Hornets grab trio of first place finishes at Stratford

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Colby track and field team traveled to Stratford last Thursday to take on athletes from nearly a dozen area programs. The girls took ninth in a 12-team field, scoring 43 points, while the boys squad placed eighth among 11 other teams with 21 points. The hosting Stratford teams won both competitions, with the Tiger girls scoring 127.5 points to put them over the second place Owen-Withee team and the Stratford boys collecting 211 points to out pace the runner-up Edgar Wildcats.

Daelyn Rieck led the girls squad by scoring nearly half the team’s points in the throwing events after capturing first place in both the discus and the shot put. The junior had her best outdoor performances of the season in both events, posting a throw of 129 feet in the discus and a toss of 39 feet, 9.25 inches in the shot put. There was little challenge to Rieck’s hold over the top spot in either event, with Makita Ellenbecker of Edgar coming in second in the discus with a throw of 108 feet, nine inches and Leah Fenske of Pacelli taking the runner-up spot in the shot put with a throw of 36 feet, one quarter inch.

Rolyn Hopperdietzel also notched a first place finish for the Hornets on Thursday. The sophomore came through for the boys in the long jump, where his season best leap of 19 feet, 11 inches put him a little over a half-foot ahead of Edgar’s Tucker Streit for the top spot in the event.

He and teammate Xander Buchanan also picked up points for the boys’ squad in the high jump. The pair finished backto- back, Buchanan taking fifth place by clearing a height of five feet, eight inches while Hopperdietzel grabbed sixth in the competition with a height of five feet, six inches.

Annamarie Schmitt had the sole fourth place finish for the Hornets in Stratford, taking a top-five finish in the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:32.01. Ali Adams also scored for Colby in the long distance event, notching a sixth-place finish with a time of 14:05.52.

Isabelle Kloth and Veronica Mateer picked up a pair of fifth place finishes for the girls. Kloth notched hers in the 400meter dash, where she edged out Stratford’s Samantha Frick for the spot by fourtenths of a second, posting a time of 1:06.03. Mateer, meanwhile, recorded the fifth best time in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing in 20.41 seconds.

Mateer and Schmitt both had sixth place finishes as well. The former picked up some more points for the Hornets in the field events, putting up a distance of 28 feet, 10 inches in the triple jump to capture her sixth place finish. Schmitt added hers in the 1600-meter run, where she posted a time of 5:55.93.

See COLBY TRACK/ Page 19

STRONG THROW - Edynn Hinker unleashes her best throw of the day during the discus competition in Stratford. The sophomore thrower ended up taking 17th in the event.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER Colby track

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Other scoring performances included the boys 4x100-meter relay team, which took seventh with a time of 48.87 seconds, the girls 4x400-meter relay, which took seventh with a time of 5:06.64, the boys 4x200-meter relay team, which took eighth with a time of 1:44.17, and Buchanan in the triple jump, where he placed eighth with an attempt of 37 feet, 2.75 inches.

Hopperdietzel and Oliver Steen nearly added onto the boys final totals. Steen grabbed ninth place in the discus with a throw of 116 feet, nine inches while Hopperdietzel recorded a time of 12.10 seconds in the 100-meter dash to also finish in ninth.

Both Colby squads will take part in the Cloverbelt Conference meet on Tuesday, May 20 at 4 p.m.