Multi-sport athletes littered throughout C-M spring programs

Colfax-Mingo girls track and field team l’sost a few key pieces from a talented 2016 squad but a number of key returners are back to give the Tigerhawks a legitimate shot to finish in the top three of the South Iowa Cedar League meet.

The other three spring sports teams are hitting the reset button with a bunch of new faces in each program.

Colfax-Mingo’s boys track team graduated 10 seniors, and four of those seniors competed in five different events at the state meet. None of the returners competed on the blue oval last year.

The golf teams will have a few familiar faces, but most of the rosters making up 19 golfers total will be new to the varsity lineups.

BOYS TRACK

Matt Barkalow, who begins his 11th season as head coach, has former Tigerhawk standout Jacob Lietz as an assistant coach this season.

The Tigerhawk roster will be fairly new to the spotlight, but Barkalow expects a seven-member senior class to lead the way.

Senior Adam Teed is joined by juniors Alex Lewis, Nick Barnes and Reegan Van Dyke, sophomores Cauy Fitch, Zarek Hill, Ethan Summy and Holister Koenig as key returners who filled out key spots in the lineup last year.

Seniors Jimmy Camp and Wyatt Owens and junior Colton Lourens also return as throwers who Barkalow expects to score points each meet.

A large freshmen class also comes in to provide the Tigerhawks with plenty of depth to fill in where needed.

“I’ve always been so blessed to have older guys always showing the younger guys how to compete,” Barkalow said.

“Then when those younger guys become the older guys, they are ready to take over and show the new younger guys how to compete. The next wave is ready to step up and fill in for the big losses we did have.”

Barkalow sites depth at 400s and 800s this year. Leading the way in those spots will be Hill, Koenig, Teed, Van Dyke, Summy as well as freshmen Zack Barnes and Trinity Schroeder. Zack Barnes, Lewis and Fitch lead a small group of distance runners.

The program has qualified for the state meet in the 4x400 relay three of the last four years. Barkalow is currently looking for a group of Tigerhawks to assume those roles for 2017.

“Sixty percent of our team are freshmen and sophomores,” Barkalow said. “Having graduated a large and productive class of performers opens things up for new guys to perform on the big stage. Practices have been excellent so far, with 30 student-athletes giving great effort.”

Perhaps the best chance for a state berth this season, based on performance so far, lies in field events. Van Dyke was the SICL Indoor champion in the high jump, while Camp and Owens are talented enough to make runs at state in the shot put and discus.

“Owens and Camp want badly to graduate as state qualifiers for the Tigerhawks, and both have the potential to do so,” Barkalow said.

Van Dyke has already jumped 6 feet, 2 inches this season after only clearing 5-8 last year.

“He’s a year old, a year stronger and just has more experience,” Barkalow said. “He’s more confident, too. He wants to get better, and I think he is only going to get better.”

GIRLS TRACK

The C-M girls track team has sent at least one event to the state meet in each of coach Zach Tomas’ seven previous seasons at the helm.

The last two seasons have produced the most state qualifying events, 10, during a two-year stretch.

This season, Tomas expects that success to continue. He does want to add one more thing to his long list of accomplishments. Tomas and the Tigerhawks would like to win a team championship trophy at an outdoor meet.

Bringing back his top eight point scorers from last year will certainly help in being able to reach that goal.

“The girls have been working hard,” Tomas said. “I say that every year, but that’s the expectation in this program. Success is not always a given, but working hard is something that we can always do to help get to that success.”

Tomas welcomes back seniors Dakota Hostetter and Amy Russell as well as juniors Rhiannon Haley and Ries Wilson. That foursome scored more points than any other Tigerhawk last season.

The other top scorers who return are sophomore Ilia Hostetter, juniors Danielle Decker and Courtney Burdess and senior Alivia Haley.

Rhiannon Haley and Russell were the headliners in a talented group of throwers.

Haley scored a team-high 103 points last year as she medaled in at least the shot put or discus in every single meet. She placed 21st in discus at last year’s state meet.

“She earned at least one individual medal in every meet and medaled twice in most of them,” Tomas said. “She fully expects to be a leader again.”

Russell joins Haley and sophomore Braedynn Rawlins in the shot put ring, while Alivia Haley joins her younger sister in the discus ring.

Dakota Hostetter will once again do both track and field at Colfax-Mingo and soccer at Prairie City-Monroe. Tomas said he’ll have the services of one of the best distance runners in the state more than he did a year ago.

“We’ll wait to see where we use her at the end of the year because she can do so many things,” Tomas said. “I’d like to see her end her career with an individual state medal like she did during cross country season. That’d be a great way to go out.”

