Track Claims Team Titles In Pipestone
By Brian Tschetter
The Southwest Christian / Edgerton track team traveled to Pipestone on Saturday, April 17, to participate in the Pipestone Non-Conference Invite #1. The temperature was cool but a light breeze made for a decent day for track and field. This was a five team meet which is the limit allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Teams were from SWC/E, Hills-Beaver Creek, Pipestone Area, Adrian / Ellsworth, and Russell – Tyler – Ruthton.
Both Eagle squads continue to do very well in the team standings. Three meets deep into the season and both teams have captured the team title at every meet. The girls dominated the field as they scored 248 points. Pipestone Area followed with 135. The rest of the field was RTR (73), HBC (63) and A/E (41). On the boys side, the SWC/E team tallied 167, outscoring runner-up HBC who finished with 139. The other three teams had a close battle as A/E took third with 100, followed by RTR (93) and Pipestone Area (90).
Despite being very early in the season, some very good results were produced by the team. The SWC /E girls’ squad captured 12 first place finishes, including sweeping the sprints. One highlight for the girls was Braelyn Kracht breaking the Edgerton Public school record for the 300 hurdles. The previous record was from 1998 in a time of 58.58. Kracht lowered that mark to 58.16 and will hope to continue to lower that as the season progresses.
The boys won 7 events highlighted by Levi Van Dyken winning a great 1600 meter race as he and Seth Lingen of Pipestone battled over the four lap race.
Girls’ events that had top 5 finishers: 100 M dash: 1st – Anna Suda (13.75), 3rd – Haley Wieck (14.05); 200 M dash: 1st – Ellie Decker (29.09), 2nd – Elizabeth Eisma (30.86), 4th – Peyton Van Essen (31.36); 400 M dash: 1st – Kierra Binford (67.08), 5th – Van Essen (72.34); 800 M run: 3rd – Alexia Vander Pol (3:10.69); 1600 M run: 1st – Savannah Schultz (5:55.90), 4th – Lindsie Fick (6:16.51), 5th – Hermella Suda (6:19.85); 3200 M run: 1st – H. Suda (14:18.40); 100 M hurdles: 2nd – Braelyn Kracht (18.91), 5th – Hallie Bork (22.03); 300 M hurdles: 2nd – Kracht (58.26); 4X100 relay: 1st (Eisma, Wieck, Decker, A. Suda) – 55.50; 4X200 relay: had winning time of 1:57.7 but DQ’d (out of exchange zone) (Eisma, Wieck, A. Suda, Decker); 4X400 relay: 1st (Fick, Shaylee Van Essen, Binford, Schultz) – 4:37.43; 4X800 relay: 1st (Van Essen, Fick, Binford, Schultz) – 10:57.26; Shot Put: 1st – Reece Wassink (29-08.25); Discus: 2nd – Wassink (92-03); High Jump: 1st – Kaitlyn Schuur (4-08), 2nd – A. Suda (4-06), 3rd Van Essen (4-06); Pole Vault: 1st – Schuur (10-0), 2nd – Makenna Brands (7-0); Long Jump: 1st – Decker (15-01.75), 2nd – Wieck (14-07), 3rd – Sienna Tripp (13-08.500; Triple Jump: 2nd – Van Essen (31-08), 3rd – Kracht (30-10).
Boys’ events that had top 5 finishers: 200 M dash: 4th – Caleb Raak (26.45); 400 M dash: 1st – Micah Schaap (53.30), 4th – Aiden Schaap (58.12), 5th – Raak (60.10); 800 M run: 1st – Levi Van Dyken (2:15.41), 5th – Ethan Sas (2:33.57); 1600 M run: 1st – Van Dyken (4:57.39); 3200 M run: 2nd – Mason Hamm (12:11.83), 3rd – Gabe Vis (13:32.21); 110 M hurdles: 3rd – Grant Busker (21.19); 300 M hurdles: 4th – Busker (52.45); 4X100 relay: 4th (Busker, Vis, Hamm, Kracht) – 54.04; 4X400 relay: 1st (Jaden Barron, A. Schaap, Van Dyken, M. Schaap) – 3:46.20; 4X800 relay: 3rd (Hamm, Vis, Raak, Barron) – 9:51.93; Shot Put: 3rd – Jacob Fischer (40-10); Discus: 4th – Isaac Gunnink (104-11), 5th – Fischer (100-02); High Jump: 2nd – Busker (5-06), 4th – Barron (5-02); Pole Vault: 1st – Raak (10-0); Long Jump: 1st – M. Schaap (20-10.75), 4th – A. Schaap (18-11); Triple Jump: 1st – M. Schaap (42-11), 3rd – A. Schaap (38-04).
