Cyclones compete at Hawkeye-10 Championships
HCHS Girls
With the regular season winding down and the state qualifying meet on the horizon, the HCHS Cyclones girls track and field team earned a fifth place finish with 57.33 points among 11 teams at the Hawkeye-10 Championships in Shenandoah.
“We are grateful to be a part of a very competitive conference,” said Cyclone Head Coach Jenny Hamilton. “Our expectation for each individual on this team is a relentless pursuit of best effort, and we saw a great deal of that tonight.”
In field events, Kenzley Bruck took a seventh place finish in high jump with 4’ 8” with teammate Aubree Wegner coming in eighth with a jump of 4’6”. In shot put, Abby Curren threw for 27’ 4”, while Bristol Loudy threw for 25’ 7”.
“Abby PR’d in shot put and Kenzley PR’d in the high jump placing seventh,” Hamilton said.
On the track, Lindsey Sonderman won the 3000m run with a time of 10:21.81, beating out Lily Denton of St. Albert with 10:25.16. Sonderman took second in the 1500m run with a time of 4:50.85, finishing just a few second behind Denton who won with 4:47.93.
“Lindsey went home a Conference Champion in the 3000, beating her own school record by another three seconds,” Hamilton added. “She ran an incredibly intelligent race and looked smooth as silk doing it.”
Other Cyclone highlights included Abby Broeckelman taking third in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:11.16, just a few seconds behind the winner, Brecklyn Petersen of Glenwood, who won with 1:08.81.
Jaylee Schmitz turned in another strong performance in the 100m hurdle event, taking fourth with a time of 17.23. She also helped lead the shuttle hurdle relay team which featured her, Kami Stork, Ari Daniels, and Baleigh Sette to a fourth place finish with 1:15.31.
Hamilton highlighted a few runners who got personal records, including some relay teams.
“We ran season-best times with Kiersten [Andersen] in the 100, Ava [Freund] in the 800, Allie [Anderson] in the 1500, and Lauren [Wingert] in the 3000,” she said. “Our distance medley team PR’d as well as our 4x800 by a whopping six seconds, a huge highlight.”
The Cyclones will have a few days of rest before their state qualifying meet at Atlantic High School Thursday at 4 p.m. where they will be one of eight schools competing.
“We have so much positive momentum coming off of our last two meets and will continue this into our state qualifying meet next Thursday,” Hamilton said.
HCHS Boys
The HCHS Cyclones boys turned in a second place finish with 83 points, finishing behind Glenwood with 110.5 at the Hawkeye-10 Championships at Shenandoah, which would be their final tune-up before the state qualifying meet in Atlantic.
“I thought overall we did a lot of things really, really well,” said Cyclone Head Coach Sam Brummer. “We broke two conference records. I thought the good definitely outweighed the bad.”
In the 100m dash, Cade Sears broke the Hawkeye-10 record putting up a time with 10.69, coming within inches of the school record of 10.65. Matthew Sorfonden finished right behind him with 10.98 almost setting a new personal record with his PR sitting at 10.96.
Sears and Sorfonden also took the top two spots in the 200m dash with times of 21.93 and 22.57.
“To break the Hawkeye-10 record is a heck of an accomplishment,” Brummer said. “There’s been some really good sprinters over the years, and to say you’ve run the fastest 100 at the Hawkeye-10 meet is no short privilege to have. Him [Sears] and Sorfonden really gave us a boost in points and those two factored into the 4x100 team which broke the conference record as well, along with Hagen Sorensen and Brehden Eggerss, and then that same quartet ran in the 4x200 as well.”
During the 4x100 and 4x200 events, HCHS managed to beat Glenwood in both events with times of 42.82 and 1:29.26.
“It definitely speaks a lot to these kids,” Brummer added. “We’ve had to mix and match with different kids. Regardless of the four that are out there, we feel we can be pretty competitive with most of the teams around here.”
Other Cyclone highlights included multiple athletes taking a top 10 finish in the 400 meter dash. Landen Kaufman came in ninth with 56.03, while Sam Shields was right behind him in 10th with 56.39.
“Two kids that just work really hard,” Brummer said. “Sam is doing soccer and track this year, so he’s balancing a pretty busy spring as a freshman. Landen is one that’s really came on here in the last month or so in terms of dropping his times and wanting to compete more.”
In 400 hurdles, another two Cyclones finished in the top 10 as well with Bryce Van Baale taking fourth with 59.03 and Franz Reisz coming in seventh with 1:01.95.
“Franz is built a little bit different than Bryce in terms of physical stature,” Brummer said. “You see this 6’5”, 240 pound kid out there in lane five or six and kind of wonder how this is going to go or this is a punishment race. You see him [Reisz] hurdling and he’s got incredible hips and is light on his feet. I’m optimistic that they’ll both continue to lower their times and get a shot at that blue oval, because they definitely both deserve it.”
Eggerss managed to win long jump finishing in first place with a jump of 21-00.00 beating out Benjamin Gerken of Kuemper Catholic with 20-00.50.
“He had a bounce back performance,” Brummer said. “Nobody was jumping their PR’s that night, but we got the benefit of getting a good jump early with that 21-foot and then we kind of played the long jump game of if nobody jumps further than you, then we don’t necessarily have to jump.”
The Cyclones return to action for their state qualifying meet at Atlantic Thursday at 4 p.m. where they will be one of eight schools competing.
“It’s a newer track in terms of renovation status,” Brummer said. “Being there last week helped, so we have somewhat familiarity and just overall feel of how the track runs. With the field, we are in a loaded district, both boys and girls. For the boys side, ADM was a Drake Relays champion in the 4x200, and they won the 4x100, which we got sixth in, and they had two guys place in the top three in the open 100.”