If Hostetter earns an individual state medal in her final season, it would be the first individual state medal claimed by a Tigerhawk female since Kaitlyn McCoy finished eighth in the 800-meter run back in 2005.

Hostetter missed some outdoor meets because of soccer, but she still scored 97 points, swept the 800, 1,500 and 3,000 at the state qualifying meet last year. She also anchored the Tigerhawks’ distance medley relay at the state meet for the third straight season. C-M has claimed two state medals in that event in those three years.

Hostetter also is a two-time state qualifier in the 1,500-meter run.

“We always have a chance to advance to state in the distance medley with her and Ries (Wilson) in those final two legs,” Tomas said. “It’s a little early to know exactly what we’ll do but I think we can get back to state in the distance medley again. That would be four straight years for Dakota, too, which would be a neat accomplishment.”

Wilson could be part of another distance medley state team as well. She’ll give the Tigerhawks a boost in sprinting events and will try to earn her third straight state berth in the high jump. She scored 100.75 points for the Tigerhawks last year.

With the Hostetter sisters, Decker, sophomore Payton Rhone and freshman Abbey McConeghey, Tomas feels depth in the distance events will allow him to be flexible with each meet. He also thinks the team can double up in a lot of the individual distance events.

Tomas expects McConeghey to be one of the team’s top point scorers

Sophomore Jordan Atwood, who transfered back to Colfax-Mingo after spending one year at Collins-Maxwell/Baxter, is expected to make an immediate impact in the long jump and in sprinting events.

This year’s Tigerhawk squad features six seniors, 10 juniors, 10 sophomores and nine freshmen. Colfax-Mingo finished third at last year’s South Iowa Cedar League outdoor meet.

Golf

Colfax-Mingo sophomore Delaney Underwood was one of the best golfers in the South Iowa Cedar League during her freshman season in 2016.

In 2017, Underwood will get to prove it.

After missing out on the SICL tournament a year ago because of a miscommunication, Underwood is back and ready to lead a Tigerhawk program that more than doubled in size.

Colfax-Mingo golf coach Nick Noring returns for his second season at the helm and both his girls and boys programs will have enough players to record a team score this season.

Underwood was one of just four golfers who played for the Tigerhawk girls program last year. Only three players took to the golf course at once for most of the year though. This season, Underwood returns as the No. 1 golfer, but Noring added three freshmen and two newcomers to last year’s returners.

“We would have won meets last year if we would have brought a full team,” Noring said. “Delaney is excited this year to be able to lead us to team wins. It will be more competitive this year, and that should help the team improve daily.”

Underwood held a nine-hole average of 55 last year, which ranked 10th in the SICL. Her nine-hole low score was 49.

“Delaney was an all-district golfer last year, and she should have been an all-conference golfer, too, quite frankly,” Noring said. “She didn’t get the chance to play because of a time change that we were not aware of. So she has a bit of a revenge situation coming, and she is ready to show that she belongs in the conversation with the best golfers in the conference.”

The team’s lone senior, Skye Weber, held a nine-hole average of 75 with a low score of 70. Sophomores Camilla Schlosser and Jasmine Riley are both back, too. Schlosser averaged 76.60 with a low of 63, while Riley averaged 85 with a low of 76.

After Underwood, Noring is unsure which golfer will hold what spot in the lineup. He feels like Weber will hold down the No. 2 spot because of her experience, but freshman Brielle Reed comes from a golf family.

Senior Amy Russell and sophomore Chelsea Russell joins the program this season for the first time. Amy Russell will play two sports as she also will be one of the top point scorers on the girls track team.

The final two golfers are freshmen Shannon Shedenhelm and Sydni Hostetter, who have never played golf before.

The Tigerhawk boys team lost five of its six varsity golfers from last year, including their top four to graduation.

The lone returning varsity golfer is sophomore Ahren Teed, and Noring expects him to be the squad’s No. 1 in 2017.

Teed, who played either No. 4, 5 and 6 last year, averaged a nine-hole score of 52.22.

The next best returners from last year are sophomores Wyatt Smith, Nic Duffy and Skyler Aikin. That trio had nine-hole averages of 60.40, 60.80 and 61.50, respectively.

Sophomore Garrett McGill also returns, while multi-sport athletes Brady Berkey, Jarod Nichols and Jake Dunsbergen join the squad this season.

“I tried to bring in some multi-sport athletes because golf is a mental toughness game,” Noring said. “If they can figure out the mental toughness part of it, they can use that in every sport they play.”