Lynnville-Sully’s Vander Linden wins 1A 400 hurdles; Hawk medley sets 1A state meet mark

DES MOINES — Tyson Vander Linden admitted he didn’t know what to do when he crossed the finish line on Friday. The Lynnville-Sully junior had just captured the Class 1A state championship in the 400-meter hurdles.

“I didn’t know how to celebrate. I was so excited,” he laughed. “ It came true. I’ve been chasing this since I finished second here last year when I had a sour taste in my mouth. Wow, I got it done today.”

It was the first of two state championships for Vander Linden at the 2018 Iowa High School Track and Field Championships. Vander Linden anchored the Hawk sprint medley relay team to a state title on Saturday morning.

A year ago Lynnville-Sully senior Corey McCoy had a prediction after the Lynnville-Sully quartet of McCoy, Sage Zylstra, Nate Stock and Vander Linden finished third in the sprint medley state race. Their time was 1 minute, 35.61 seconds.

“Next year’s going to be fast,” McCoy said. And boy was he right — a state meet and school record time of 1:33.83 to claim the title.

The same four were back on the track at Drake Stadium Saturday morning. Zylstra, a senior, led off the sprint medley’s first 100 meters handing the baton off to junior Nate Stock for the next 100.

McCoy got the baton for the 200 leg. He stumbled as he rounded the curve, but caught himself and re-gained the ground he lost. Then came Vander Linden, who busted loose for a 48.5-second 400 leg running down Council Bluffs St. Albert anchor Tyler Blaha, who had won the 1A 400 in 50.33 seconds on Thursday.

“I hit my right foot on my left leg as I came around the curve. I don’t know how, but I just knew I had to get this done for my teammates,” McCoy said of his stumble.

“After I had such a terrible 400 hurdles on Friday, I was determined to come back and have a better day here today,” McCoy said.

Vander Linden won the 400 hurdles in 53.07 seconds, a personal best time and a school record time. McCoy, who also qualified for the 400 hurdles at state, ran a 57.27 for 16th after hitting one of the hurdles during Friday’s race.

Lynnville-Sully’s shuttle hurdle relay team posted the fastest qualifying time on Thursday, 58.50, which was just off the 1A state meet record of 58.48. In Saturday’s final, Central Decatur equaled the Hawks’ time to edge Lynnville-Sully out of a third championship.

The Hawk foursome of senior Carson Dunsbergen, Vander Linden, McCoy and junior Gage Vander Leest went 59.09 in the final for the silver medal. Central Decatur, which was the 2017 Class 2A shuttle hurdle relay champion, took the gold on a 58.50 run.

Lynnville-Sully’s final state medal for 2018 was captured by Vander Leest in the 110-meter hurdles. He qualified seventh in 15.46 seconds on Friday. Vander Leest ran a personal-best 15.21 to win the sixth-place medal.

The Hawks were in third place with 31 points but had no more events remaining. They finished seventh in the Class 1A boys’ team standings. St. Albert-Council Bluffs won the boys’ state team championship with 64 points.

“I was going out hard the first 100 and just keeping it going,” Vander Linden said of his 400 hurdle run. “This race is so fun.”

Vander Linden has qualified for state in the 400 hurdles three straight years. He began running the 400 hurdles as freshman and finished 11th at the state meet.

“I’ve been working hard since the day after last year’s state meet. I run some kind of hurdles every day,” Vander Linden said. “It means everything to be a state champion.”

McCoy was thrown into the 400 hurdle event late this season — the Cardinal Relays on May 4 was his first-ever attempt at the event. He said he felt good going into Friday’s state race but said after hitting the third hurdle he was done.

McCoy didn’t have a smile on his face after the 400 hurdles but the senior was smiling ear-to-ear on Saturday following the sprint medley relay race. He said the Hawks got to this point — winning a state championship — with hard work, dedication and hard work.

“This means a lot,” McCoy said of the state title. “It’s great to have that hard work pay off.”

“I don’t know what to say yet,” Zylstra said. “This is amazing.”

Stock said every since last year’s third-place finish the four have been working together to reach the top in the event. He said he was great to have a really nice meet with great weather to go out and get the state championship.

“To be able to run with these two seniors — Sage and Corey — and give them a state title feels great,” Stock said. “I’m pretty happy for myself too.”

“I did it for these three right here,” Vander Linden said of his anchor leg in the sprint medley relay race.

“That was incredible. He’s an animal,” Zylstra said. “We’ve worked so hard for this all year. We expected nothing less than a state championship and that’s what we got.”

Running the anchor for the Hawks on the shuttle hurdle race was Vander Leest. He said the Hawks ran really well in the preliminaries.

“I thought it was one of my best changes to be a state champion. I ran hard for my teammates but just came up a bit short today,” Vander Leest said.

Dunsbergen ran his final race for Lynnville-Sully in the shuttle hurdle relay final.

“This race has meant a lot to me and I couldn’t have had any better teammates to run with me,” Dunsbergen said. “It didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to but we have a lot to be proud of.”

Vander Leest, who finished eighth in the 110 hurdles a year ago at the state meet, was happy with his performance in the final on Saturday. He said he got a little high over a couple hurdles and could have run faster.

“I qualified for the final in seventh and finished sixth with a personal-best time, I can’t ask for much more than that,” Vander Leest said. “Next year is going to be a good year.

“You don’t just have to be fast in the highs, but you have to have good form. I’m one of the shorter high hurdlers you’ll see so I really work on my form. I have to work on my speed more to really have it all come together.”

On Friday, senior Drake Ehresman finally experienced competing at a state track meet. He finished in a three-way tie for 10th in the 1A boys’ high jump. He cleared the bar at 5 feet, 11 inches.

“I had been wanting to do this for a long time. My brother and sister competed her a lot and I wanted to kind of leave my mark here at school,” Ehresman said of his state meet experience. “It was a great experience to come up here and compete with some of the best athletes in the state.”

The Hawks’ 4x400 relay team of Dunsbergen, McCoy, Vander Leest and Vander Linden ended up ninth in the preliminaries on Friday. Their time of 3:31.02 did not advance them to Saturday’s finals.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com