Hornets compete in Stanley, Wausau
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Colby Hornets track and field team was back in action this week, competing both in Stanley-Boyd last Friday and at Wausau East on Tuesday.
Sawmill Invitational
Both Colby squads faced some stiff competition on Tuesday in Wausau. The girls team came away with 33 points to finish in 11th overall while the boys finished with five points to end the day in 14th.
Daelyn Rieck had the team’s sole event victory, coming out on top in the shot put for the Hornets. Her throw of 38 feet, 8.25 inches had the junior cruising past the rest of the field, with the next closest opponent putting up a throw of 32 feet, 10 inches. Rieck also added a second place finish in the discus, where her best attempt of 112 feet, five inches only trailed Wausau West’s Emily Jahns, who put forth a 127 foot, five inch effort.
Annamarie Schmitt also captured a second place spot for the Colby girls. Schmitt earned the runner-up spot in the 3200-meter run, a race that largely turned into a competition between the two top runners. Wausau West’s Christiana Nordstrom was able to separate herself in the end, putting up a time of 12:11.11 to win the race, but Schmitt came in shortly after with a time of 12:34.53. The pair opened up a significant gap between themselves and the rest of the pack, which came in over two minutes after the pace-setting duo.
The 4x800-meter relay of Schmitt, Ali Adams, Alexis Vanderhoof and Veronica Mateer grabbed fourth in their event, finishing behind the Wausau East relay and two Wausau West teams with a time of 11:42.82.
Adams had the Hornets final scoring performance of the day, posting a time of 2:56.19 in the 800-meter run, earning herself eighth place. She also came close to notching more points for Colby in the 1600-meter run, coming up one spot short with a ninth place finish in the race. Just six-tenths of a second separated her from Wausau West’s Gianna Voigt, who took eighth, and Merrill’s Charlotte Van Der Nest was only a second ahead. Adams finished with a final time of 6:24.23.
Isabelle Kloth also had a ninth place finish for the Hornets, grabbing her spot in the 400-meter dash. The freshman posted a time of 1:09.41, putting her just onetenth of a second behind Rhinelander’s Luna Grage, who grabbed the final scoring spot in the event.
Rolyn Hopperdietzel had the boys team’s top performance, grabbing fifth place in the long jump. His best attempt of 18 feet, 11 inches put him just a half-inch behind Mosinee’s Spencer Lemke but allowed him to edge out Kayden Meverden of the hosting Wausau East squad.
The 4x100-meter relay team of Chase Heeg, Dany Nunez, Carsen Thomsen and Adrian Weix scored the other point for the boys squad, taking the final scoring spot in the event with a tenth place finish. The team’s time of 49.63 seconds was nearly identical to the times posted by two other relays, with the Wausau West relay finishing one hundredth of a second before them and the Northland Pines team coming in a hundredth of a second after.
Jacob Raatz and Xander Buchanan almost added to the Hornets total after taking ninth in their respective events. Raatz did so in the 3200-meter run, where he finished with a time of 12:25.83 while Buchanan captured his spot in the high jump, where he cleared a height of five feet, three inches.
The Hornets also collected three more 10th place finishes on Tuesday. Oliver Steen grabbed his top 10 finish in the shot put with a throw of 38 feet, 1.75 inches, Rhys Rau did so in the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:30.75 and the 4x800-meter relay team of Rau, Raatz, Ray Adams and Derian Ochoa finished with a time of 11:03.80 to take 10th in their event.
Hopperdietzel and Heeg had Colby’s top sprint finishes. The teammates went back-to-back in the 100-meter dash, Hopperdietzel taking 11th with a time of 12.17 seconds and Heeg placing 12th with a time of 12.20 seconds.
Stanley-Boyd Open
The Hornets also traveled to Stanley-Boyd last Friday evening. Both the boys and girls teams took seventh place, with the girls’ squad finishing with 54 points and the boys ending the day with 36 points.
The boys team continued to show their strengths in the field events while the girls found most of their success in the distance events and in the throws. Colby registered five first place finishes in Stanley-Boyd, their most of the season.
