Conference is one of the biggest nights of the year in track. Both the boys’ and girls’ track teams traveled to Baxter for the Heart of Iowa Conference on Tuesday, May 2. Gilbert took home the conference champion title in both competitions. Both PCM teams finished fourth. The girls finished with 96 points and the boys with 81.
Girls
“We saw quite a few events make significant improvements tonight including three of our relays that continue to be competitive in the 2A field,” Head Coach Bridget Martin said. “The girls went out and competed in a very tough track and field conference.”
Three events left the stadium as conference champions. First, the shuttle hurdle team of sophomore Megan Cowman, freshman Lexi Kuecker, sophomore Morgan Uhlenhopp and senior Jayci Vos crossed the finish line at 1:08.98, a season best time. Senior Rachel Stafford, sophomore Paytan Schut, freshman Sierra Foster and Vos made up the 4×400 team. They finished with a season best time of 4:11.63. Vos had the last gold performance of the night in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:09.24.
Schut, freshman Sayde White, sophomore Sloan Hjortshoj and Stafford were part of another season best performance in the 4×800. They crossed in second with a time of 10:13.20. Junior Ashley Miller had the other second place finish in the 100 meter dash, crossing at 13.41 seconds.
Stafford’s final top three finish of the night was in the 800 meter run; she finished in third with a season best time of 2:26.53. Sophomore Maddie Samson placed third in the discus with a toss of 105 feet, 7.5 inches. The distance medley team of Miller, Uhlenhopp, freshman Kate McCarthy and Vos finished in third with a time of 4:29.84.
“Our goal was to take care of the little things tonight, and for the most part, we got that done. We had some strong performances by a couple of our seniors tonight. That is always fun to see them perform well at their senior conference meet after putting in four years of hard work. They were tremendous leaders for us this evening,” Martin said. “As we prepare for the final meets of the season, our goal is to continue to see improvements and finish this season strong.”
Boys
The boys’ track team also had three conference champions by the end of the night. Senior Noah Clark took home a win in the discus with a throw of 142 feet, three inches. Junior Noah Anderson was part of two gold medal performances. He took home the gold in the 200 meter dash with a time of 22.99 seconds. Anderson would join sophomore Preston Van Wyk, junior Noah Henkenius and senior Chris Ellens for the distance medley. They finished with a season best time of 3:48.53.
Sophomore Cole Dustin was the Mustang’s only second place finish of the night in the 110 high hurdles. He crossed at 16.06 seconds.
The final two top three performances of the night were the 3200 meter run and the 4×200. Ellens finished in third in the 3200 with a time of 10:12.39. The 4×200 team of freshman Peyton Strover, Henkenius, Van Wyk and Anderson crossed in third at 1:35.27.
Tonight, Thursday, May 11 is the State qualifying meet at Eddyville. The top two finishes in each event are automatic qualifiers while the rest are based off of the eight next best times.
