Hawk athletes ready to soar in track, golf

SULLY — There is no lack of leadership for Lynnville-Sully spring sports teams. The Hawk track teams and golf teams have seniors and state qualifiers to provide the leadership going into the 2014 seasons.

Lynnville-Sully’s boys return six seniors, who were state meet qualifiers, to the Hawk track team. The Hawk girls’ track team has seven state qualifiers — two who are seniors — back on the track.

For the Hawk golfers, six return — two for the girls and four for the boys — to the links. Macy Lanser is the lone senior between the two golf teams. Lanser qualified for the Class 1A state golf tournament, finishing 20th. She was the 1A Regional 1 champion and finished fourth at the 1A Regional 2.

The Hawk track teams open the 2014 season Tuesday. The girls are at Belle Plaine and the boys are a Pella Christian then the boys go to Belle Plaine Thursday.

Lynnville-Sully’s golfers have another week of practice before beginning their 2014 season At Montezuma April 7.

Boys Track

Seniors Meliek Meyer, Bailee Samson, Payton Haack and Darin Hofer all qualified in individual events at state a year ago. They were joined by seniors Brandon Dunsbergen and Caden Doll in relay events. All of the seniors are school record holders in events.

Meyer is the Iowa Class 1A state record holder in the 100-meter dash in 10.70 seconds a year ago. Meyer finished second in the 100 at the state meet and third in the 200-meter dash.

Samson placed seventh in the 100-meter dash at state and qualified in the 200 meters. Hofer qualified in the 110-meter high hurdles. Hofer and Doll were members of the shuttle hurdle relay team which placed third at state.

Haack qualified for state in the long jump. Haack combined with Dunsbergen, Samson and Meyer to place third in the 4x200-meter relay team. Haack was a member of the state qualifying 4x400-meter relay team.

The Hawks return three members of the second-place 4x100-meter relay team in Doll, Samson and Doll.

“Our strengths this season are our retuning athletes,” said Mike Parkinson, Hawk boys’ head track coach. “We have a lot of state experience and look to add to that this season. To complement our returning athletes, we have some strong distance runners and some talented young individuals, who will help us round out our team. We look forward to another season of competitiveness.”

Also on the team are senior Thane Redding, juniors Kordell Mueller, Jake Brand, Lauri Ryyppo, sophomores Canyon Kuhlmann, Noah Engle, Sage Ehresman, Jordan Redding, Ross Van Wyk and Kyle Van Dyke, and freshmen Caden Dunsbergen, Colton Arment, Ryan Hofer, and Trevor Squires.

Girls Track

Distance runners lead the Hawk girls’ track team. Alexa Vander Leest and Tara Vos, two of only three seniors on the squad, return as state qualifers in the three long distance races. Vander Leest went to the state meet in the 3,000 meters while Vos qualified in the 1,500 meters and 800 meters.

Vos combined with juniors Cori Rice and Madison Rasmusson and sophomore Kasiah Ehresman on the 4x800-meter relay team for the state meet. Junior Shelby Davis qualified in the high jump, but an ACL injury during volleyball season and surgery had her miss the Hawk basketball season.

“It’s good to have Shelby back, Unfortunately, she won’t be high jumping this year because of her recovery from the knee injury. She had qualified for state in high jump the past two years,” said Darin Arkema, Lynnville-Sully girls’ head coach.

“Last year, we had 13 girls and currently we have 22 out this year. We’re a young team with 10 freshmen, but all of the other girls have a lot of experience.”

Arkema said Vander Leest and Vos have competed at the state track meet three consecutive seasons, plus running at the state cross country meet multiple times. He said coming off a great cross country season — finishing fifth at state — Lynnville-Sully’s distance and mid-distance runners will be tough competitors.

Other members of the Hawk girls’ team are senior Cassie Cullen, juniors Line Ascanius, Kaley Exline and Kristy Sevcik; sophomores Shelby Foster, Naomi Shinkle and Marissa Vos; and freshmen Alexis Hardenbrook, Kristine Jaennette, Haley James, Brenna Lanser, Jamie Leavens, Olivia Ritter, Jelissa Rozendaal, Makenzy Rozendaal, Emma Schnell and Elizabeth Van Manen.

“The past couple of years we’ve had a samll team, which meant all of the girls were needed to participate in multiple events each meet. Our returners know what it means to work hard in practice and how much that pays off in meets, especially late in the year,” Arkema said.

“Because of the larger numbers, I think depth will certainly be a strength. We can be strong in a number of events and girls may not have to be in as many events. Not having a full load, allows them to concentrate on a few events, and hopefully stay stronger and healthy throughout the season.”

Arkema said not having Davis’ production in high jump will be missed. He said hurdling and long jump will be areas the team need some girls to step up and try to fill some voids. He said the Hawk girls would work on improving from what they did last year and to be better at the end of the season than they were at the beginning.

“We’ll just keep working to find how the pieces of the puzzle best fit together so that as a team we are successful,” Arkema said.

Golf

Macy Lanser and junior Haley Hood bring experience to the girls’ golf team. They both qualified for the Class 1 state golf tournament. Hood tied for fifth at the 1A Regional 2. Freshmen Lindsey Hood and Kaylee Van Maanen join the returners.

“Macy will be looked upon to be a leader for girls and boys on and off the course this season,” Lynnville-Sully golf coach Monica Lanser said. Monica Lanser is in her second year coaching both boys and girls and was the boys’ head coach for three years prior to last year.

“Both Macy, who is a three-year letterwinner, and Haley are great leaders. We also have three returning juniors on the boys’ team in Connor Fraker, Baker Zegers and Bayley Morvant. It was fun to see these boys improve last year and get better.”

Macy Lanser earned Iowa Girls’ Athletic Assocation All-District honors and named to the South Iowa Cedar League first team. Hood also received IGAA All-District honors and named to the SICL second team. As a sophomore Macy Lanser went to state as a member of the Hawk girls’ team.

“Last year was a good year for Macy and we’re looking for her to continue to play well. Haley has worked hard to improve over the summer,” Coach Lanser said. “I’m excited to see what she can do. It’s great to have four girls out this year since you need four to score as a team at meets.”

For the Hawk boys, Fraker, Zegers and Morvant learned what it is going to take to be successful on the golf course. Coach Lanser said Lynnville-Sully play against a lot of tough golfers in its conference and other meets.

Sophomore Caleb Jansen is also a returner. He was a first-year golfer a season ago, who “by the end of the season was catching on,” Lanser said. Junior Ben Trettin, who ran track the past two years, comes from a golfing family and will help the team.

Cooper Scandridge, a sophomore, and freshmen John Trettin and Luke Jones round out the Hawk boys’ team.

Coach Lanser said all the Lynnville-Sully golfers have room to improve their games. She said the Hawks’ goal is the same as last year — cut down on putts and chips and the scores will go down. Coach Lanser said the girls and boys need to spend a lot of time around the green to improve.

“High school golfers struggle with this a little bit because they want to just go shoot rounds of golf, but you need to work on the short game,” Coach Lanser said. “I am excited for the season to get started. Hopefully, the weather will be better than last year as we didn’t have a lot of nice days to play golf.”