D-NH boys win 4x800; AGWSR off to big team start

   The Dike-New Hartford 4x800 relay team of Broden Coulter, Nate Sharp, Ryan Moore and Connor Blough won the Class 2A state championship in a time of 8:01.33 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines on Thursday.
   The Wolverines finished less than two seconds ahead of KP-WC for the state title, the first for D-NH in the 4x800 since Dike won it back in 1992.
   Moore’s sprint down the front stretch for the handoff to Blough for the anchor leg gave the cushion the Wolverines needed to fend off a late push from KP-WC. The end result was a winning time that shaved nearly nine seconds off D-NH’s seed time.
  “We did everything we could to win,” Blough said. “This means everything. We’ve gotten second so many times, to bring home a championship I’m just so happy for us.”
  Blough also won a fourth-place medal in the boys 400 in a time of 50.20. The senior will also run in the 200-meter final on Saturday, qualifying sixth in 22.47.
  The other local champion on Thursday was AGWSR’s Caleb Meinders, winning the Class 1A shot put title with a top throw of 55 feet, 3 inches on the final throw of his high school career, setting a new personal best in the process.
  AGWSR teammate Nathan Karsjens finished third in the event with a toss of 54-4, well above his seed mark.
  At the end of day one, the AGWSR boys are second in the team standings with 21 points. Lisbon leads the state with 22 points. The AGWSR girls are in a 6-way tie for seventh place with eight team points.
Breakdown by school
AGWSR 
-- Aubrie Fisher, a sophomore, finished fourth in the girls' 3,000 in 10:54.02. Senior teammate Bethany Lippert was 11th in 11:18.40.
-- Both 4x800 teams finished in the top 8 on Thursday – the AGWSR boys’ team of Alec Stahl, Tate Hofmeister, Austin Rekward and Liam Stubbe earned fourth place in 8:12.81. The girls’ group of Haley Bakker, Maddie Brandt, Bethany Lippert and Aubrie Fisher placed sixth in 10:09.17.
-- Brent Janssen, a senior, finished 19th in the boys 100 in 11.64 and 21st in the 200 in 23.95.
 
Grundy Center
-- Bryce Flater and Will Grames got the weekend started for the Spartan boys as both placed in the 1A long jump. Flater was fifth with a top jump of 19 feet, 11.25 inches and Grames placed eighth with a 19-7.25 leap.
-- The Luhring sisters, Kyah and Landry, entered the long jump pit on Thursday. Kyah was third, with a best leap of 16 feet, 2.75 inches in her first event at the state track meet as a freshman. Landry was 12th with a top jump of 15-4.
-- Hailey Wallis qualified for Saturday’s 100-meter dash final with the fourth-best time in the preliminaries, running 12.71. The top time in the prelims belonged to Sigourney’s Autum Barthelman in 12.49.
 
Gladbrook-Reinbeck
-- Erik Knaack jumped 18 feet, 10.75 inches to take 13th in the long jump.
-- The 4x800 relay team of Matt Johannsen, Hunter Lott, Colton Clark and Parker Bown was 19th in the event in 8:38.69.
-- Lily Ehlers, a sophomore, was 16th in the girls’ 3,000-meter run in 11:31.94.
 
BCLUW
-- Troy Dolphin competed in three boys’ sprints on Thursday – he was 18th in the 400 53.27, 22nd in the 100 in 11.63 and 20th in the 200 in 23.61.
-- The girls’ shuttle hurdle relay crew of Olivia Hughes, Samantha Ubben, Payton Pekarek and Jenna Willett placed 18th in 1:11.22.
 
Dike-New Hartford
-- After day one, the D-NH boys are third in the 2A team standings with 17 points.
-- Nick Durnin placed seventh in the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, 2 inches.
-- The girls’ 4x800 team of Baylee Petersen, Allie Aalderks, Courtney Bolhuis and Alayna Kollasch finished the race 16th in 10:11.15.
-- Sydney Petersen, a junior, finished 12th in the girls’ shot put with a best throw of 35 feet, 9 inches.
-- The boys’ shuttle hurdle relay team did not qualify for Saturday’s final.