Spring Sports Head Down 'Home Stretch'

CONFERENCE TRACK, GOLF MEETS THIS WEEK

East Greene closes out is final spring season in the West Central Conference this week with golf and track meets.

The Hawk and Hawkette track teams head to Guthrie Center tomorrow, May 4, for the conference track meet and the EG golf teams tee off today at the conference golf meet in Woodward. The track teams will return to Guthrie Center on Friday, May 14, for girls and boys district track action.

The EG boys are looking to move up in the team standings at the conference track meet. Last year EG scored 8 points for ninth place. The Hawks have some very good showings in meets this year, with upper division finishes in their own Hawkette/Toyne Relays meet held in Jefferson and at the Wildcat Relays hosted by Glidden-Ralston in Carroll. EG has founded it a little tougher going however in larger meets.

During a busy five day-stretch from Friday, April 16, and ending Tuesday, April 20, the Hawks finished fourth of eight teams at the Glidden-Ralston meet; seventh among nine teams at Southeast-Webster Grand Relays in Burnside; and third of eight teams at their own Toyne Relays in Jefferson.

EG crowned two champions at the G-R meet with Wes Onken winning the discus (126-7) and the 4 x 200 relay of Tyler Gathercoal, Aaron Lyons, Tom Beger and Schyler Bardole taking first with a time of 1:41.43. Freshman Reed Ostrander was second in the long jump (18-4) and the 4 x 100 relay (Jessie Priest, Gathercoal, Beger, Bardole) was runner-up to Adair-Casey (46.59) at 48.18.

The 1600 meter medley relay (Ostrander, Lyons, Priest, Tyler Cooklin) finished third at 4:14.89 as did the shuttle hurdle relay (Gathercoal, Beger, Cooklin, Ben Most) in 1:11.66 and Zach Dearborn in the high jump (5-6). EG secured fourth-place finishes in 4 x 800 meter relay, 100 meter dash (Bardole), shot put (Bardole) and 4 x 400 relay. Most rounded out the scoring with sixth in the 110 meter high hurdles (18.97).

TEAM SCORING @ GR: Audubon 143, Adair-Casey 108.5, Glidden-Ralston 81, EAST GREENE 74, Ar-We-Va 71, Coon Rapids-Bayard 50, CAM (Anita) 14.5, Aurelia 12.

Points and high finishes were harder to come by at Burnside the following Monday. The meet included three teams from the Twins Lakes Conference and several tough north central Iowa teams. Bardole brought home second in the shot put with a toss of 42-1 to lead the Hawks. The 4 x 100 relay (47.74) finished third, just being edged out by Southern Cal (46.18) and Rockwell City-Lytton (47.05). Those three teams went head-to-head in the 4 x 200 relay along with Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg). The same foursome as in the 4 x 100 (Priest, Lyons, Beger, Bardole) posted a very solid time of 1:39.85 in a tough field for fourth place. Southern Cal again came out on top at 1:36.43, just ahead of Northeast Hamilton (1:36.66) and Rockwell City-Lytton (1:37.46), but EG finished well ahead of conference rival Woodward-Granger (1:43.10).

EG coach Dean Lyons told the Jefferson Herald that the Hawks are putting particular emphasis on shaving times off the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays and seeing improvement from Priest in the 400 meter dash.

EG fared well in the field events overall at SWG as Wes Onken (119-4) and Tory Beger (109-0) finished fourth and sixth in the discus, Reed Ostrander was fourth in the long jump (17-10), and Zach Dearborn took sixth in the high jump (5-8).
The Hawks also picked up points from sixth-place finishes in the sprint medley and 4 x 400 relays, Most in the 110 meter high hurdles and Bardole in the 100 meter dash.

TEAM SCORING @ SWG: Northeast Hamilton 130, Rockwell City-Lytton 110, Southern Cal 88, Woodward-Granger 81, CWL 45, Southeast Webster-Grand 38, EG 33, Glidden-Ralston 22, Coon Rapids-Bayard 7.

The spotlight shone brightly on the Hawks as they hosted their own meet the following night on the all-weather track in Jefferson. EG scored 82 points to take third, trailing only meet winner Jefferson-Scranton JV, 127.5, and Des Moines Christian, 121. As Jefferson-Scranton is a 3A school in track, EG technically finished as runner-up among the seven same-size schools competing at the Toyne Relays. All of the other schools in the meet were 1A, with the exception of Ogden, a 2A school. And the J-S competitors were formidable as the varsity Rams have won big meets this season against 3A competitors at Creston, Prairie Valley (Gowrie) and Jefferson, and finished second at Winterset, so the level of JV competition in a track squad of that size (50 members) is pretty solid.

EG scored points in all the field event and all the relays, with the 4 x 100 meter team taking first with a time of 47.99. Priest took second in the 400 meters (53.95) and the 4 x 200 meter unit (1:40.47) came in second to West Central foe DMC. The Hawks scored somewhat of a runner-up sweep in the field events, taking second in three of the four events. Finishing second were Bardole (41-9.5) in the shotput, Onken (126-2) in the discus, and Ostrander (18-9) in the long jump. Tory Beger was fifth in the discus (100-1) and Zach Hiller’s sixth in the shot put (34-9).

The shuttle hurdle relay (1:11.1) came in third with the distance medley (4:14.66), 4 x 800 (11:22.08) and 4 x 400 (4:26.21) relays each placing fourth. Bardole was fourth in 100 meter dash (11.9) and Most was sixth in the 110 meter high hurdles (19.15).

Paton-Churdan had good showings from Taylor King and Brandon Tilley. King won the 3,200 meter run (11:18.45) and was runner-up in the 1,600 meter run (5:16.7). Tilley finished fourth in the 800 meter run (2:24.14).

TEAM SCORING @ EG: Jefferson-Scranton JV 127.5, Des Moines Christian 121, EAST GREENE 82, Ogden 78.5, Glidden-Ralston 65, Coon Rapids-Bayard 32, Grandview Park Baptist (Des Moines) 24, Paton-Churdan 22.

The Hawk track team faced its toughest competition of the season last Tuesday in Audubon, tying for 12th place in very tough 13-team field. Griswold won the meet with 111 points followed by IKM-Manning at 101, Treynor 80.5, Tri-Center 51, Audubon 47.5, Guthrie Center 37, Adair-Casey 32, West Central Valley 25, Villisca 23.5, Walnut 22, Coon Rapids-Bayard 9.5, East Greene 9, CAM (Anita) 9.

It was the first meet of the season where EG placed behind conference rival Coon Rapids-Bayard, having finished ahead of the Crusaders in all three of its recent meets.

GIRLS TRACK: Heidi Kiner got a big win for the girls team in the Hawkette/Toyne Relays, breaking the tape in 18:31 to claim first in the 100 meter hurdles. Teammate Jessi Beaman was fourth in 19.83 in the same event. Kiner and Beaman teamed up with Tia Lowe and Bobbie Halterman to finish fourth (2:23.94) in the sprint medley relay. The 4 x 100 meter relay (Kiner, Molly Neese, Lowe, Beaman) took fourth (1:03.05) and Haltermann was fourth in the 1,500 meter run (6:04.1), two spots ahead of Stephanie Thompson of Paton-Churdan (7:22.62). Lowe rounded out the EG scoring with a sixth-place finish in the 400 meter dash (1:17.64).

EG finished fourth of six teams with 37 points, its best showing of the year.

PC’s sprint medley relay team of Abby Koch, Makayla Minnehan, Taryn Jewett and Jaclyn Baldwin finished fifth (2:27.09) just behind EG. Baldwin took fifth in the 100 meter dash (13.75) and Minnehan was sixth in the 100 meter hurdles (21.61) to round out the PC scoring.

TEAM SCORING @ EG: Des Moines Christian 186, Ogden 166, Glidden-Ralston 83, EAST GREENE 37, Coon Rapids-Bayard 32, Paton-Churdan 14.

East Greene and conference foe Coon Rapids-Bayard have been going head-to-head this season with EG placing ahead of CRB in its own meet at Jefferson and at GR’s Wildcat Relays in Jefferson, but CRB came out ahead of the Hawkettes at SWG and an earlier season meet at Prairie Valley (Gowrie). EG’s season got off to a slow start with just 2 points scored at Gowrie, placing behind PC at 7 and CRB at 6. Halterman scored EG’s only points with fifth place in 3,000 meter run.

The Hawkettes have just a half-dozen team members and are limited to just five or six events per meet, so any points scored in the team standings are well earned. EG fared very well in the GR meet with 23 points to 12 for CRB, keeping the Hawkettes out of last place. Halterman was second in the 3,200 (13.07.4) and third in the 1,500 (6:04.53). The distance medley relay placed fourth, as did Lowe in the 400 hurdles. Kiner was sixth in the 100 hurdles.

TEAM SCORING @ GR: Audubon 185, Ar-We-Va 91, Adair-Casey and Glidden-Ralston 73, Aurelia 56, CAM (Anita) 43, EAST GREENE 23, Coon Rapids-Bayard 12.

