By Coach Mark Tegeler
Belle Plaine boys’ track team ended the season on a very positive note at the state track meet this season. As a team we ended up placing third overall. Madrid ran away with the team title scoring 59.50 points, Belmond Klemme scored 36 to finish second, Belle Plaine scored 35 to finish third and Lisbon scored 34 points finishing fourth.
Going into the state meet I set our team points goal at 34, so we certainly were spot on as to what I expected out of our guys. We ran a very good meet, we weren’t perfect but we were awfully close. When your chance at a state title is depending primarily on hurdling and sprinting relay events you know that you are going to have a nerve-racking weekend. It was well worth it however!
We broke the state meet record in the Shuttle Hurdle relay, a relay that we really wanted to win going into the state meet. We had held the fastest time in the event for most the season so we knew we would have a target on our back. We got through the pre-lims with the best time and broke the meet record. We came back in the finals on Saturday and broke that record running a 58:79. It was a time we needed since AHST Avoca broke our record in the finals.
Our 4×200 relay placed second breaking the school record in the process. We ran a 1:32.06 with a shaky last hand-off, it slowed us down a little, but most likely didn’t cost us the title. Northwood Kennsett had been running 1:31 flat for most of the season so it was going to be real tough to catch them. Going in we figured second place was the worst we should do.
Our 4×100 relay placed third and this really probably was a little disappointment just because the guys ran it so well. We just didn’t nail our hand-offs like we needed to. We had a chance to beat Madrid in the finals and just came up short. Our guys were probably a little more pumped up than normal and that probably threw our steps off a little bit and that can be huge in the 4×100. The wind was blowing so hard by then that we really thought we should just keep them close to normal to make sure that we didn’t get outside the exchange zone and play it safe and see if any other relays made the mistakes.
Both Keegan DeMeulenaere and Seivon Steward did a nice job in the finals of the 110 High Hurdles. Going in both were shooting to win the event and we went 3-4. Keegan didn’t have one of his best blocks, but he did an excellent job of catching up to the main field to grab fourth. Keegan went into the finals with the fastest pre-lim so he was a little disappointed. Seivon had a great block but clipped a few hurdles and that really slowed him up but just his raw speed was able to keep him in the top three.
Our events that did not score at the state meet did a real nice job as well. Cooper Northrop moved up a couple of spots in the Long Jump placing 17th. It wasn’t Cooper’s best performance of the year, but considering it was his first trip to the state meet we thought he handled it very well. Chris Janss also competed in the Long Jump and was unable to improve his place or distance. Chris just looked real tight and couldn’t get his steps down.
Our 4×400 relay ran our best time of the year, so we were real happy with their performance. We went in as the 24th ranked 4×400 relay and we finished 16th so that was a major improvement. Brian Crow also failed to get to the finals in both the 100m dash and 200m dash. Brian won his heat in the 100m dash, which was the event we really thought we could advance to the finals in. Unfortunately Brian finished 10th overall and failed to advance. It was however the third best time that Brian had ran all year so he put out an awfully good performance. The 200m dash we knew would be tough to get through and it was. Brian moved up a couple of spots and ran his best 200 time of his career, so that was certainly good to see. Brian had really been battling some knee and hip issues late in the season so he wasn’t at 100 percent. He wasn’t practicing much and you could tell he just wasn’t 100 percent, but Brain battled really well we thought and gave himself and the team a chance to score more points.
It was a great season that concluded on a very positive note. Conference champs for the second straight year and four out of the last five, district champs, not sure when Belle Plaine boys track has done that last and a top three showing at the state meet and again not sure when Belle Plaine boys track scored that high.
This was a great way for our seniors to go out, they have worked so hard over the past four years and we have had our share of disappointments at the state meet so I think they’ll look back on this weekend and be very pleased with the outcome.
