PELLA — Once again missing athletes for various reasons, the Collins-Maxwell/Baxter track and field teams still found a way to find success at an indoor track meet at Central College on Thursday.
The Raider girls were missing 11 athletes because of a band and choir trip, but they still managed to bring home two gold medals, a silver and two bronze, while the Raiders boys won the 4x400-meter relay and were second or third in six other events.
The CMB girls claimed first place in the 4x200-meter relay and the 55-meter shuttle relay.
The 4x200 foursome of Bridget Hurley, Maddy Poage, Megan Ritter and Mackenzie Schmitz crossed the line in 1 minute, 56 seconds. The shuttle relay team of Schmitz, Poage, Hurley and Sailor Hinegardner and that unit finished in 31.12.
“We competed really hard and were happy with the meet,” CMB girls coach Jerry Meinerts said. “Times are starting to drop a little bit. I like to see that.”
The Raider boys’ only win on the night came in the 4x400 as Dalton Birchmier, Brad Ritter, Mark Deutsch and Hunter Gunderson finished with a time of 3:48.
The girls were missing 11 athletes, but that didn’t completely slow them down.
Hinegardner placed second in the long jump with a leap of 14 feet, 3 inches and she was part of the third-place 4x400 relay team that also included Megan Ritter, Callie Haupert and Hurley. That foursome stopped the clock in 4:42.
The other third-place finish came from Megan Ritter, who grabbed the bronze medal in the long jump with a leap of 13-3. Ally Holfinger was fifth in the long jump at 10-9.5.
Sydney Ziesman grabbed fourth place in the 55 hurdles in 9.84 seconds and Hinegardner was sixth in 9.95. Poage finished in sixth in the high jump wih a leap of 4-8.
The Raider boys were missing six or seven athletes for the same band and choir trip, but CMB coach Neil Seales also held out a few athletes due to minor injuries. That list included Bryce Kemp, Blake Coughenour, Brady Stover and Kyle Cather.
Aside from the win in the 4x400, the boys got second-place finishes from Patrick Girard in the shot put, Joey Nissen in the high hurdles and the 4x800 relay and shuttle hurdle relay also claimed the silver.
Girard’s throw in the shot put was 51-6.5. Nissen finished the 55 high hurdles in 8.33 seconds and Brad Ritter was fourth in 8.80.
The shuttle hurdle relay team of Nissen, Ben Gunderson, Spencer Gauch and Brad Ritter crossed the line in 37.90. The 4x800 relay team of Evan Bianchi, Jon Engle, Hunter Gunderson and Deutsch placed second in 9:09.
“We were happy with the overall effort,” CMB coach Neil Seales said. “We competed hard and performed well even though we were missing some guys. We have a long ways to go, but it was a good step.”
Hunter Gunderson was third in the high jump at 6-0. The best remaining individual effort came from Birchmier, who was fourth in the long jump.
The distance medle relay was third. That foursome included Bianchi, Engle, Marcus Mitchell and Colin Thomson.
Contact Troy Hyde at
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