McCoy leads Lynnville-Sully boys to two records at SICL Indoor

GRINNELL — In his first time out this season, Lynnville-Sully junior Corey McCoy just simply wanted to run as fast as his coach told him to run.

In the end, McCoy did so much more.

McCoy started his night with an impressive win in the 800-meter run, and then closed the night with an even better anchor leg in the 4x400 relay that helped the Hawks grab a second gold medal at the Bear Athletic Center on the campus of Grinnell College during the South Iowa Cedar League Indoor meet Monday.

McCoy’s time of 2 minutes, 9.70 seconds in the 800 set a new SICL Indoor meet and his team in the 4x400 relay also set a new benchmark for the event.

“To get faster than 2:10 because that’s what coach (Parkinson) set me at,” McCoy said when asked what his goal was for his first 800 of the season. ‘I am definitely happy with the first time out. I ran a 2:01 at state last year, so I am not too far off that in the first meet.”

The Hawks’ 4x400 foursome of Tyson Vander Linden, Gage Vander Leest, Carson Dunsbergen and McCoy finished in 3 minutes, 42.45 seconds, which bettered Colfax-Mingo’s record from a year ago by 0.7 seconds.

The only other gold-medal performance from an area boys athlete came in the high jump after Colfax-Mingo junior Reegan Van Dyke tied the SICL Indoor meet record with a leap of 6 feet, 2 inches.

After not clearing 5-10 last year, Van Dyke came into the meet with top three expectations but never would have imagined walking away with an SICL Indoor title.

“I couldn’t even get 5-10 last year,” Van Dyke said. “This year has been so much better. I am consistently in the 6-0 range now. I didn’t play basketball last year, so I think playing this year helped me a lot. I have been working hard in the weight room, too.

“​I am definitely happy. I thought the North Mahaska kid would have a freak night, and I would be about 5-10 or 6-0 and have a normal night. The result I got feels great though.”

North Mahaska’s Cole Rozendaal jumped 6-0 and placed second, while L-S’ Dunsbergen’s placed third with a leap of 5-10.

The Hawks and Tigerhawks combined for four other third-place finishes.

The Colfax-Mingo distance medley relay team of senior Adam Teed, sophomore Zarek Hill, junior Nick Barnes and sophomore Holister Koenig grabbed the bronze medal with a time of 4:05.91.

The next best relay finish came from Lynnville-Sully in the 4x200. The foursome of junior Sage Zylstra, sophomore Nate Stock, senior Caden Dunsbergen and senior Ryan Hofer placed third with a time of 1:41.93.

The Hawks’ other two bronze-medal performances came in the shot put with sophomore Rylan James and the 400 with Vander Linden. James’ best toss was 42-7 1/2, while Vander Linden stopped the clock in the 400 in 53.64 seconds.

Junior Brevin Hansen collected a pair of individual fifth-place finishes. He was fifth in the 400 with a time of 58.52 and took fifth in the 800 with a time of 2:23.96. Junior Drake Ehresman also was fifth in the long jump with a leap of 18-4 1/2.

The Hawks’ distance medley relay was sixth, too. The team of junior Kemper Lukehart, junior Elijah Collins, freshman Ethan Wyma and freshman Kinnick McFarland crossed the finish line in 4:24.92.

Colfax-Mingo senior Jimmy Camp was six inches behind James in the shot put as he took fourth with a toss of 42-1 3/4. Sophomore Ethan Summy gave the Tigerhawks another top-six finish in a field event when he placed sixth in the long jump with a leap of 18-1 1/2.

The Tigerhawks’ final top-six finish came in the 4x400 relay. The foursome of Teed, Hill, junior Nick Barnes and Koenig placed sixth with a time of 3:56.31.

The SICL did not keep team points. And there were issues with the scoring system, too. Results were not available at press time for the 60-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles.