Mustangs gallop to pair of team championships

STATE CENTER — Riley Graber registered one half of the six wins claimed by the PCM boys track and field team at the Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference meet on Thursday.

Graber set a new meet record in the 400-meter dash, anchored the Mustangs’ sprint medley team to a new meet record and ran the final leg of PCM’s winning 4x400 relay team.

All of that, plus individual wins from Kash Fischer and Gavin Van Gorp, led the Mustangs to the conference championship at West Marshall High School.

PCM scored 159 points at the top of the standings. Class 3A Nevada was the runner-up with 138.5 points and the rest of the nine-team field included Roland-Story (116.5), Greene County (83), West Marshall (77), South Hamilton (65), Grand View Christian (38), Perry (35) and Saydel (30).

It was the first HOIAC championship in program history and the first track and field conference title since 2001.

Graber, Fischer and Van Gorp had the only individual wins, but PCM doubled up in the 200, 800, 110 high hurdles, shot put and discus.

Graber won the 400 with a meet-record time of 49.22 seconds, Fischer was the 1,600 winner in a career-best 4 minutes, 40.17 seconds and Van Gorp won the 110 high hurdles in 15.32.

Evan Jones, Adrien Robbins, Tad Wilson and Graber teamed up to set a new meet record in the sprint medley relay. The quartet posted a season-best time of 1:33.65, which ranks third in 2A.

The Mustangs also won the 4x400 and shuttle hurdle relays and placed second in the 4x800 relay.

Coby DeRaad, Fischer, Robbins and Graber won the 4x400 in 3:32.61 and the quartet of Jaden Houser, Jake Winters, Robbins and Van Gorp won the shuttle hurdle relay in 1:01.59.

The 4x800 relay team featured DeRaad, Joe Shaver, Carson Hansen and Fischer and they placed second in 8:32.19.

Half of the team’s four third-place finishes came in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays. Lewis Daye, Tad Wilson, Finn Wilson and Jones finished the 4x100 in 44.52 seconds and Daye, Robbins, Finn Wilson and Jones posted a time of 1:33.57 in the 4x200.

Alex Wendt and Harlan Shannon finished 2-3 in the discus and Hayden Shannon and Wendt were 3-4 in the shot put.

Wendt’s runner-up throw in the discus covered a career-best 136 feet, 7 inches and Harlan Shannon was third with a toss of 130-2.

Hayden Shannon reached 48-11 in the shot put and placed third. That was a personal best by 2 1/2 feet. Wendt was fourth with a toss of 46-7.

The final second-place finish came from Chase Wagaman, who took the silver medal after a leap of 5-10 in the high jump.

Graber (22.72) and Tad Wilson (22.97) were 4-5 in the 200, Fischer (2:05.73) and DeRaad (2:06) went 4-5 in the 800 and Tad Wilson placed fourth in the 100 in a career-best 11.41.

Gavin Steenhoek finished fourth in the 400 hurdles in a career-best 58.8, Winters (16.16) was fifth in the 110 highs and Van Gorp (20-0) placed fifth in the long jump.

Six wins power Mustangs to meet title at North Polk

ALLEMAN — A dominant performance led the Mustangs to yet another meet championship at the North Polk Invitational on Monday.

PCM won six events, finished second six more times and grabbed six third-place finishes. The Mustangs have six meet championships this spring.

PCM claimed four individual wins and won the 4x200 and shuttle hurdle relays. Five of the Mustangs six silver-medal performances came in individual events and PCM doubled up in the 100, 200, 400, 800, long jump, shot put and discus.

The Mustangs scored 163 points at the top of the standings. That was well in front of runner-up Greene County (128) and the rest of the top five featured Roland-Story (94.5), South Hamilton (85) and host North Polk (78). Johnston’s JV (53) and Nevada (30.5) completed the seven-team field.

Tad Wilson (11.51) and Daye (11.63) went 1-3 in the 100, Van Gorp (21-2) and Finn Wilson (19-8) were 1-6 in the long jump and Winters (16.08) won the 110 high hurdles.

Wagaman’s mark of 6-0 won the high jump and tied a career best, Wendt and Hayden Shannon finished 2-3 in the shot put and Wendt (131-11) and Harlan Shannon (120-5) were 2-3 in the discus.

Wendt’s second-place throw in the shot put covered a career-best 47-4 1/4 and Hayden Shannon (45-6 1/4) was third.

Graber finished second in the 200 in a career-best 22.3, which ranks ninth in 2A, and Houser was fourth in a career-best 24.24.

Fischer (2:01.21) and DeRaad (2:02.87) both ran career-best times in the 800 and finished second and third, respectively.

Steenhoek (59.33) took second in the 400 hurdles and Wyatt Heater (career-best 54.69) and Hansen (56.74) were 3-5 in the 400.

The winning 4x200 relay team featured Jones, Robbins, Tad Wilson and Graber and they finished in a season-best 1:31.71.

Houser, Winters, Robbins and Van Gorp won the shuttle hurdle relay in 1:02.12.

The 4x100 relay team of Daye, Heater, Finn Wilson and Jones placed second in 44.57 and Jones, Daye, Finn Wilson and Steenhoek took third in the sprint medley relay in 1:41.69.