Becthold, Rew among winners at boys Corner meet

 TABOR — The hard work continues to pay off for Stanton track and field athlete Alex Becthold.

Becthold, a junior, provided the lone highlight for Stanton with his win in the discus as the Vikings took fourth at last Tuesday’s Corner Conference meet at Fremont-Mills High School. 

Becthold set a new meet record with a throw of 158’6” to knock off both Sam and Spencer Phillips of Fremont-Mills.

“It was very nice. It’s nice just to win, but this last week and a half or so, I’ve been throwing a heck of a lot better than I ever thought I would. So that’s a nice surprise,” Becthold said.

Becthold has been a constant for Stanton this season and has stepped it up. He recently broke the school record for the discus throw with 168’ at the Griswold meet. His form and technique has changed since he’s started throwing for the Vikings.

“I think what’s really been helping me, my release is getting a lot better,” Becthold said. “It’s coming out a little more flat and I’m getting it higher.”

The win over Spencer Phillips, in particular, was a sweet one for Becthold, who has viewed him as a main competitor in the discus.

“In the earlier years, I couldn’t wait until I got that win against Spencer,” he said.

Phillips, however, got one up on Becthold in the shot put as he won 46’6”. Becthold finished second with 43’5.5”, while East Mills’ Matt Glockel took third with 42’. Becthold is the last Viking to qualify for state, reaching it in 2013 as a freshman. He finished sixth that season.

Getting to state is on Becthold’s mind, but he doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself.

“The weather wasn’t cooperating last year, but I still let it get away,” he said. “I just need to go and throw my best.”

Stanton had a few other top finishes in the meet, including the 100-meter dash when Chris Jones was less than a half second behind the winner of the race, Nishnabotna’s Chad Blank, finishing third with a time of 11.65.

Connor Hultman meanwhile was third in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:01.94. Hultman (17.82) and Becthold (17.96) were fifth and sixth in the 110-meter hurdles.

Matt Wood took fifth in the 1,600 with 5:34.04.

Stanton had two third-place finishes in the relay races. The first came in the shuttle hurdles when the team of Becthold, David Sorensen, Brady Johnson and Hultman ran 1:10.44.

The 4x200 team of Jones, Johnson, Sorensen and Easton Blunt also took third with a time of 1:45.37.

East Mills

The Wolverines had multiple wins at the meet, as they took third with 106 points. Fremont-Mills finished first in the meet with 165.

Sam Rew had the highlight with a win in the high jump. Rew jumped 6’2”, beating out Fremont-Mills’ Parker Powers. Stanton’s Hultman was fifth in the high jump with 5’4”.

Rew and Powers were the final two as they squared off on multiple jumps.

“Parker and I have always been back and forth in the high jump. He’s a tremendous athlete and I’m glad I had the opportunity to push myself against him,” Rew said. “He’s ranked higher in the state than me as of now and I guess today, I just got the better of him.”

Rew almost had it won at 6-feet, but Powers stayed in the event by clearing it on his final try.

“Parker just looked like he didn’t have his steps down to me,” Rew said. “I saw him coming around the third time, he wasn’t stuttering like he was before. I knew he had that jump.”

Rew clinched the win when he cleared 6’2” on his third try. He had an opportunity to try for 6’4”, but narrowly missed on the first try when he knocked the bar off.

“My kick was a little too slow and the bar got wrapped inside my ankles,” Rew said.

In addition to the high jump, Rew took second in the 110-meter hurdles behind Powers with a time of 17.41.

East Mills picked up three wins in the relay races, including the 4x400 when the team of Noah Meyer, Miguel Sanchez, Austin Edmunds and Josh Hopkins ran 3:40.59, holding off Fremont-Mills by two seconds.

The 4x800 team also had a win when Meyer, Alec Moorman, Alex Hall and Glockel ran 9:24.30.

East Mills’ third win was the 4x200 team of Hopkins, Tony Volz, Sanchez and Cavin Darnold running 1:38.82.

Essex

The Trojans took seventh in the meet as they posted a score of 20 points.

Cody McClintock had the highlight with second place finishes in the distance races. His first runner-up finish came in the 1,600, when McClintock ran a time of 4:54.77, two seconds behind Nishnabotna’s Josh Haning.

McClintock finished behind Haning again in the 800 as he ran 2:20.43.