Hawk squads soaring into spring seasons

SULLY — State meet medal winners and qualifiers lead a strong Lynnville-Sully boys’ track team into 2018. Lynnville-Sully’s girls have some of those also to provide leadership for the Hawk girls’ track squad.

Lynnville-Sully’s golf program had a change in coaching for the 2018 season. The Hawk golf teams have new co-head coaches in Mike Moran and Jennifer Kramer.

The two spring sports for Lynnville-Sully get under way this week. Lynnville-Sully’s girls swing into the golf season at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday at Pella. The Hawk boys open at home with the girls in a SICL home meet at 4 p.m. with Montezuma and North Mahaska at Diamond Trail Golf Course in Lynnville.

The Hawk track teams had just one indoor meet — the South Iowa Cedar League conference meet a week ago. Lynnville-Sully’s boys proved they are ready to defend their two-time SICL outdoor championship. Lynnville-Sully hosts the 2018 SICL Outdoor Track Championship meet on May in Sully.

On Tuesday, the two-time defending SICL and state-qualifier champion Hawk boys start their 2018 season at the BCLUW meet starting at 4:15 p.m. in Conrad. The Hawk girls compete at 4:30 p.m. meet on Tuesday at Belle Plaine.

Golf

Sharing the coaching duties of 13 Lynnville-Sully golfers this season are Kramer and Moran, both first-time coaches. Kramer has a son on the team while Moran is a teacher at Lynnville-Sully.

Moran said he enjoys playing golf but has never coached it before. He has served as an assistant coach for Lynnville-Sully’s high school football team and an assistant coach for the middle school basketball team.

“We are optimistic that great gains will be made from the start of the season to the end,” Moran said. “We have a solid mixture of new and returning players forming this year’s squad,”

There are five golfers on the Hawk girls’ team led by juniors Tessa Van Maanen and Kayla Van Dyke. Both returners played on the Lynnville-Sully team which took fifth at the SICL tournament and advanced to the 1A regional finals tournament in 2017.

Van Maanen is the top returning golfer for the girls with a 9-hole average of 54 and an 18-hole average of 114. She shot a season-best 50 for nine holes. Van Dyke averaged 74 for nine holes and 147 for 18 holes.

Another junior on the team is Maddelin Mintle, who played as a freshman for the Hawks. The other new members are seniors Hailey Scandridge and Skyler Young.

Senior Holden Jansen qualified for the 2017 Class 1A district golf tournament. He is one of four returning golfers for the Lynnville-Sully boys. The other three are senior Abram Collins, junior Cade DiBello and sophomore Logan Ingersoll.

Jansen led the Hawks throughout the 2017 season, averaging a 52 for nine holes and 92 for 18 holes. He shot well enough at the 1A sectional tournament to advance to the district tournament where his season came to an end.

Collins’ 9-hole average a year ago was 56 and his 18-hole average was 112. Ingersoll shot 73 for his 9-hole average and averaged 123 for 18 holes while DiBello had a 78 9-hole average and a 139 average for 18 holes.

Joining the four returners are junior Ben Van Wyk and freshmen Lane Mathis, Brandon Graham and Luke Kramer.

“Our team’s strengths will be a combination of solid returning players as well as good senior leadership from returning and new members,” Moran said. “Also, our ability to work hard to improve. We’re eager to get on the course and play.”

The coaches expect as practices move along and the season warms up that the Lynnville-Sully golfers will be quick to improve.

Lynnville-Sully hosts three SICL meets on its home course — Diamond Trail Golf Course in Lynnville. The Hawk boys have a home non-conference quadrangular meet.

Girls Track

Depth and experience are strengths for the 2018 Lynnville-Sully girls’ track team.

The Hawks’ numbers have reached 30, which includes 16 returning letter winners from last year. Six of the seven seniors are returning members of the squad.

“The depth is not just in numbers but the quality and ability from a lot of those girls to be used in a number of events,” Lynnville-Sully girls’ head coach Darin Arkema said. “I think this group is capable of performing at a high level. We’ve got a number of individuals with state meet experience from past seasons.”

Under the coaching of Arkema and assistant coach Jill Schuring, the Hawks are putting in the work to getting conditioned, improving their strength in the weight room and working on specific skills to each event. Practices have been hit and miss with the weather and the girls’ basketball team making a strong run to the regional final game.

At the 2018 SICL indoor meet, the Hawk girls put together a conference champion relay team in the 4x400-meter race with senior Mariah Vos, junior Carson Fisk, sophomore Abby Gruver and freshman Caitlin Alberts. Sophomore Mallory Loftus took second in the high jump and newcomer Mary Kate Shaver, a senior who led the Hawk cross country team in the fall, was second in the 1,500.

