Six wins catapult Baxter boys to another ISC championship

BAXTER — Matt Richardson and Max Handorf finished 1-2 in the 3,200-meter run during the Iowa Star Conference meet on Thursday.

But the duo was instructed to ‘take it easy’ to make sure they had something left in the tank at the end of the night.

While not running their hardest for the entire eight laps was difficult, it set up the distance duo for a big night on the oval and helped the Bolts win their second straight boys track and field conference championship.

“This is the first time we’ve been back-to-back conference champions in Bolts history,” Baxter senior Logan Rainsbarger said. “Our coach decided to put together the most competitive lineup he could and wanted us to own the meet. He put everyone in spots to help us shine the most.”

Rainsbarger also shined for the Bolts, winning the 110 high hurdles and helping Baxter finish second in a trio of relays.

The Bolts registered six wins and eight runner-up finishes on the night and scored 147 points at the top of the standings.

Collins-Maxwell was the closest competition at 93 points and the rest of the top five featured Janesville (75), BCLUW (72) and Dunkerton (67).

Baxter finished 1-2 in the 110 high hurdles, 1,600 and 3,200.

Richardson (10:56.33) and Handorf (11:03.27) finished 1-2 in the longest race on the track but were not permitted to go their hardest until close to the final lap.

“I’m an impatient runner. But it was something new to try and it helped save us for the other races,” Richardson said. “I liked being able to just kick it in at 500 meters.”

The other two individual races produced a pair of school records and an Iowa Star Conference meet record.

Richardson won the 1,600 in a school record and meet record time of 4 minutes, 26.73 seconds.

Handorf was the runner-up in a career-best 4:27.56, which also would have set a meet record. They currently ranked third and fourth, respectively, in Class 1A in the event.

“It went great. I think we went out pretty conservative,” Handorf said. “I think we negative split the whole thing. We closed our last lap really fast.

Richardson led the entire way in the 1,600, which is something that surprised both he and Handorf during the race.

“I thought I was going to have to lead it to get a fast time, but (Richardson) took the lead and kept speeding up every lap,” Handorf said. “But that’s good. It pushed us both to be fast.”

Dunketon’s Henry Peterson has a time of 1:55.10 in the 800 this season. He did not run that fast on Thursday, but won the race and forced Richardson to move at a school-record pace.

Richardson finished second in the 800 in a career-best and school-record time of 2:02.59. Handorf was third in 2:07.44.

Rainsbarger (15.73) and Lincoln Betterton (career-best 15.8) were 1-2 in the 110 highs and Betterton placed second in the 200 in a career-best 23.3 seconds.

“He’s been standing out in the 200 lately and had been pushed away from hurdles,” Rainsbarger said about Betterton. “But we wanted to double down in hurdles tonight, and I knew (Betterton) had that in him. He’s been working hard. I was hoping for 1-3, but we went 1-2.

“I can be going a lot faster if I can get the lead leg down fast enough. I think I can cut off a half a second.”

Carter Smith produced a career-best toss of 151-1 to win the discus. It also set a conference meet record and ranks 10th in 1A. Smith finished fourth in the shot put with a toss of 43-8.

“I tried to get lower in the middle and have a better release point. It was nice to have it all working again,” Smith said about the discus mark. “It feels really good going into state qualifying. I hit 148 early on and it’s been down since then. This is a big confidence booster.”

The final individual win came from Eli Dee. He won the long jump with a leap of 20-1 and placed tied for fourth in the high jump with a leap of 5-6.

The lone relay win came in the 4x800. The foursome of James Esqueda, Hayden Burdess, Maddux Tuhn and Handorf grabbed the gold in 8:51.58.

The shuttle hurdle, distance medley and 4x100 relays all placed second.

Esqueda, Burles, Betterton and Rainsbarger posted a time of 1:10.42 in the shuttle hurdle relay.

The 4x100 relay team of Betterton, Rainsbarger, Coy Mergen and Dee placed second in 46.83 and the distance medley relay team of Mergen, Rainsbarger, Dee and Richardson finished the race in 3:44.79.

Peterson anchored Dunkerton’s winning distance medley relay team, but Baxter’s time was the second-fastest in conference meet history.

Five wins not enough for Bolts at Dream Builders Invitational

MESKWAKI SETTLEMENT — Richardson and Handorf went 1-2 in a pair of events, Dee set a new career-best mark in the long jump and Rainsbarger claimed a win in the 110 high hurdles, but it wasn’t enough at the Dream Builders Invitational on Monday.

Baxter registered five wins but was second and third in only four others as it scored 123.5 points in third place.

South Tama County won the meet championship with 134 points and West Marshall (131.5) was closely behind in second.

Collins-Maxwell (94.75), BCLUW (79), North Tama (55.75), GMG (45), Colo-NESCO (40) and Meskwaki Settlement School (19.5) completed the nine-team field.

Handorf, Rainsbarger and Richardson teamed up with Tuhn to win the 4x800 relay. The quartet posted a season best and winning time of 8:39.49.

Tuhn, Travis, Betterton and Esqueda placed third in the 4x400 relay in 3:48.33.

Richardson (2:03.1) and Handorf (2:04.52) went 1-2 in the 800 after going 1-2 in the 3,200. Richardson won the 3,200 in 10:06.22 and Handorf was second in 10:09.39.

Rainsbarger’s win in the 110 high hurdles came with a time of 16.33 and Dee won the long jump with a career-best and school-record leap of 20-6.

Smith (41-11) placed third in the shot put, Dee (5-4) and Esqueda (5-4) went 4-5 in the high jump and Burdess was fifth in the 400 hurdles in a career-best time of 1:05.3. Dee also was sixth in the 400 in a career-best 55.16.