Ali Adams and Rolyn Hopperdietzel picked up their first victories of the season
See HORNETS TRACK/ Page 20
SETTING A HIGH BAR - Xander Buchanan clears a height of five feet, six inches during the high jump competition at Stanley-Boyd. The sophomore would also make it over the next height increment to take fourth place.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
PULLING AWAY FROM THE PACK - Annamarie Schmitt begins to distance herself from the rest of the field in the 1600-meter run. The junior went on to take the top spot in the race.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD Hornets track
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for the Hornets. Adams grabbed the top spot in the 3200-meter run, where she finished with a final time of 13:45.03. The junior was able to pass Prentice’s Kylie Orysen on the final lap of the race, eventually crossing the line with a five second advantage.
Meanwhile, Hopperdietzel snatched a victory in a highly contested long jump event, where the top six athletes all finished within eight inches of each other. Hopperdietzel came out on top, however, his furthest leap of 19 feet, 3.5 inches narrowly edging out Dominic Sherwood of Owen-Withee and Jake LaGrander of Stanley-Boyd.
Teammates Daelyn Rieck and Annamarie Schmitt added onto their list of accolades this year by adding three more first place finishes for Colby.
Rieck once again dominated in both the shot put and discus competitions. After all was said and done, she held a nearly seven-foot advantage in the shot put, where her best throw of 37 feet, three inches put some significant distance between herself and Cornell/Lake Holcombe’s Megan Paff, who took second. Rieck also won the discus by nearly ten feet, finishing with a final throw of 110 feet, six inches. Stanley-Boyd’s Syleen Seichter was her closest competition with a throw of 101 feet, 11 inches.
Schmitt cruised to a five-second win in the 1600-meter run, posting a time of 5:59.33 to take first place in the long distance race. The junior grabbed first place during the second leg of the race and did not look back, pulling away from Owen-Withee’s Adelynn Petersen on the third and fourth laps to grab her second 1600meter victory in as many opportunities during the Hornets’ outdoor season.
The boys’ 4x100-meter relay team of Hopperdietzel, Dany Nunez, Carsen Thomsen and Adrian Weix had the next best finish for the Hornets in Stanley-Boyd. The relay team grabbed third place in their event, posting a time of 50.22 seconds to edge out the Loyal relay by seventenths of a second.
Schmitt, Xander Buchanan and Oliver Steen picked up a trio of fourths for Colby. Schmitt’s came in the 800-meter run, where she posted a time of 2:52.31, while Buchanan and Steen grabbed theirs in the field events.
No athlete reached a height higher than five feet, eight inches in the high jump on Friday, a mark that Buchanan reached himself. However, the tiebreakers did not work in the Colby sophomore’s favor, pushing him below the other competitors to finish in fourth place. Buchanan also grabbed a fifth place finish in the triple jump, where his best attempt measured 36 feet even.
Steen led the boys’ team in the throwing events, scoring in both the discus and the shot put. His best throw of 101 feet, five inches in the discus earned him fourth place in the event, defeating Gavin Meyer of Stratford by half a foot. He then took fifth in the shot put, posting a throw of 38 feet, two inches.
Jacob Raatz had the boys’ distance team’s best finish. The sophomore put together a sixth place performance in the 800-meter run, where he posted a time of 2:35.96.
The girls’ team had a trio of seventh place finishes. Isabelle Kloth notched the girls’ top finish in the sprints, earning her spot in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:11.69 while Jenelle Ertl took seventh in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:46.25. Veronica Mateer also had a seventh place finish in the triple jump, where her best attempt measured 28 feet, 2.75 inches. Mateer also added an eighth place finish in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 20.29 and Carisa Steen rounded out the scoring efforts for the Hornets by taking eighth in the 800-meter run with a time of 3:09.21.
TAKING THE INSIDE LANE - Isabelle Kloth gets off to a fast start in the 400meter dash in Stanley-Boyd. She had the best finish for the girls team in the sprints, grabbing fourth in the event. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
