Hornet boys take first in Gilman, girls third

The Colby boys track and field team picked up their first team win of the season in Gilman on Tuesday night while the girls’ added two more top-three finishes to their resume over the past week’s events, taking second in Augusta and third in Gilman’s competition.

Nine top-three performances, including four event wins, propelled the Hornets’ boys team to a first place finish in Gilman. The boys ended the evening with a score of 104 points, beating out second-place Owen-Withee’s 86.5 points and third place Spencer’s 80.

While the Colby boys only had nine entries in the field events, they made the most of those opportunities. They came away from the field contests with seven scored placements, including two wins.

Juniors Seth Hopperdietzel and Ivan Haemer claimed the top spots in the pole vault and the triple jump respectively. Hopperdietzel cleared a height of 11 feet to win his event while Haemer posted a distance of 40 feet, one inch to beat the field by over a foot.

Caden Healy added a second place finish in the long jump, his furthest attempt landing him at 19 feet, seven-and-a-half inches. Teammate Nathaniel Robida also scored in the event, taking fouth with a distance of 18 feet, two-and-three-quarters inches.

Erik Martinez claimed third in the discus for the Hornets. The junior posted a distance of 107 feet, two inches, a personal best.

Healy and Haemer also tacked on additional value in the shot put, taking fourth and fifth respectively. Healy’s best throw measured 40 feet, nine inches and Haemer finished with a distance of 37 feet, 10 inches.

The boys’ team also found success on the track. They were led by two first place finishes from Healy, who won both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. The senior posted times of 11.34 seconds and 23.48 seconds in the two events.

Nathaniel Robida also added a third place finish in the 100-meter dash, ending with a personal best time of 11.75 seconds.

Adding to the team’s overall success were the three boys’ relay teams, all of which finished in the top four of their respective events. The 4x100-meter relay of Robida, Haemer, Martinez and Caden Kleparski took second, their time of 48.20 seconds narrowly edged out by the Spencer relay’s time of 47.87 seconds.

The 4x400-meter relay of Hopperdietzel, Kleparski, Lucas Baumann and Carter Roth took third after putting up a time of 3:59.15. The 4x200-meter relay of Kleparski, Hopperdietzel, Roth and Caine Moldonis notched a fourth place finish with a time of 1:46.09.

In addtion, the Hornets took third in a special mixed 4x100-meter throwers relay, where each team had two girls and two boys. Colby’s relay of Daelyn Rieck, Arianna Gregory, Cooper Klemetson and Moises Fuentes recorded a time of 59.91 seconds.

Rieck also collected a win for the girls’ team, which placed third overall behind Ladysmith and Loyal in the final standings.

Rieck picked up her third win in as many attempts in the discus, topping previous best set in Augusta the week before by reaching a distance of 108 feet. She also added a fourth place finish in the shot put, her furthest throw traveling 34 feet, five-and-three-quarters inches.

Hayden Willner and MaKenna Hermann also won events on Tuesday evening. Willner took first in the 300-meter hurdles, her time of 49.57 seconds putting her over two seconds faster than the next closest runner. Herrmann, meanwhile, won the 800-meter run, putting up a time of 2:41.47.

The girls’ final victory came courtesy of their 4x800-meter relay team, which consisted of Herrmann, Pearl Feiten, Casey Reynolds and Annamarie Schmitt. The team posted a time of 11:20.02 in their first place performance.

The 4x400-meter relay of Schmitt, Feiten, Herrmann and Reagan Schraufnagel took second in their event, recording a time of 4:46.39.

Willner also placed second in the shorter of the two hurdles events, finishing with a time of 16.79 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles.

Other top-five performances included a third place finish from Feiten in the 800-meter run, a fifth-place finish from Ali Adams in the 1600-meter run, and a fifth place finish from Veronica Mateer in the triple jump.

Twenty-four personal bests were set as the Colby Hornets track and field teams took home second and third place last Thursday in Augusta. A few days removed from their first place finish at Colby, the girls team put up 120.5 points, of which only Fall Creek boasted more. Meanwhile, the boys’ ended their third outdoor meet of the season with 98.5 points, earning themselves their highest team placement of 2023.

Four first place finishes for the boys team helped lead them to the third overall spot.

Max Adams had one such performance for the Hornets. The junior set a personal best while taking first in the 3200-meter run by posting a time of 11:12.94, just beating out Justin Frank of Augusta to claim his first victory this season.

Caden Healy supplied the other three top finishes for the Colby boys, coming away with wins in events that he has thus far shown dominance in. He picked up his second first place finish of 2023 in the long jump, where he was just an inch short of the 20 foot mark, his furthest leap measuring 19 feet, 11 inches. The senior also proved to be a force in the short distance events, claiming the top spot on the podium in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Healy recorded times of 11.72 seconds and 23.96 seconds in the pair of sprints.

Healy also had one of the boys two second place finishes, placing number two in the shot put with a throw of 43 feet, seven inches. The 4x200-meter relay team consisting of Seth Hopperdietzel, Caden Kleparski, Nathaniel Robida and Carter Roth also took home second for the Hornets, putting up a time of 1:41.86 in the event.

Robida came away with a pair of thirds on Thursday, notching times of 11.93 seconds and 24.57 seconds in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes respectively. The 4x400-meter relay of Kleparski, Hopperdietzel, Roth and Lucas Baumann also took third in their event, coming in with a final time of 3:57.79.

Also ending with top-five finishes for the Hornets were Kleparski in the high jump Baumann in the 400-meter dash, Ivan Haemer in the shot put, where he posted a new personal best of 40 feet, three-and-a-half inches to take fifth.

The girls team had five first place finishes of their own on Thursday.

Seniors Willow Oehmichen and Hayden Willner continued their impressive starts in the pole vault and hurdles respectively. Oehmichen claimed first in the pole vault by clearing a height of 10 feet, six inches. Meanwhile, Willner took first in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.11 seconds and second in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 51.44 seconds.

Daelyn Rieck collected two throwing event wins for Colby, putting up personal bests in the shot put and discus. The freshman recorded her longest toss of the year in the shot with a distance of 34 feet, five-and-a-half inches, breaking her previous season high mark by nine inches. The improvement in the discus was even more pronounced, with her winning distance of 105 feet, seven inches in the discus far exceeding the 86 feet, four inches she had reached in a winning effort in Medford two weeks prior.

Also picking up a win for the Hornets on Thursday was Pearl Feiten in the 800-meter run. The sophomore put up a new personal best of 2:42.59 to defeat Pepin’s Finley Noll by two seconds.

The Colby girls also added two second place finishes and a pair of fourths in their long distance events. Casey Reynolds took second in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:15.13, a personal best, and teammate Annamarie Schmitt finished fourth with a time of 6:27.60, also a PR. Meanwhile, MaKenna Herrmann earned second in the 3200-meter run with a time of 13:05.62 and Reagan Schraufnagel’s time of 14:09.71 gave her fourth.

The girls’ two relay teams took second and third in Augusta, with the 4x400-meter relay of Feiten, Schmitt, Herrmann and Oehmichen taking third with a time of 4:50.93 and the 4x800-meter relay team of Feiten, Schraufnagel, Schmitt and Reynolds placed second with a time of 11:00.66.

Other top-five finishes included a fourth place performance from Tori Underwood in the long jump and fifth place finish from Oehmichen in the 100-meter dash.