The returning seniors are Vos, Haley Breeden, Madison Johnson, Jataya Meyer, Christine Nikkel and Camryn Russell. Juniors back are Kaylee Maasdam, Makayla Rozendaal, Emily Van Gorp and Shaleah Van Wyk. Gruver and Loftus lead the returning sophomore group, which includes Kaleah Ehresman, Kennedy Roland, Janelle Rozendaal and Ashton Thompson.

Lynnville-Sully has three of its 1A state sixth-place finishing shuttle hurdle relay team back in Russell, Gruver and Loftus, which posted a school record of 1 minute, 10.13 seconds last May. Gruver was 12th at state in the 400 hurdles and Loftus qualified in the high jump. Russell is back from the state-qualifying 4x200 and 4x100 relays.

Rozendaal is the team’s leading thrower back. The throwing events are ones Arkema is working to develop competitors for the Hawk. Meyer is a sprinter and long jumper.

Shaver, whose family moved to the Lynnville-Sully district from Illinois this year, will lead the Hawk distance runners on the track. She qualified for the 1A state cross country meet, finishing 67th at the state meet. Breeden, Nikkell and Roland are mid-distance and distance runners.

Fisk, Caitlyn Bartholomew and Megan Lu are juniors expected to contribute for the Hawks. Freshmen on the team are Alberts, Jaden Brand, Cally Gibbs, Dylann Huyser, Korinne Jansen, Riley Terlouw, Hadley Tice, Krystal Van Dyke, Megan Van Zante and Meleisha Vos.

“We are relying on our seniors to guide our underclassmen with positive leadership, encouragement and teaching,” Arkema said. “Our conference has been remarkably competitive over the years. The Class 1A team champion last year was Sigourney and they return a wealth of talent from that group.”

Arkema pointed out Colfax-Mingo, Belle Plaine, Montezuma, BGM, North Mahaska and Iowa Valley all have strong groups of athletic girls right now, just from the volleyball, cross country and basketball seasons.

“I have no doubts that our conference meet will be a battle and the team champion will have definitely earned the title,” Arkema said.

Lynnville-Sully added a new meet to its schedule this season — a meet hosted by Colo-NESCO at Nevada. The Hawks host their annual coed meet and the SICL meet.

Boys Track

Lynnville-Sully’s boys put the SICL teams on notice and possibly all comers with their performance a week ago at the conference indoor meet. They won five events in that meet.

The Hawk boys have won back-to-back SICL outdoor track championships and are the favorites going into the 2018 season. And the 2018 SICL Outdoor Track Championships will be on the Hawks’ home track in Sully.

“We are returning a lot of experience from last year’s very successful season. Our team understands and values the work we put it,” Lynnville-Sully boys’ head coach Mike Parkinson said. “We all have our own athletic strengths, but the biggest strength of this team is that they can trust each other and will work for each other.”

Out of the 21 on the Hawk boys’ team, 16 are returning members from last year’s squad. The Hawks return seven state qualifiers including the 1A runner-up (54.1 seconds) in the 400-meter hurdles, junior Tyson Vander Linden. Vander Linden and senior Corey McCoy went fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 400 dash in 1A at the state track meet.

McCoy, Vander Linden, senior Sage Zylstra and junior Nate Stock are back off the school-record (1:35.61) and third-place 800 sprint medley relay team. Junior Gage Vander Leest, McCoy, senior Carson Dunsbergen and Vander Linden are back from the seventh-place state finishing 4x400 relay team.

Dunsbergen and Vander Leest are back from a state-qualifying shuttle hurdle relay. Vander Leest qualified for state in the 110 high hurdles.

Junior Rylan James, who won the SICL indoor shot put last week, qualified for state in the event. Dunsbergen went to state in the high jump. Senior Drake Ehresman won the conference indoor high jump and long jump events. Freshman Carter Dunsbergen joins the jumpers.

James and senior Jesse Van Wyk lead the throwers for the Hawks. Juniors Evan Squires and Grant Wehrle, who was second at the SICL indoor meet in the shot put, return to the shot and discus rings. Payton Van Wyk, a freshman, round out the throwers.

The Hawks’ top distance runners are senior Cody Gibbs and junior Ty Breeden. Freshmen Hannes Van der meer and Blake Rea join the distance running corps.

Zylstra, Ehresman and Stock are the leading sprinters on the team. Sophomores Kinnick McFarland and Ethan Wyma and freshman Kodie Waggoner provide depth in the sprints. Senior Kemper Lukehart is another sprint relay runner.

“We do have some basic concerns as most teams do. We have lower numbers than we are used to, so that will challenge us in some ways. With that being said, we will be strong together and this team has enough talent to be very good — if we go about things the right way,” Parkinson said.

Parkinson and assistant coach Jeff Corbett are working to find how all of it fits together as the season begins. Parkinson said the Hawks know they have a big target on them for the season.

“That will push our guys to work harder, and we hope it motivates us to keep getting better,” Parkinson said. “The SICL is always strong, sometimes more in certain events than others. But the SICL will always put on a good show.”

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