Shuttle hurdle win guides PCM boys to eighth at Iowa State indoor

AMES — The PCM boys’ track and field team is posting times and distances during the indoor season that compare to some of their best performances all of last year.

The Mustangs used nine top-10 finishes in their latest meet to score an eighth-place team finish during Class 2A competition at the Iowa Track Coaches Association’s Indoor Championships on March 7.

Gavin Van Gorp, Griffin Olson and Evan Jones all were inside the top seven in three different individual events and four relays placed in the top 10 at Iowa State University.

The Mustangs’ shuttle hurdle relay team claimed the lone win. The foursome of Olson, Jaden Houser, Adrien Robbins and Van Gorp won the race in 34.45 seconds. Olson, Robbins and Van Gorp all were part of last year’s 2A state championship team.

Van Gorp finished third in the long jump to lead the individual events. His best leap was marked at 20 feet, 9 inches.

Olson and Van Gorp finished seventh and 11th, respectively, in the 60-meter hurdles.

Olson qualified with the fifth-best time of 8.62 seconds but ran 8.88 in the finals to place seventh. Van Gorp finished the race in 8.93.

Jones turned in a seventh-place finish in the 60 dash. He was sixth in the preliminary race with a time of 7.34 but his 7.33 in the finals dropped him to seventh.

Carter Burns also competed in the 60 and was 33rd with a time of 7.71.

Jones and Chase Wagaman had 10th-place finishes in the 200 and high jump, respectively.

Jones posted a season-best time of 23.74 in the 200 and Wagaman registered a career-best mark of 5-11 in the high jump.

Wagaman got 5-5, 5-7 and 5-11 on his first attempt and cleared 5-9 on his second attempt.

The top relay finish came in the 4x800. The Mustangs posted a season-best time of 9 minutes, 2.38 seconds with Riley Graber, Joe Shaver, Kolby Clark and Gabe Nessa. That would have been the second fastest time last season.

Olson, Jacob Wendt, Graber and Coby DeRaad turned in a time in the 4x400 relay that would have been the fastest last season. They finished 10th with a season-best 3:40.27.

The 4x100 relay was ninth with Burns, Trigg Steenhoek, Gavin Steenhoek and Jones. They posted a season-best time of 45.82.

PCM scored 21 points in eighth. Spirit Lake won the 2A boys’ meet with 60 points, while Mediapolis (54) and Shenandoah (36) were next.