March 29, 2024

Baxter sends eight events to state track meet

BROOKLYN — Baxter senior Sailor Hinegardner and junior Will Clapper are headed back to the state track and field meet.

Hinegardner secured two individual spots in next week’s Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships with wins in the 100-meter hurdles and long jump at a Class 1A state qualifying meet at BGM High School on Thursday.

Hinegardner won the 100 hurdles in 16.09 seconds and claimed a gold medal in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet, 9 1/4 inches.

Clapper also clinched a state berth with a win in the shot put. His state-meet clinching throw was marked at 49-4.

Other individual automatic state qualifiers for Baxter included junior Kaylin Van Ryswyk and sophomore Logan Berg.

Van Ryswyk won the discus and finished fourth in the shot put, while sophomore Amber Weltha finished third in the discus.

Van Ryswyk won the discus with a toss of 107-4. Weltha’s third-place throw covered 98-7. Van Ryswyk’s shot put toss was marked at 32-8 1/4.

Berg won the 1,600-meter run in 4 minutes, 56 seconds. Junior Ian Thomson finished fourth in 5:07.02.

The top finishers in all 1A state qualifiers clinch automatic berths into next week’s state meet at Drake Stadium.

The Bolts clinched a few at-large berths, too.

Clapper, like Hinegardner, will compete in the two individual events after earning an at-large berth in the discus. He won the shot put and finished second in the discus. His at-large throw covered 134-7.

The 4x800 relay teams for both the girls and boys clinched at-large berths.

The girls’ 4x800 relay team finished second, but their time of 10:39.47 was good enough to lock down a state berth. The foursome included junior Lauren Ratliff, senior Ashlee Johnson, sophomore Holly Jessen and junior Brenna Thomson.

Ian Thomson will join his twin sister Brenna at the state meet in the same event. The Baxter boys finished second in the 4x800 relay. The team of sophomore Cole Damman, junior Josh Bruntz, Ian Thomson and Berg finished in 8:51.64.

Baxter’s girls finished second in the team standings. The Bolts scored 92.64 points as the runner-up and trailed Lynnville-Sully by less than 10.

Ratliff was the runner-up in the 800 with a time of 2:38.82. Brenna Thomson placed fourth in the 1,500 with a time of 5:32.91.

The Baxter girls were fourth in the 4x100 relay. The team of sophomore Rachel Kenney, sophomore Emily Nation, freshman Maddie Pierce and Hinegardner completed the race in 53.79 seconds.

The Baxter boys were fifth in the team standings. The Bolts scored 60 points. Belle Plaine won the meet with 105 points, while Lynnville-Sully scored 101 in second.