Rieck, Schmitt lead Colby at windy Altoona meet
By Nathaniel Underwood
It was a blustery evening for the Colby Hornets as they traveled to Altoona on Monday for their first outdoor meet of the season. Battling against winds that regularly topped 30 miles per hour, the girls team placed fifth overall with a final score of 54 points while the boys placed ninth with 10 points.
Prescott took home the top team honors in both the boys' and girls’ competitions, the boys’ team winning with a score of 167 points and girls leading the way with 122.5 points. Altoona took second for the boys with 120.5 points and Fall Creek was the second place girls team with 105 points.
A trio of first place finishes led the Colby girls’ on Monday. Annamarie Schmitt had the Hornets’ top performance on the track while Daelyn Rieck picked up a pair of victories in the field events.
Schmitt’s first place finish came in the 1600-meter run. The Colby junior defeated Durand’s Isabella’s Auth by over three seconds to grab the top spot in the event, finishing with a final time of 6:06.57.
Meanwhile, Rieck dominated in the throwing events. No one came close to touching her mark in the shot put, where her best throw measured 38 feet, 7.25 inches. Durand’s Mara Brunner was the closest with a throw of 33 feet, 6.75 inches, giving Rieck a comfortable five-foot margin of victory.
Her advantage later in the discus was just as significant. Her furthest attempt measuring 122 feet, six inches, Rieck cruised past the rest of the field for her first win in the event of the season. Abbotsford’s Margo Pogodzinski was the next closest athlete with a throw of 109 feet, 11 inches.
The 4x800-meter relay team of Ali Adams, Pearl Feiten, Carisa Steen and Veronica Mateer had the next best finish for the girls’ squad. The quartet posted a joint time of 11:51.95 in the event, taking third place.
Mateer and Feiten both had individual top-five finishes in Altoona as well. Mateer’s came in the triple jump, where she took fourth after posting an attempt measuring 29 feet, 7.25 inches. Meanwhile, Feiten grabbed the fifth place spot in the 400-meter dash after posting a time of 1:08.37. The pair also had other top-10 finishes, with Mateer taking 10th in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 21.65 seconds and Feiten grabbing 10th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:51.27.
Edynn Hinker and a pair of relay teams also notched points for the Hornets. Hinker took sixth in the shot put with a throw of 29 feet, three-quarters inches while the 4x400-meter relay and the 4x 100-meter relay team took fifth and seventh respectively. The 4x400 team of Elizabeth Kloth, Isabelle Kloth, Carla Lozano Perez and Nicole Verhoef posted a time of 5:58.88 while the 4x100-meter team of Karen Torres, Osiris Perez Gallo, Frida Meza and Romina Perez had a time of 1:03.36.
Rolyn Hopperdietzel had the top finish for the boys squad in Altoona. He took fifth in the long jump after posting a leap of 19 feet, 6.25 inches, putting him right on the heels of Abbotsford’s Christian Fuentes, who took fourth in the event.
Hopperdietzel was also part of the 4x100-meter relay team that took fifth place. He and teammates Chase Heeg, Carsen Thomsen and Adrian Weix edged out Thorp’s relay by two-tenths of a second to secure their spot, posting a time of 49.20 seconds.
The 4x200-meter relay team of Hopperdietzel, Weix, Carlos Martinez and Dany Nunez also scored for the Hornets. Their time of 1:45.27 earned them seventh place.
Heeg and Rhys Rau had a pair of 10th place finishes for Colby. Heeg grabbed his in the 200-meter dash, where he posted a time of 26.16 seconds while Rau snagged his 10th place spot in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:36.60. Teammate Jacob Raatz was right behind Rau in the 800-meter run, taking 11th with a time of 2:37.05.
Thomsen had the Hornets’ top throwing performance of the day, taking 16th in the shot put with a throw of 30 feet, five inches.
Colby will have over a week off between meets, returning to action on Friday, April 25th in Stanley-Boyd. The meet will start at 4:15 p.m.
TAKING ON THE ELEMENTS - The Hornets had to contend with strong winds all evening during their first outdoor meet of the season in Altoona. Daelyn Rieck, left, fires off one of her event-winning throws in the shot put while Rolyn Hopperdietzel, center, and Pearl Feiten make the most of the blustery conditions on the track while competing in the 100-meter dash and the 4x800-meter relay respectively. staffphoto/nathaniel underwood
