47.06 time with junior, Harry Brenneman, senior, Drew Gauley, junior, Ethan Bockelman, and freshman, Emmett Burke, competing.

In the 4x200, Lone Tree’s time was 1:38.5, with freshman Domonic Garcia, joining Gauley, Bockelman and Burke.

Because of some seniors missing out on the events, some underclassmen had to step up at the Ruritan Relays.

“Our younger guys are doing an awesome job competing. I’m really happy with them. They’re feeding off of our senior leadership that we have,” Render said. I think our seniors are doing a good job like, helping those kids keep focused and just competing every single time. It’s not so much about where they finished but making their times better throughout the year.”

Two athletes that stood out to Render were freshman Reece Holbrook, and Brenneman. For both, it was stepping up for the shuttle hurdles. Brenneman hadn’t done the shuttle hurdles for two years, “breaking off the cobwebs,” and competing well.

In the shuttle relay, Render viewed Gauley as the anchor. Their total time in the competition was 1:14.49. Joining Gauley, Brenneman, and Holbrook was senior Ethan Willoz, who led off in the competition.

The Lone Tree boys will have their next competition on Tuesday, Apr. 4, at WACO High School for the WACO Relays.