BAXTER — Weather was better but it was still windy and cold Tuesday afternoon and evening for the 2014 CMB Raider Invitational. The coed track meet was postponed by inclement weather on Monday.
Collins-Maxwell/Baxter athletes gave their home crowd plenty to cheer about Tuesday. The CMB boys, who have several athletes in the top five in individual events in Class 2A, won the CMB Raider Invitational boys’ division title with 164 points. The CMB girls finished second with 80 1/2 points to South Hardin with 119 points.
Bridget Hurley posted a season’s-best 1 minute, 3.41 seconds to win the 400-meter dash for the Raider girls. Hurley combined with Maddy Poage, Toni Spencer and Mackenzie Schmitz to win the 4x100-meter relay race in 53.60 seconds.
“Bridget ran a great 400, and I thought she put herself in a position at the end of the race to possibly get close to 60, but just ran out of gas toward the end,” said Jerry Meinerts, CMB girls‘ head coach. “We were hoping to improve our time, trying to qualify for (the) Drake (Relays), but the conditions were just too cold to run a fast 4x100 tonight. We’ll have to see if our 53.06 is good enough to get them there.”
Three Raider boys — probably will be on the Drake Relays list of high school participants scheduled to be released Saturday — won individual events Tuesday. Bryce Kemp has the top time in the 110-meter high hurdles in Class 2A this season. He won the race in 14.48 seconds Tuesday with teammate Joey Nissen in seventh at 16.92.
Kemp also won the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, 10 1/2 inches. Zach Huffaker claimed the silver medal going 19’7” in the sand pit. Kemp ran second in the 200-meter dash in 22.98 seconds and third in the 100-meter dash in 11.33 seconds.
Jordan Coughenour has the top time in Class 2A in the 400-meter hurdles, and he won Tuesday in 55.01 seconds. Brady Stover was fourth in 1:00.23 and Nissen ran eighth overall, but first in junior varsity in 1:06.39.
Coughenour captured the gold medal in the 400-meter dash in 51.28 seconds. He placed third in the high jump, clearing the bar at 5’10”, and Hunter Gunderson tied for fourth at 5’6”.
Zach Samson, who sits atop of Class 2A and has the second best throw in the state overall (57’0”), was the gold medalist in the shot put with a throw of 53’10 1/2”. Patrick Girard was second at 46’7 1/2”.
In the discus, Samson won with a toss of 149’7” and Clayton Weltha was second at 123’5”. Weltha was third overall in the shot put, but first in junior varsity competition, at 42’2 1/2” and Girard was first in the junior varsity discus — sixth overall — at 120’1/2”.
The Raider boys’ 4x110-meter shuttle relay won in 1:02.73 as Nick Littell, Stover, Nissen and Austin Moorman ran the race for CMB. Moorman ran third in the 800-meter race in 2:09.59 and Seth Balke was fourth in 2:10.49.
Mark Deutsch was the silver medalist in the 3,200-meter race in 10:29.12 with Colin Thomson finishing fourth in 11:08.18. Deutsch placed fifth in the 1,600-meter run in 4:49.93 and Evan Bianchi was seventh in 5:04.59.
CMB’s 4x200-meter relay team of Littell, Stover, Samson and Dalton Birchmeir took third in 1:38.97. Also placing third was the 4x800-meter relay team of Tucker Maxwell, Jon Engle, Moorman and Balke in 8:51.48. The distance medley relay foursome of Littell, Birchmier, Blake Coughenour and Gunderson was fourth in 4:13.14.
Placing fifth was the 4x400-meter relay team of Kyle Cather, Gunderson, Huffaker and J. Coughenour in 4:05.16. Littell, Stover, Birchmier and Huffaker combined for sixth in the 4x100-meter relay race in 48.09 seconds.
The CMB girls turned in four silver-medal performance — two in field events and two on the track.
Poage finished second in the high jump with a personal-best height of 5’1”. Hurley was sixth in the event at 4’6”.
“Maddy was really disappointed with her performance last Friday at Huxley, so she came out really focused and just kept jumping higher and higher. It was one of those nights that everything was clicking. It was fun to watch,” Meinerts said.
Payge Jurgens earned silver in the shot put ring with a toss of 34’4”. Schmitz placed second in the 100-meter dash in 13.13 seconds with Toni Spencer taking fifth in 13.30. The Raider girls’ sprint medley relay team of Poage, Jurgens, Abbie Haupert and Hurley posted a second-place time of 2:04.44.
Spencer, Bekah Pearson, Poage and Schmitz combined for third in the 4x200-meter relay race in 1:57.33. Schmitz placed fourth in the 200-meter dash in 27.53 seconds. The distance medley relay team of Sydney Ziesman, Haupert, Megan Ritter and Heather Jessen finished fourth in 5:06.60.
“What a difference from our last meet. I saw a lot of enthusiasm and determination from our girls that I haven’t seen all season,” Meinerts said. “They were high fiving, hugging, and cheering their teammates on. That led to a much better performance in the field events and on the track. We also won the battle at the tape as well.... instead of getting passed the last 10 meters, we were the ones doing the passing. I’m really proud of what our team did tonight.”
In the long jump, Spencer landed in fourth place with a leap of 14 feet. Mikayla Eslinger was fifth in the discus with a throw of 101’9 1/2” and Haupert was sixth at 99’3”.
Jessen ran fifth in the 3,000-meter race in 12:43.20 and sixth in the 1,500-meter race in 5:59.69. Taking sixth for the Raider girls were the 4x400-meter relay team of Ritter, Haupert, Elizabeth Jones and Chasity Moody in 5:13.60 and the 4x800-meter relay team of Chantel Maxwell, Stephanie Twohey, Jones and Veronica Condon in 12:15.27.
CMB’s girls are back in action Monday at Gilbert and the boys are at Ballard on Tuesday.