July 07, 2025

Barkalow stresses improvement for his Tigerhawks

By Ben Frotscher

Colfax-Mingo’s boys track team starts the season Tuesday at PCM. Members of the team are (front row from left) Jeff Tiffany, Dylan Thompson, Dalton Mindham, Preston Wilson, Travis Jensen and Sam Middleton. Second row: Jake Maggard, Shadoe Rusk, Brandon Kolo, Steven Weber, Joey Tiffany, Justin Fisher, Alex Baylor, Trent Pease, Dylan Day, Jaden Van Dyke and Cameron Hainer. Back row: Jim Agey, Nick Callahan, Jake Halferty, Mitch Larson, Colten McKinney, Christian Wing, Austin Poulter, Morgan Peterson, Joe Borts and Connor Hainer. Not pictured: Jesse Nicodemus, Shane Kelderman, Jon Karns, Harrison Koenig, Chase Russell, Dylan Berkey, Mitch Tomlonovic, Connor Parker and Dylan Carlson. (Ben Frotscher)

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COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo boys track coach Matt Barkalow is always looking for improvement, and with how he coaches, it shows.

“I’m a big goal setter,” Barkalow said. “I have the boys give me goals, and I give them goals, and we compare where we’re at. I track their performances throughout their careers and try to get them to improve those goals.”

And if the Tigerhawks improve like Barkalow thinks they can this season, he expects some talent to make the blue oval in Des Moines for the State Track Meet.

Last season, Shadow Ross was the leader for Colfax-Mingo. This season, that one individual is senior Dalton Mindham. Mindham qualified in Class 1A for the State Wrestling Tournament, and Barkalow hopes to keep the state tournament trend going.

“He’s already run a 52.97 at the Iowa State Indoor Meet in the open 400,” Barkalow said. “He medaled last year in districts by getting sixth. He has a legitimate chance to make it to state this year in the open 400.”

Mindham is joined by fellow senior Dylan Thompson as someone Barkalow thinks can get to the state meet in the discus.

“He’d never thrown before (until last year),” Barkalow said. “He’s got a tremendous amount of potential. If he can get his form down, I think he has a legitimate chance of being in the top-3.”

Barkalow also looks to brothers Cameron and Connor Hainer, Travis Jensen, Dylan Berkey, Connor Parker, Justin Fisher, Joey Tiffany, Mitch Larson and Christian Wing as athletes to watch during the season. Barkalow just isn’t sure about his team, but he knows one thing, he has some depth this season with 37 athletes on the track.

“It’s nice to have the numbers out, so we can fill out a whole meet,” Barkalow said. “That’s such a huge difference. You can have someone in every single event.

“I’ve got about 18 lettermen back. I have more lettermen out this year than runners in my first year as track coach.”

Barkalow sees the strengths of his team lying in relays.

“I’d say the open 400 with Dalton (Mindham) and the 4x400 relay — we have some good guys there,” Barkalow said. “I think the medley is strong and depending on the foursome, I think we have some chances to really improve our 4x800. We’ve taken about 50 seconds off from last year at this time.”

Looking ahead to the season, the Tigerhawks start off on Tuesday at PCM. The Heart of Iowa Small School Meet is May 10 at Jewell, while the district meet is four days after that at either Ogden or Roland-Story. Barkalow will see a lot of the same teams at both meets. He knows there are some solid boys track programs, some even in their own backyard.

“CMB is always a terrific team, they have a lot of kids out and are well-balanced,” Barkalow said. “PCM had some kids graduate, but Brian Miller is back this year. That makes them tough in the 100, 200 and relays. Those two neighbors are tough.”

To be successful this season, Barkalow knows a mix of things will need to happen.

“I think we just need to stay healthy,” Barkalow said. “Dalton Mindham is going to be a huge part of any relay we do, and we want to keep him physically strong. From there, we just need to have some young guys step up. The goal is to get to the blue track.”