Colby girls earn second place in Medford, boys third

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Colby track and field team had one of their best team performances of the season last Thursday in Medford. The girls team took second overall with 117 points, trailing only the hosting Red Raider squad while the boys squad placed third behind Medford and Newman Catholic with 93 team points.

The Hornets had 17 total top three performances on Thursday, including four first place finishes.

Veronica Mateer grabbed her first win of the season in the triple jump, narrowly beating out Medford’s Lindsey Klapatauskas on her final attempt of the day. Half an inch separated the pair, but Mateer’s fourth jump of 30 feet, three-quarters of an inch put her over the top.

The throwing events were not as close as Daelyn Rieck cruised to victories in both the discus and the shot put. The sophomore posted her best throws of the season in the shot put, her toss of 41 feet, four inches measuring six-and-a-half feet further than the next closest competitor. Rieck’s best throw in the discus reached a distance of 110 feet, 10 inches, which was over 20 feet more than the second place throw.

The Hornets’ 4x800-meter relay also notched a first place finish. Pearl Feiten, Casey Reynolds, Annamarie Schmitt and Ali Adams finished the 3200-meter race in 11:07.78, defeating Medford’s relay by seven seconds to capture the top spot.

Colby also had seven runner-up performances in Medford. Senior Jazmyn Heeg had a part in three of those, as she grabbed second in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and was part of the 4x200-meter relay that fell just short of a victory on Thursday. Mere tenths of a second separated Heeg from the top spot in all three events. Her time of 13.58 seconds in the 100-meter dash was only topped by Athen’s Ava Ford with a time of 13.44 seconds and a finish of 28.21 seconds in the 200-meter dash was just behind Mel Severson of Newman Catholic’s 27.63 seconds. The closest, however, came in the 4x200-meter dash, where Heeg, Feiten, Alexis Vanderhoof and Tori Underwood were neck-and-neck with Loyal’s relay. The Greyhounds just edged out Colby, finishing in 1:56.79 while the Hornet relay posted a time of 1:56.89.

Feiten also had another second place finish in the 800-meter run, putting up a time of 2:43.49. The Hornets had five of the top eight finishers in the event, with Casey Reynolds taking fourth with a time of 2:48.10, Annamarie Schmitt placing sixth with a time of 2:54.76, Alexis Vanderhoof grabbing seventh by posting a time of 2:55.17 and Ali Adams coming in eighth with a time of 2:59.44.

Erik Martinez and Caden Kleparski notched second-place spots as the top individual finishers for the boys’ team. Kleparski dueled with Medford’s Evan Paul in the high jump, going into the height of five feet, eight inches with almost identical performances. While Paul was able to clear the height on his final attempt, Kleparski still took second by clearing a height of five feet, six

See MEDFORD MEET/ Page 27

AHEAD OF THE PACK - Max Adams increases his lead over a group of Red Raiders in Medford.

STAFF PHOTO/MATT FREY Medford meet

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inches. Paul also proved to be the Hornets’ biggest competition in the shot put as Martinez and the Medford junior were the only throwers to post a throw over 36 feet.

Paul just edged the Colby senior, with Martinez’s furthest throw measuring 38 feet, four inches compared to Paul’s toss of 38 feet, 10 inches.

The boys’ squad also had four third place finishes. Tucker Hayes had two of them, posting a time of 49.04 in the 300-meter hurdles and distance of 16 feet, 11.5 inches in the long jump. Max Adams added another with a time of 5:05.68 in the 1600-meter run and Seth Hopperdietzel put up a new personal best of 12.17 seconds in the 100-meter dash.

Reynolds put up an individual third place finish for the girls team, posting a time of 6:04.39 in the 1600-meter run. Teammates Annamarie Schmitt and Ali Adams also scored for the Hornets in the event, putting up times of 6:15.59 and 6:45.61 for fourth and eighth places respectively Other top-eight finishes for the girls included a fourth place finish for Mateer in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 20.37 seconds and sixth place in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 1:00.40. Underwood also had two, taking fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 14.49 seconds and grabbing a seventh place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 30.83 seconds. Edynn Hinker put up a sixth place finish in the shot put with a throw of 27 feet, seven inches and eighth place in discus with a toss of 72 feet, one inch.

Adams and Martinez added fourth place finishes for the boys, with the former doing so in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:25.48 and the latter posting a throw of 98 feet, 10 inches in the discus. Oliver Steen also grabbed sixth in the discus with a throw of 87 feet, one inch and sixth in the shot put with a throw of 33 feet, six inches.

The Hornets took the fifth through eighth spots in the 100-meter dash, with Martinez taking fifth with a time of 12.75 seconds, Xander Buchanan finishing in 12.77 seconds to take sixth, Kleparksi taking seventh with a time of 12.78 seconds and Steen finishing in 13.02 seconds to take eighth. Caine Maldonis earned fifth place in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 52.32 seconds, Kleparski took sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.61 seconds and Hopperdietzel followed with an eighth place finish with a time of 58.54 seconds. Hopperdietzel also took eighth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.04 seconds. Buchanan had the only other top eight finish in the field events with a fifth place finish in the long jump, his furthest leap measuring 16 feet, four-and-a-half inches.