Ostrander, Wilkens Place at State Track

TAKE 7th IN LONG JUMP, 8th IN HIGH JUMP

East Greene had its best showing in many years at the Iowa High School State Track Meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, May 19-21, with Reed Ostrander placing seventh in the long jump and Chelsi Wilkens tying for eighth in the high jump.

Ostrander’s leap of 20’8” gave East Greene 2 points in the Class 1A team standings—the first time in many years that EG has scored at state. Nick Efkamp of Madrid won the event with a new state record of 23’2.5”. Efkamp won four events to lead Madrid to its third straight 1A championship and fifth overall since 2002.

East Greene tied for 49th place with Iowa Christian/Ankeny Christian, Hinton and Clay Central-Everly in the team standings.

Wilkens, a freshman, tied for eighth among 24 state finalists in the high jump with a 4’10” effort, giving the Hawkettes one-half point scoring in the team standings—the first points at state for EG in more than a decade.

Wilkens qualified for state at the district meet on Thursday, May 13, in Manson with a jump of 4’10”—good for second place behind Maddie Bardole of Woodward-Granger, who won with a 5’1” effort. Bardole took fourth at state with a 5’2” jump to pace Woodward-Granger to a seventh place finish in the team standings.

Ostrander, a sophomore, qualified for state at the district at Manson with a runner-up finish to Efkamp of Madrid. Efkamp, an Iowa State recruit, won with a 21’11 ¾” jump with Ostrander second at 20’ 10 ½”.

It was a very tough district with not just the defending two-time state champs from Madrid to contend with, but the host team from Manson-Northwest Webster was coming off a fifth-place finish from last year’s state meet.

Madrid repeated as district champions with 185 points with MNW in second with 142. MNW won the girls district title with 145.33 points, edging out Woodward-Granger with 140.

At the state meet, Manson-Northwest Webster moved up to the runner-up spot, scoring 53 points to Madrid’s state championship-winning 74 points. The third-place team, West Harrison (Mondamin), was nearly 20 points behind M-NW with 34—indicating how dominating the two teams from the Manson district were in the boys competition.

The Manson-Northwest Webster girls tied Corning for fifth place with 29 points at the state meet, just ahead of Woodward-Granger at 25.5.

WILKENS PLACES IN FOUR EVENTS

Wilkens paced the East Greene girls—a team comprised of just one senior and four freshmen—
to a 10th place finish among 12 teams with 24.33 points at the district meet on May 12. The EG boys finished tied for 7th among the same 12 teams with 30 points. It was the best finish for each of the boys and girls teams in many years.

Wilkens was third in the 100 meters, 14.16, and third in the 100 meter hurdles, 17.62. She anchored EG to a fifth place in the shuttle hurdle relay, 1:17.92. Senior Tia Lowe was the leadoff runner with Emily Jacobsen and Brooke Popp handling the second and third legs. Popp rounded out the scoring tying for eighth place in the high jump, 4’4”, giving EG 1/3 of a point.

Also competing were Shelby Cooklin, 15th in the shot put, 23’4” and Lowe in the 200 meter dash, 20.28 seconds, 13th place.

In the boys competition, senior Schyler Bardole closed out a successful track and EG sports career with a third-place finish in the 100 meter dash, 12.24 seconds. Madrid’s Efkamp won the district 100 meter crown, 11.52, with Blake Jesse of Newell-Fonda in second, 12.09. Efkamp went on to win the 100 at the state meet, 11.41, after running in 11.28 in the preliminaries.

Wes Onken was third in the discus, 124’8 ½”, and Harrison Johnston was eighth in the 400 meter dash, 58.94 seconds.

East Greene had a good showing in the relay events: distance medley relay (Bardole, Aaron Lyons, Ostrander, Broc Timm), fifth, 4:19.87; 4 x 100 meter relay (Gabe Bardole, Alex Gordon, Wyatt Beaman, Bret Kersey), seventh, 53.66; 4 x 400 meter relay (Johnston, T.J. Lint, Zack Dearborn, Zack Fouch), seventh, 4:10.43; and 4 x 200 meter relay (Ostrander, Lyons, Kersey and Schyler Bardole), eighth, 1:40.66.

Also participating at the district but not finishing in the top eight to score team points were Schyler Bardole, high jump, 16’4”, 13th; Tory Beger, discus, 98’5 ¾”, 15th; Joe Pena, shotput, 25’6 ¾”, 18th; Fouch, 200 meter dash, 28.41, 19th; Beger, 200 meter dash, 28.65, 20th; Gabe Bardole, 100 meter dash, 14.19, 21st; and Johnston and Dearborn in the high jump.

Paton-Churdan was also at the Manson district but had no state qualifiers. Taylor King finished fourth in the 1600 meter run, 5:00.96, and fourth in the 800 meter run, 2:20.87 to give PC 10 points in the team scoring.

BOYS TEAM STANDINGS AT MANSON: Madrid 185, Manson-Northwest Webster 142, Pocahontas Area/Pomeroy-Palmer 82, Woodward-Granger 73, Newell-Fonda 50, Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg) 50, EAST GREENE 30, Glidden-Ralston 30, Coon Rapids-Bayard 26, St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) 12, Paton-Churdan 10, Southeast Webster-Grand 1.

Paton-Churdan girls finished 12th with 9 points. Jaclyn Baldwin was fifth in both the 200 meter dash and 400 meter dash, and Stephanie Thompson was eighth in the 3,200 run.

GIRLS TEAM STANDINGS AT MANSON: Manson-Northwest Webster 145.33, Woodward-Granger 140, Madrid 114, Pocahontas Area/Pomeroy-Palmer 68, Southeast Webster-Grand 60, Newell-Fonda 47.5, Glidden-Ralston 38.33, Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg) 33.5, St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) 30, EAST GREENE 24.33, Coon Rapids-Bayard 21, and Paton-Churdan 9.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: This is not only the best showing at state in many years for both the EG girls and boys track teams, but it is probably the best showing ever for underclassmen in such intense competition. Ostrander, a sophomore, and Wilkens, just a freshmen, are off to impressive starts as East Greene athletes as their track success is just one of many accomplishments this school year.

Here’s a hats off to a great job by all the EG tracksters and track coaches for a terrific job this season!