March 28, 2024

Lynnville-Sully girls have strong showing at B-G-M meet

Rasmusson sets new Hawk 400-meter mark

BROOKLYN — Two relay races netted gold medals for Lynnville-Sully’s Hawk girls last Friday in the B-G-M Bear Classic Relays. The Hawks scored points in 11 events for a team total of 84 and a third-place finish in a meet filled with South Iowa Cedar League schools.

“Everyone got to enjoy picture perfect weather for a track meet and all of the competitors showed what they are capable of with good conditions,” said Darin Arkema, Lynnville-Sully head coach.

“The level of competition, particularly from our conference schools, is really tough. Some of the best performances so far this year in Class 1A have come from individuals and relays in our conference. What’s encouraging and exciting is that our team is included in that, and competing at a high level right now.”

Kasiah Ehresman, Madison Rasmusson, Cori Rice and Tara Vos had combined a year ago to take the Hawk 4x800-meter relay to the 1A state meet. The foursome posted the fourth-fastest time in Class 1A this season in winning the relay race Friday in 10 minutes, 27.29 seconds, which was only two seconds slower than its time at state last year.

Arkema said Rasmusson had a career night on the track for the Hawks. In the 4x800 relay race, she ran her fastest split ever. Rasmusson set a new Lynnville-Sully record in the 400-meter dash. She posted a second-place finish time of 1:01.54 at B-G-M. The old mark for the Hawk girls was 1:01.90.

“She finished second in the 200-meter dash (27.59 seconds) and anchored the winning 4x400 relay to finish the night,” Arkema said. “We got a few girls back who had been injured so that helps with our depth and flexibility for where to put people.”

In the 4x400-meter relay race, Rice, Vos, Lizzy Van Manen and Rasmusson had a winning time of 4:26.57. Vos placed second in the 800-meter run in 2:35.38 and Rice was fifth in 2:47.57.

Alexa Vander Leest ran second in the 1,500-meter race in 5:27.42 and second in the 3,000-meter race in 11:41.67. Line Ascanius placed sixth in the 3,000 meters in 13:15.60. Ehresman took third in the 100-meter dash in 14 seconds and Van Manen placed fourth in the discus with a throw of 90 feet, 7 1/2 inches.

Van Manen and Ehresman combined with Haley James and Makenzy Rozendaal for third in the 4x200-meter relay in 1:58.80. The same four runners placed fourth in the 4x100-meter relay race in 55.95 seconds.

Taking sixth was the Hawks’ distance medley relay team of Kristy Sevcik, Jelissa Rozendaal, Alexisa Hardenbrook and Emme Schnell in 5:12.05.

“Our season stays busy with two meets scheduled for each of the next two weeks, but the fact is that our conference meet is a week and a half away and the state qualifying meet is coming up in three weeks,” Arkema said.

The Hawk girls travel to Pella on Thursday.