Hornets open outdoor season in Medford

The sun was shining and temperatures pushed towards 80 degrees for the Hornets’ first outdoor meet of the season last Thursday afternoon. The Colby track and field team made the trip north to Medford to compete against eight other programs.

The girls team grabbed fifth place with an overall score of 85 points and the boys team placed sixth with 45 points while not fielding any relay teams that could have potentially bolstered their scores. The Loyal girls team took first with 145 points and Stratford claimed first in the boys competition with 146 points.

Hayden Willner, Willow Oehmichen and Daelyn Rieck all took home first place finishes for the Hornets at Thursday’s meet.

Willner carried over her success in the hurdles from the indoor season, winning both the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles. The senior posted times of 17.18 seconds and 50.16 seconds in the two events respectively. She also took third in the long jump with a distance of 15 feet, five-andthree- quarters inches and sixth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 28.79 seconds.

Meanwhile, Oehmichen topped 11 feet in the pole vault for the first time this season. In her third win of 2023 in the event, Oehmichen put a full foot between herself and her next closest competitor, Jaylin Machon of Medford, who had a final height of 10 feet.

Discus is the one field event athletes have not had the chance to compete in yet this year, as there is no realistic way to hold it indoors. That didn’t seem to bother Rieck, as the freshman claimed first place in the throwing event on Thursday. In her high school discus debut, Rieck recorded a distance of 86 feet, four inches, beating out the second furthest throw of 82 feet from Alonna Haines of Athens. Rieck also took third in the shot put with a throw of 32 feet, three inches.

MaKenna Herrmann had the girls’ sole second place performance. She came in behind only Medford’s Lindsay Kahn in the 1600-meter run, an event where the Hornets had four point-scoring finishers. Herrmann led that pack with a time of 6:16.54 and Casey Reynolds, Annamarie Schmitt and Reagan Schraufnagel took sixth, seventh and eighth with times of 6:36.88, 6:37.14 and 6:45.27 respectively.

Herrmann and Reynolds also scored in the 800-meter run. Herrmann placed third with a time of 2:43.87 and Reynolds took seventh with a time of 2:53.25.

Other top-eight finishes for the girls team at Medford included two fifth place races from Jazmyn Heeg in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, putting up times of 13.88 and 28.58 seconds in the two events, and an eighth place performance from Veronica Mateer in the 100-meter hurdles, where she put up a time of 20.49 seconds.

The boys team put in some solid times in the short distance events and had several scoring efforts in a number of field events.

Caden Healy and Nathaniel Robida provided the speed for the Hornets in the 100-meter dash. The two seniors finished second and fourth respectively, putting up times of 11.30 and 11.81 seconds in the event. Healy also took second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.37 seconds. Only Jett Schoenherr of Stratford posted faster times than the Colby senior in both races.

Caden Kleparski and Lucas Baumann added two more scoring performances for the Hornets in the longest sprint event. Kleparski put a time of 58.78 seconds and Baumann was right behind with a time of 59.01 seconds in the 400-meter dash, earning the pair fifth and sixth place.

Healy had the best finish for the Hornets in the field events, taking fifth place in the long jump. His longest jump of the evening was 19 feet.

Meanwhile, Seth Hopperdietzel, Erik Martinez and Ivan Haemer all recorded sixth place finishes on Thursday. Hopperdietzel put up a height of 11 feet in the pole vault, Martinez recorded a distance of 98 feet, four inches in his first discus competition of 2023 and Haemer had a long throw of 38 feet, five inches in the shot put. Martinez also scored in the shot put, taking eighth place with a long throw of 37 feet, 10 inches.

Distance runner Max Adams rounded out the top-eight finishers for the Hornets. The junior placed seventh in the 1600-meter run, posting a time of 5:14.37.

The Colby teams will have over a week off before their next meet, which will be held in Stanley-Boyd next Friday, April 21. Field events are scheduled to start at 4:15 p.m.