April 6, 2018 By Chris Varney
Finally, we have a spring sports season!
It was a beautiful night last night in New Sharon — temperatures were in the low 50’s with only a light wind at the start of the Warhawk Co-Ed Relays, hosted by North Mahasaka High School.
There were some amazing performances and some incredible races. Sigourney’s Autumn Barthelman stole the show with 4 first place finishes. The Senior dominated the 100 meter dash, winning by .71 seconds which is an eternity in the 100. She won the 100 hurdles by almost 2 full seconds which is a massive blowout. She anchored the shuttle hurdle relay to a 1 second win over BGM. And she won the 200 meter dash — although it was not a blowout. Barthelman beat Mary Kate Bandstra of Pella Christian by .09 seconds. Barthelman says she did not even compete in the 200 last year so she still has a ways to go in that event. I am not going to bet against her. Her sister Summer Barthelman, who is strong in the 100, 400 and long jump and part of the shuttle hurdle team, did not compete last night — she is recovering from having her appendix removed.
Elsewhere on the girls side, Montezuma won the team competition by just 2 1/2 points over Pella Christian and the Bravettes were not even at full strength. Shateah Wetering, a runner-up finisher at state in the 400, has been bothered by an injury and Saphire Gatton had to go home last night sick. Head Coach Megan Carlson says both should be back on the track next week. Cassidy Watts turned in a great performance on the anchor leg of the 4×400 relay, leading her team to a win. Shelby Conger finished first in the high jump. The biggest reason for Montezuma’s win was long distance runners Olivia Krousie and Elise Boulton who scored a combined 24 points. PC got just 14 points in the two races.
On the boys side, what a night for HLV. Sophomore Sam Gensley got three first place finishes, running an incredible last leg to win the sprint medley relay. Gensley tied for first in the open 400 with Alex Veenstra of Pella Christian with a time of 55.46. He was also part of the 4×400 relay that finished first thanks to a great anchor from Chase Sternhagen. As the junior walked on the track, he mentioned to his teammates that he needed a big run. He got the baton in third place and overtake both Pella Christian and Montezuma on the final lap to win the race. Sternahagen also won the long jump with a mark of 19-04.50, his best score of the young season. HLV would finish second to PC in the team standings but showed it will make some noise in the SICL this year.
The best finish on the night was in the 200 meters as Noah Treimer of PC just nudged out Joe Zuber of Iowa Valley by .03 seconds. Zuber was bouncing back and forth and was trying to catch Treimer but came up a nose short. Keegan James of BGM beat Jordon Bender for third place in the same race. Bendor beat James for first place in 100 and the Monte Senior anchored the 4×200 relay to a first place finish. Both races were early on the night an Bendor says he has some work to do to get his legs in better shape so he can run 4 races at full strength in one night. It will be an interesting battle all season between Bendor, James, Zuber in the sprints. I will not count out Devon Maxfield of BGM as well.
The highlight of the night though was the simple fact that there was a meet at all. The weather has wrecked havoc with the start of the track and field season and with cold weather today and through the weekend, high school teams may not see another meet until the later part of next week. Congratulations to North Mahaska AD Steve Ehret and his staff who put on a great meet.