by Taylor Burns

It’s been three years since the boys’ track team shined winning Districts. In the year of 2011, then-junior Jordan Van Roekel placed first in the class 2A 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.32.
It’s not Districts yet, but this year, the boys haven’t finished in last place yet, whereas last year they had multiple times. On April 14, the boys made the short journey to Pella Christian, along with seven other teams to compete in the 2015 Pella Christian Invitational. The boys are only getting better. They placed third with 97 points, losing to Lynnville-Sully by 17 points and to Pella by 58 points.
Head Coach Collin Harrison said, “Obviously, our ultimate goal by the end of the year is to send some people to the State meet, but more importantly our goal is really to simply be able to say we imporved and made progress every day and every meet.
The Mustangs mostly finished in the top ten in field events. Senior Colton Warrick threw a 42-10, which got him fifth place in shot put. Senior Skyler Koder earned the first-place spot in high jump with a jump of 6-03. Senior Ricky Reeve jumped the long jump at 18-09, with junior Tyler Dredge right behind him at 18-07.
PCM started off the running events on top, as the shuttle hurdle team, consisting of seniors Reeve, Koder and Luke Pendory and junior Austin Sneller. They won with a time of 1:04.40. Freshman Noah Anderson placed third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.55. Sophomore Chase Kueker participated in the 400-meter hurdles, coming off the track with a time of 1:06.58 in fourth place. Sophomore Chris Ellens took home eighth place in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:37.93. To finish off the night, the 400-meter relay team, with senior Maverick McAtee, Dredge and freshmen Brady North and Anderson, took finished with a 3:47.06 in second place.