Hinegardner, Clapper lead Baxter into Bolts track and field era

Josh Russell had spent his entire coaching career in the CMB track and field program.

He hasn’t known anything else, and admits to even have written down Raiders on the top of his practice sheets during the early stages of the season.

Jason Aker is still trying to prove to his girls’ track team that he is up to the task of leading Baxter into its new era of track and field.

The good news for both coaches is they have a pair of talented athletes in senior Sailor Hinegardner and junior Will Clapper at the top of their rosters who should help with the transition.

“The transition has been good, but it’s new territory for me,” said Russell, who will lead the Baxter boys’ track and field team this season after spending the last two seasons as CMB’s head coach.

“To see kids and coaches who we have worked with in different colored shorts at one of our indoor meets was different. The kids are handling it well, but the CMB roots were so deep for me. It’ll get more routine though as we go.”

Baxter Girls

Track and Field

Aker’s first season as a high school track and field coach will include 17 athletes. None of them have a better resume than Hinegardner, who qualified for two individual state meet events in Class 2A last year.

This season, the Bolts will be in 1A, and Hinegardner’s chances at a medal improve greatly.

Her early distances in the long jump have hit 16 feet or better and that would have placed her in the top five at last year’s 1A meet. She was 16th in last year’s 2A state meet.

Hinegardner also qualified for state in the 100-meter hurdles last year, placing 17th. Her times during the indoor season show she may be in for her best season yet.

“We want to help her achieve her goals,” Aker said. “She feels good about her distances in the long jump so far this year, and she works so hard on hurdles, too. We’ll try to push her into some other events this year. I think she is good enough to run anything from 400 meters and under.”

Hinegarnder isn’t the only Baxter girl who qualified for the state meet last year.

Junior Lauren Ratliff placed 20th in the 800 and junior Brenna Thomson was 21st in the 3,000. Aker said those will be events both of those athletes focus on again this year, with both also running the 1,500 during the season.

The 4x800 relay could feature four Bolts who ran on the state qualifying cross country team in the fall. Ratliff and Thomson are in that group along with senior Ashlee Johnson and sophomore Holly Jessen. Johnson could also run the 800 and 1,500, while Jessen may be used in the 800, 1,500 and 3,000.

This year’s Bolts’ roster includes four seniors. Hinegardner and Johnson will be joined at the top of the roster by veteran Mary Schabilion and newbie Jordynn Wesselink.

Schabilion and Wesselink will both run sprints and hurdles, and Wesselink will throw herself into the high jump mix, along with sophomore Bekka Watt and Thomson.

Other athletes who Aker feels will be in the mix for other sprinting events include Watt, sophomores Rachel Kenney and Emily Nation, junior Avery Backus and freshmen Madison Pierce, Kailee Conradi and Carlee Zahurones. Pierce’s workload also will include hurdles.

“I come from a football coaching background, so right now, I have to prove that I can coach girls,” Aker said. “We are building trust with each other and building relationships every day. This is the future of Bolts track. We only have four seniors so I will need all 13 of the other girls to come back out next year.”

Aker’s transition into the role of head girls’ track coach hasn’t come without some help. With smaller numbers than they were used to while coaching CMB, all four track coaches are helping each other in different parts of the sport. Aker’s girls’ assistant coach will be Scott Ranck, while Russell’s boys’ assistant coach is Ryan Boley.

Aker’s main focus in his first season as head coach will be with the throwers. His girls’ trio includes junior Kaylin Van Ryswyk, sophomore Amber Weltha and freshman Merrin Ziesman.

Van Ryswyk returns as the No. 1 thrower after going beyond 34 feet in the shot put and past 108 feet in the discus last season.

“We changed their technique this year so it may take some time to get going,” Aker said. “We will only use the glide motion this season. I wanted a more universal technique to help give us more consistency and a more fluid motion.”

Baxter Boys Track and Field

Russell’s No. 1 boys’ thrower is Clapper, and he’s the only returning state qualifier for the Bolts’ boys’ track team. He was 18th in the 2A field in 2017.

Clapper also qualified for the Drake Relays, and went beyond 53 feet for the season. He has already gone over 50 feet in the indoor season this spring. Russell thinks Clapper has the potential to reach 55 feet in 2018.

“He puts a lot of pressure on himself, but some of things were out of his control last year,” Russell said. “We’ll work on his flexibility and his footwork, but I think he can get a few more feet to his PR this year. We think he’ll have a big year.”

Joining Clapper in the throwing circles will be sophomore Carter Nelson, senior Jesse Garr and freshman Micah Kearns.

Russell has been part of several conference championship teams while an assistant coach at CMB. He also has coached several state champions. And the expectations have always been as high as can be from a team standpoint.

This year, with only 23 athletes, the expectations have changed a bit.

“We should still be able to compete with the smaller schools we go up against, but we can no longer compete with schools like Gilbert,” Russell said. “We just don’t have the depth. We have had to change our approach. We can’t specialize anymore. Our guys will now have to be able to compete in four events and do more things. I just want the guys to perform as well as they can.”

Russell’s roster of 23 athletes includes around five first-year seniors. The school needs as many bodies as possible moving forward as a 1A school.

“We are happy to have the new guys with us,” Russell said. “It’s a unique situation this year. We don’t have our teammates at Collins-Maxwell anymore. We need bodies. So guys recruited their friends. I will coach them up no matter how many years they’ve been on our team. I had to recruit kids differently though.

“The good news is everything we do this year is a school record. The new seniors we have out have had plenty of success this year. And we plan on seeing that in track and field, too.”

The top returning sprinters for the Bolts are seniors Xander Huff, Joe Keeling, Braydon Aker, Marcus Mitchell and Devin Carson.

Huff has the top returning time in the 100 and 200, Keeling and Aker are the top returning 400 runners and Mitchell and Carson lead the way in the 400 hurdles. Senior Brady Geilenfeldt is the top 110 high hurdler.

“We have some experience back, and they are a year older and a year stronger,” Russell said. “They should be a step quicker. They are athletes who like to compete.”

The top distance runners are sophomore Logan Berg and junior Ian Thomson. Berg has the top returning 800 and 1,500 time last year, while Thomson ran the fastest 3,000 time. Both should provide leadership in all three distances.

Other sprinters who should provide the Bolts with some depth include seniors Wade Zahurones, Travis Lindemoen, Bryce Bacon and Alec Ruby and sophomore Cole Damman. Lindemoen, Bacon and Ruby are all newbies to track this season.

“We have to have four good races out of Cole Damman if we want to do well in the team race,” Russell said.

Joining Berg and Thomson in distance events are juniors Josh Bruntz and Austin Good and seniors Eric Northrup and Casey Crady.

Senior Ben Huff is the top returning long jumper and high jumper from last year. He’ll get competition this year from Xander Huff, Lindemoen and Carson in the long jump and Bacon, Mitchell and Ruby in the high jump.

The Bolts kick off the outdoor portion of their season at 4:45 p.m. Monday in Bondurant.