Hornets host pair of meets to close regular season

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Colby track and field team hosted two meets over the past week, closing out their regular season with an invitational last Tuesday before holding the Cloverbelt conference meet at their home track thisTuesday.

Cloverbelt Conference Meet

The girls team took third with 120.33 points and the boys team placed seventh with 48 points at the Cloverbelt conference meet held in Colby. The Loyal girls took the top spot with 152 points and Neillsville’s boys’ team won the team title with 165 points.

Distance events buoyed the Colby girls’ squad, with 59 of the points coming from such competitions while boys largely scored in the jumps and relays, earning 16 points in each.

The Hornet girls picked up five first team all-conference spots on Tuesday, with Casey Reynolds and Daelyn Rieck winning two individual events each and the 4x800-meter relay team of Ali Adams, Makenna Herrmann, Jennelle Ertl and Alexis Vanderhoof claiming the top spot in their event.

Reynolds claimed a pair of distance events for the Hornets, winning both the 1600-meter and 3200-meter runs. She defeated Neillsville’s Braelyn Anding by five seconds in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:47.10 and then claimed the top spot in the 3200-meter with a time of 13:12.37. TeammatesAnnamarie Schmitt and Adams helped the Hornets sweep the top three spots in the 3200-meter, as Schmitt claimed a second-team all-conference spot with a time of 13:22.70 and Adams followed in third with a time of 13:45.26.

Rieck earned her firsts in the throwing events. She broke her own school record in the discus by three inches on Tuesday, setting a new distance to beat at 129 feet, 10 inches. She then cruised to a win in the shot put with a throw of 38 feet, five-and-a-quarter inches.

The 4x800-meter team was largely unchallenged in their race, defeating the next closest team by nearly a minute. Adams, Herrmann, Ertl and Vanderhoof finished with a time of 11:26.49, defeating Neillsville’s second place relay.

Pearl Feiten earned a second place finish for the Hornets in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:41.34 and added a third with a time of 1:04.41 in the 400-meter dash. Schmitt also had another third for Colby, picking up hers in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:55.20.

Edynn Hinker picked up a fourth place finish in the shot put, her furthest throw measuring 29 feet, six-and-a-quarter inches.

Other individual scorers for the girls included a fifth from Reynolds in the 800-meter run, sixths from Schmitt in the 800-meter run and Herrmann in the 300-meter hurdles, a seventh courtesy of Tori Underwood in the 100-meter dash and four eighths, with Veronica Mateer taking two, one in the 100-meter hurdles and another in triple jump, Feiten earning hers in pole vault and Kaitlyn Weiland taking eighth in the high jump.

Max Adams, Xander Buchanan and the 4x100-meter relay team of Rolyn Hopperdietzel, Seth Hopperdietzel, Caden Kleparski and Caine Maldonis earned the top results for the boys’ team at conference, all taking thirds in their respective events.

Adams grabbed his spot in the 1600-meter run, placing behind Columbus Catholic’s Isaac Scheer and Owen-Withee’s

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JUMPING WITH STYLE - Xander Buchanan clears the bar with room to spare during the high jump competition at the Cloverbelt conference meet on Tuesday. The freshman took third in the competition.

STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD Home meets

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Colton Paczkowski with a time of 4:41.58 in the event. Buchanan, meanwhile, cleared a height of five feet, 10 inches in the high jump, tying him on height with Gilman’s Sawyer Winger. Winger got the second-team nod due to tiebreakers, however. The 4x100 team posted a time of 47.24 seconds, just a tenth of a second off from claiming a second- team all-conference honor of their own.

Adams also had a fourth place finish in the 3200-meter run with a time of 11:00.21 and Rolyn Hopperdietzel earned a fourth for his leap of 37 feet, 10 inches in the triple jump.

Other individual scoring performances included a fifth place finish for Kleparski in the high jump, sevenths for Jacob Raatz in the 3200-meter run and Tucker Hayes in the 300-meter hurdles, and eighths for Seth Hopperdietzel in the 200-meter dash and Rolyn Hopperdietzel in the long jump.

Colby Invitational

The Hornets hosted athletes from 11 other schools last Tuesday evening for their final regular season meet of 2024. The girls team took fourth overall with 65 team points and the boys squad claimed 11th with 22 points. Rice Lake took first place in the girls’competition with 139 points and Stratford grabbed the top spot among the boys teams with 120 points.

Daelyn Rieck wrapped up her impressive regular season streak by adding two more victories to her already impressive resume. The sophomore has won nearly every throwing event she has competed in this season, taking first in all but one shot put or discus competition. Rieck claimed the top spot in the discus with a throw of 112 feet, 11 inches and in the shot put with a distance of 38 feet, eight inches.

Max Adams and Seth Hopperdietzel recorded a pair of thirds for the Hornets last Tuesday. Adams did so in the 3200-meter run, recording a time of 10:46.24 and Hopperdietzel picked up his third in the pole vault, where he cleared a height of 11 feet, six inches.

The girls’ 4x400 and 4x800-meter relays also came through with third place finishes. Ali Adams, Jenelle Ertl, Olivia Krause and Alexis Vanderhoof earned their spot in the 4x400-meter with a time of 5:00.45 while the 4x800-meter team of Vanderhoof, Casey Reynolds, Annamarie Schmitt and Pearl Feiten turned in a time of 11:08.20.

Reynolds also had a fourth place finish in the 3200-meter run, posting a time of 12:54.90. Schmitt and Adams followed in the event, taking fifth and sixth respectively with times of 13:17.41 and 14:01.47. Reynolds also took seventh in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:01.18.

Feiten, Veronica Mateer and Edynn Hinker put up a trio of fifth place performances in the field events. Feiten put together her fifth place performance in the pole vault, reaching a height of seven feet, six inches while Mateer did so in the triple jump, her longest attempt measuring 29 feet, five-and-a-half inches. Hinker added four points for the Hornets in the shot put, her furthest throw traveling 28 feet, 11 inches.

Jazmyn Heeg picked up two scoring performances for the Colby’s sprinters, taking sixth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.62 seconds and eighth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 28.99 seconds.

Makenna Herrmann and Erik Martinez clocked seventh places, with Herrmann taking her spot in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 54.93 seconds and Martinez doing so in the discus with a distance of 119 feet, two inches. Max Adams’s eighth place finish in the 1600-meter run rounded out the Hornets’ scoring efforts, posting a time of 4:57.34.

LONG LEAP - Veronica Mateer launches into the pit during the triple jump at the conference meet.

STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD