Boys Standings
1. Spirit Lake 148
2. Estherville Lincoln Central 100
3. Algona 99
4. Sioux Central 53
5. Emmetsburg 31
6. Forest City 29
7. Bishop Garrigan 27
8. North Iowa 24
9. Okoboji 21
10. West Hancock 20
Comments From Spirit Lake Boys Coach Brad Travis
It has been an impressive week for Spirit Lake’s track program. Kicking off the week our Boys and Girls teams both won our home opener on Tuesday. Then on Thursday our Middle School boys and Girls, 7th and 8th, track teams hosted a home meet and all 4 of them won in commanding fashion. (A Testament to where our high school successes begin from, I would like to acknowledge middle school coaches; Beau Dielschneider, Doug Stueven, Roland Schmidt, and Dave Dewild for all they do to teach and build the program) To cap the week off our boys traveled to Estherville for a Boys Varsity and JV meet against 14 other area schools.
Coaching for what some might say a long time now, I would venture to say that tonight’s JV efforts and performances were the best I have ever had the pleasure to coach. We love watching kids improve and better their times and nowhere was this more evident than in our JV events. Seemingly in every event we had kids push their self-imposed limits and rise above. Our JV teams amassed 60 more points than the second place JV team tonight. Filling out an entire JV line-up they scored 142 points and showed the value of everyone contributing to the point total as they personally competed.
On the Varsity side our team really rolled, scoring 148 points to win the meet over 2nd place ELC with 100 points. For a 15x team meet those are some impressive scores. We had so many great performances tonight it would be too long to list but even more than that it was the way in which our boys competed. On numerous occasions our boys could be seen not giving up and gutting out a race to edge out another competitor at the line. Even after a falling in the Shuttle Caden Lundt got back up and finished strong. (Did I mention they won that relay also?) It was the way they cheered for each other running from one side to the other. It was the way they supported and assisted each other; like Simon Lienbaugh and Dylan Stecker holding and moving blocks for the entire meet. (These two outstanding young men are unfortunately injured at the moment and working back to recovery, but still were a big part of our victory tonight and fulfilled a role and need for the team. Putting others before self) All these great things in addition to running, jumping, and throwing added up. We even made a strong Drake Relays Hopeful time with our 4×2 (Ethan Stecker, Cooper Winkel, Tate Orpen, and Qam Hussey) running a 1:30.10F Despite not all perfect hand-offs these 4 boys relay time ranks them 1st in 2A and 7th overall in all classes. The whole night, each kid battled and overcame self-obstacles. Perhaps Ryder Sundall’s night best embodied the efforts of our boys tonight. Starting the meet off with the Sprint Med, Sundall ran a PR in the 400m leg with a 52.2s. Then later in the meet Ran a HUGE 800M PR breaking the 2-minute barrier with 1:59.19F. Ryder still had a 400M on his plate with the 4×400 at the end of the meet. Exhausted from his previous performances he could have easily cashed it in and called it a good night, but he put himself back on the track for the team in the 4×400. In the 4×400 Dietrich Dirks, Qam Hussey and Wes Walz ran PRs (or nearly) as they battled Esterville’s 4×400 who were stacked and running it hard. Sundall anchored our 4×400 relay and rather than bowing down to his competition from exhaustion he excelled to run a 51.7s PR and edge out ELC at the line. Oh, and that 4×400 Quartet…ran 3:30.04 and now have the 5th fastest time in 2A!
We look forward to running Senior Night at Home on the 16th this coming Tuesday. I am hoping we can fire the weatherman’s predictions, but we will control what we can control and prepare for the best. We hope to see you all come out and support our young kids in their fantastic seasons thus far.
One last accolade…..I’d like to congratulate Logan Sandman on his decision today to attend Northwestern and Run/Jump on their Track Team in college. The Red Raiders are getting a good one and a quality young man! Logan will be having a signing day coming up so more to come…good night!
