April 5, 2018 By Chris Varney
It has not been an easy start to the outdoor track and field season in Iowa. High school athletes have been forced indoors, running up and down the hallways of their schools has been the only way to practice as Mother Nature has not allowed the boys and girls to outside. Some teams have been able to compete in a meet or two but many teams have not had any outdoor meets so far this season. Tonight will be the best opportunity for everybody to compete.
It will be cold tonight but it will be dry so North Mahaska will host a co-ed meet in New Sharon tonight. We will have coverage on 1410 KGRN. Schools scheduled to compete will be BGM, Iowa Valley, Montezuma, Pella Christian, Sigourney and Tri-County along with the host Warhawks. The HLV boys and Colfax Mingo girls will also be competing.
Schools are still determining their line-up for tonight’s meet but there could be some outstanding events. Monte’s Jordon Bender and BGM’s Keegan James and Devon Maxfield will make for incredible competition in the sprints. Bender has been better recently in the 200 while Maxfield won the 60 meter dash in the indoor meet. Iowa Valley’s Joe Zuber will be one to watch as well. On the girls side, Sigourney is the defending 1A state champ and has Autumn and Summer Barthelman both returning. Autumn is strong in the 100, 200, and 100 hurdles. Summer is strong in the 400 and long jump. In the long distance races, North Mahaska’s Cheyenne Shaw will be looking to dominate the home track in the 1500 and the 3000. Montezuma has Elise Boulton and Olivia Krousie that will push her in both races. In the girls 800, Iowa Valley’s Molly McMann beat BGM’s Rachel Hawkins in the indoor meet by about a half a second. The rematch tonight in New Sharon will be interesting.
All told, it will be important for teams to get in as much work tonight as they possibly can. The weather forecast does not look good for track meets until the middle part of next week. Relays especially need practice as new teams need to work on their hand offs so coaches may have to make some tough decisions today based on little information.
North Mahaska will start the action tonight with the field events at 4:30, running events begin at 4:45. We will bundle up and brave the cold weather with updates beginning at 5 pm and the Extra Point live at 6 pm tonight in New Sharon on 1410 KGRN and myiowainfo.com.