The situation was reversed at Burnside with CRB scoring 19 points, ahead of CWL (Corwith) with 16 and EG in last place with 10. EG got points from Halterman finishing third in the 3,000, and sixth place finishes from Kiner in the 100 hurdles and the sprint medley relay.

TEAM SCORING @ SWG: Woodward-Granger 217, Southern Cal (Lake City) 138, Southeast Webster-Grand 62, Rockwell City-Lytton 56, Glidden-Ralston 45, Coon Rapids-Bayard 19, CWL (Corwith) 16, EAST GREENE 10.

Beyond tomorrow’s conference meet, the Hawks and Hawkettes will be looking for peak performances at the district meet on May 14. The top two finishers in each event of the boys district meet advance on to the 1A state track meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines on May 22. In girls 1A track, each event winner of 12 regional meets advances to the state meet at Drake along with the next 12 best performances from among all 12 regionals. The girls state meet is run in conjunction with the boys meet in all four classes—1A, 2A, 3A and 4A.

BOYS GOLF: The Hawk golfers will be looking to improve on last year’s conference meet where they finished eighth among the 10 league teams, edging out Guthrie Center and West Central Valley (Stuart) and placing just behind conference newcomer Madrid.

EG has already notched a win over the Tigers, finishing second in a triangular on its home course at Lakeside Golf Course near Spring Lake. Woodward-Granger took first with 187, ahead of EG at 203 and Madrid’s 207. Josh Neese and Jessie Priest paced the Hawks with rounds of 48 followed by Zach Beyerink, 51, and Zach Hiller, 56.

The Hawks lost dual matches to Southeast Webster-Grand (178-194), Van Meter (187-228) and Guthrie Center (188-236). Josh Neese tied for medalist honors against Guthrie Center’s Patrick Ahrens and Zach Cain at 45 for the nine-hole round at Guthrie Center Golf Club.

Several of the Hawks’ top golfers are also on the track team, so the Hawks were a bit short-handed in a four-team tourney hosted by Southeast Webster-Grand at Dayton on April 20, the same night of the Toyne Relays. Prairie Valley won the meet with a 164 followed by SWG 174, Ogden 185, and EG 257. Neese paced the Hawks with a 52, followed by Zach Beyerink 54, Jacob Fester 60, and Brice Smith 90.

GIRLS GOLF: East Greene has just four members on the girls golf team and all but one are newcomers. It takes four golfers to combine for a team score and in some contests not all the Hawkette golfers are available. EG hosted Woodward-Granger and Madrid in a triangular on its home course, The Hill Golf Course at Grand Junction, on April 5 to open the season . WG won with a 219 followed by Madrid, 242, and EG, 329. Brandi Burrow and Kim Hatfield each shot 74 to lead EG. Leah Perry shot 78 and Tessa Lorentzen 103.

EG faced Van Meter on April 13 at River Valley Golf Course at Adel. The Bulldogs won the dual, 244-387. Hatfield led EG with 79, followed by Perry 88, and Lorentzen and Burrow both at 90.

EG took on SWG in dual at the Hill on April 14 with the Eaglettes shooting a 194, and two Hawkettes taking the course for EG. Perry shot 71 and Lorenzen 89. Hatfield and Lorenzen were on hand when EG hosted CRB on April 19 at the Hill. Hatfield shot a 68 and Lorentzen 114. CRB shot a 195.

The full Hawkette squad traveled to Guthrie Center on April 16, falling to the Tigerettes, 227 to 346.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: Coon Rapids-Bayard has dominated both boys and girls conference golf the last few years but the Crusader boys team will face a challenge this year from Panorama. CRB won both boys and girls conference titles last year and both squads made it through section and district play to advance to the state golf tournament.

Panorama has racked up a 23-4 record so far this year (based on wins in dual and triangular meets and overall tournament finishes) and is ranked 12th in Class 2A by the Iowa Golf Coaches Association. Panorama got the best of CRB in a head-to-head competition, 179 to 200, on Friday at Lake Panorama National. The Panthers also had a sizable advantage over CRB in the 12-team Panorama Invitational on April 24. Panorama took third with 156 while the Crusaders were eighth at 176.

CRB and Panorama have dominated the conference meet with the Crusaders winning eight championships since 1993 and Panorama winning five, all since 2000.

