March 28, 2024

Gilbert Tigers sweep HOIC track meet

Four wins help CMB boys finish runner-up

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DES MOINES — Collins-Maxwell/Baxter senior Bryce Kemp is trying to balance being ready for NCAA Division I football in the fall with still being competitive in track and field this spring.

And despite putting on an extra 15 pounds, Kemp still won two events at the Heart of Iowa Conference meet at a cold and windy Saydel High School on Monday.

Kemp was victorious in the long jump and 110-meter high hurdles and also was third in the 200 and fourth in the 100 as the Raiders claimed second place in the team race.

CMB trailed champion Gilbert by 31 points. The Raiders scored 122 and bested host Saydel by 17. Prairie City-Monroe was seventh with 40.50 points and Colfax-Mingo placed 10th with 13 points in its final HOIC meet.

Kemp is finally starting to get to where he wants to be in the 110 high hurdles and he credits that to running against the state’s best competition at the Drake Relays and several exciting head-to-head battles with Newton’s Deonne Harris.

The Raider senior won the 110 highs in 15.01 seconds Monday and he triumphed in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 10 inches and needed just two jumps to win.

It was the third consecutive title for the former state champion in the hurdles and a back-to-back championship in the long jump.

“Once I found out that I had won there was no sense in jumping two more times,” Kemp said of his win in the long jump. “The hurdles are getting back to where I want to be. I am starting to get over them a little cleaner and running against Deonne has helped a lot.

“It’s exciting to win a conference title. But, and this may sound bad, but I have more important things still left to do. I want to get my title back in the hurdles.”

CMB won four events in all.

Aside from Kemp’s two titles, seniors Patrick Girard and Clayton Weltha were champions in the shot put and discus, respectively.

Girard won the shot put with a throw of 51-1 and Weltha unleashed a personal-best toss of 158-6 to win his second consecutive HOIC discus title.

“I feel pretty good about it,” Weltha said. “I had a good week of practice and we changed up some things. And the wind helped. It was a good night to throw.”

CMB’s shuttle hurdle relay team ran one of its best times of the season but still left town with a silver medal.

The foursome of Kyle Cather, Brady Stover, Brad Ritter and Joey Nissen crossed the line in 1 minute, .02 seconds.

The two other individual third-place finishes came from Hunter Gunderson in the high jump and Mark Deutsch in the 1,600. Gunderson’s best mark was 6-0 and Deutsch stopped the clock in 4:52.44. Deutsch also was fourth in the 3,200 with a time of 10:33.05.

Brady Stover’s fourth-place finish in the 400 hurdles was clocked at 59.07 seconds.

The distance medley relay was third for CMB. That team included Dalton Birchmier, Jon Engle, Blake Coughenour and Gunderson and they stopped the watch at 3:58.66.

PCM fared well in field events.

Junior Logan Gilman produced a personal-best throw in the discus at 130-6 and that was good enough fo third place.

Senior Ricky Reeve also netted a third-place tally in the long jump. He came through with one of his best jumps of the season, taking the tape to 18-8.

The other top finishes for the Mustangs came from Skyler Koder in the high jump and from the shuttle hurdle relay team.

Koder was fouth in the high jump with a leap of 5-10 and then anchored the shuttle hurdle team to fourth. That foursome also included Reeve, Lucas Pendroy and Austin Sneller and they crossed the line in 1:02.83.

“The night was better than I expected to be honest,” PCM coach Collin Harrison said. “We had some really good performances in the field events that were a pleasant surprise.”

Colfax-Mingo was again short-handed.

Jacob Lietz suffered an injury during the meet and his night was cut short. Jared Myers also was not available.

Blake Summy collected the Tigerhawks’ best finish when he came in fourth in the 400. He stopped the clock at 54.07 seconds.

Colin Lourens was fifth in the long jump. His best leap was marked at 18-5.

Gilbert won the meet with 153 points. Trailing Saydel in fourth was North Polk with 85 and Nevada and Greene County both had 60 points. Roland-Story (37.5) and South Hamilton (24) were eighth and ninth, respectively.

CMB and PCM will both be in Eddyville for a Class 2A state qualifier on Thursday. Colfax-Mingo’s 1A state qualifier will be in Brooklyn at BGM High School. Action at both meets starts at 4 p.m.