Just as CRB could be upended in golf today, the same fate could await Panorama in track tomorrow. The Panthers have breezed to the title the last three years, adding to the previous 14 West Central Conference crowns the school has won since it was formed in 1990. Panorama faced a challenge from Madrid in several meets last year, but the Panthers prevailed at the conference meet in Guthrie Center. Madrid is as strong this year as the team that won the state 1A title last year, if not better. The Tigers have taken team titles at Southern Cal and Colo-Nesco. When the Tigers and Panthers went up against each other April 20 at the Ballard Classic Relays in Huxley, Madrid came away with the Class B team championship with 148 points while Panorama was fourth in Class B with 60. The same scenario prevailed last Tuesday at the Bengal Relays in Gilbert with Madrid taking the crown among eight teams with 167 points and Panorama finishing fourth with 71.5.

EG will look to move up from last year’s ninth-place finish, two points behind Glidden-Ralston, since departed from the West Central, and five ahead of West Central Valley. GR has been replaced by Woodward-Granger, a solid track program. CRB, however, had one of its best track teams in years and scored 36 points for sixth place. The Hawks have been getting the edge over the Crusaders in most meets, so hopefully EG can keep that advantage and stay head of WCV while moving ahead of CRB in the standings.

Madrid should take the league crown while Panorama and Guthrie Center battle for second. What’s not clear is how the middle of the pack will shake out and how strong Van Meter and Earlham are this year. DMC had a 40-point advantage over EG at the Toyne Relays so it doesn’t look like the Hawks could leapfrog over the Lions. At the Ballard meet, Earlham was just 14 points behind Panorama with WG and WCV not that far behind. Comparatively, Van Meter scored 47 points at the Gilbert meet to finish sixth of eight teams, but in strong field.

Last year, EG scored in just three events and no higher than fourth in any of them. Bardole and Onken are both back in their field events, and the Hawks’ 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays are looking solid. Priest is strong in the 400 and if some of the other events that the Hawks placed in can bring in some fifth or sixth places and the strong events can score close to the top, EG can certainly improve on last year’s showing.

The Hawks will need to do much better than they did among the 13-team meet last week in Audubon, where WCV was well ahead of them in the points tally and CRB was one-half point better, leaving the Hawks stranded at 9 points total, tying them with CAM for the bottom.

The EG girls will be looking to get on the board as they were blanked at last year’s conference meet. Hopefully, that can get ahead of CRB, which scored just 3 points last year to take ninth. The hurdlers and Halterman in the distance events look to the best bets to score points.

The same scenario holds true in girls golf as EG will be hoping to field a full team and get on the team leaderboard. CRB looks to maintain its dominant position in the West Central. Panorama is a solid team, but not much of a threat as CRB beat them soundly in dual match earlier this season. Panorama has never won a West Central girls golf title.

Panorama’s girls team will most likely be unchallenged to snare an unprecedented 12th consecutive West Central track championship and 15th overall. Woodward-Granger looked to offer some solid completion to Panorama’s win streak, trailing the Lady Panthers by just a few points in some key meets but as the season moved along, Panorama returned to form and posted a big 42 point advantage over runner-up WG in winning the Tigerette Relays at Guthrie Center. The Lady Panthers have also won meets at Carroll and Perry and its own Kim Janvrin Invitational in Panora, while finishing second at the Adel-DeSoto-Minburn and Dallas Center-Grimes meets.

This year’s boys conference golf meet will be interesting as last year Glidden-Ralston nailed down the runner-up spot, just 20 strokes behind CRB. With GR now in the Rolling Hills Conference, it will be interesting to see how new member Woodward-Granger performs. WG does have a 16-stroke advantage over EG from the triangular meet that opened the season, but that was early so it will be interesting to see if EG can close the gap. Neese has greatly improved from the beginning of the season. A senior, he will be looking to close out his golf career at EG with a good showing. Priest is also a senior and a good outing from him could help move the Hawks up in the team standings. The Hawks have a good sized squad this year so they can send out their top six golfers on the course at Woodward with the best four counting in the team score.

Guthrie looks improved over last year’s ninth place showing, so EG will most likely fall behind them, especially since the Tigers took the Hawks to task in their head-to-head matchup. EG will need to keep the edge it had over Madrid in their triangular at Lakeside earlier this year. Van Meter and Des Moines Christian fielded strong teams last year, placing fourth and fifth in the conference and then placing second and third in the sectional meet at Pleasantville, which advanced them on to the district meet. VM had a 40-stroke advantage over EG in their dual meet, so they look to be strong again this year. Not clear is how strong DMC is this year, or Earlham for that matter, and if WCV is improved enough to move up from last place.

Next year the Hawks and Hawkettes will move to the Rolling Hills and resume conference competition with old rivals Glidden-Ralston and Paton-Churdan.