Walker, LeRette win Hawkeye 10 track titles
GLENWOOD — For the second straight year, the Red Oak track and field teams left the Hawkeye 10 meet with a pair of conference champions.
It was Kate Walker and Logan LeRette winning those conference titles as the girls finished 10th, while the boys took ninth at the Hawkeye 10 meet at Glenwood High School Thursday evening.
The girls’ team finished ahead of St. Albert as they recorded a team score of 25. Glenwood won the girls title with 147.5. The boys had 33 points in the meet as Glenwood also took that title with 136 points.
Walker won a conference track title for the second straight year as she ran 2:22.50 to claim it in the 800-meter race. Walker held off both Ellie Mendlik of Denison-Schleswig (2:25.33) and Maria Mostek of Creston (2:27.23).
“I knew it was going to be a tight race, no matter what,” Walker said. “There were four girls that I knew were going to push me.”
Last year, Walker won the 1,500 at the Hawkeye 10 meet in Creston.
LeRette meanwhile scored his win in a race he’s won multiple times this season: the 1,600.
The senior once again held off Atlantic’s Jaxson Eden by a second to run a time of 4:46.28 and claim his first-ever Hawkeye 10 track title.
Both Walker and LeRette helped Red Oak score additional points at the meet.
Walker scored a fourth place finish in the 1,500 as she ran her best time this season of 5:11.75. Mendlik avenged the loss in the 800 by taking the 1,500 title with a time of 5:02.70. Last year, Walker won her first conference track title in the 1,500.
“I’m not as much of a 1,500 runner this year. I’ve definitely become more of a sprinter and I think the 800 has become more of my race this year,” Walker said. “Those girls ran really well in the 1,500 and I couldn’t keep up.”
Walker ran the anchor leg of the distance medley as she joined Hannah Vial, Nikki Graber and Juhi Boeye to run 4:22.58 and finish third.
“We were thrilled. That was a stacked distance medley and we’re four seconds away from the school record,” Walker said. “We cut our time down by like 20 seconds. We definitely ran well and we’re excited for districts.”
LeRette also ran in the distance medley for the boys as an anchor leg as he, Hayden VanMeter, Brock Isaacson and Rob Vial ran 3:53.06 to take fifth.
In the field events, Gabe Nelson had the highlight as he took second in the high jump. Nelson’s best jump was 5’10”, which put him in a tiebreaker ahead of Joey Walker of Atlantic. Alec Hayes of Atlantic won the conference title with a jump of 6’4”.
Josh Sunberg and Dylan Graber had the only other individual finishes for the boys team. Sunberg took fifth in the 3,200 as he ran a 10:50.77. Graber was eighth in the 200-meter dash when he ran a time of 24.50.
Sydney Streicher had an individual finish for the girls when she took seventh in the long jump with 14’9”.
The boys team had three additional points finishes in the relay races.
In the 4x100, the team of VanMeter, Graber, Eli Guerra and Isaacson took sixth with 47.01.
VanMeter, Graber, Vial and Isaacson had a seventh-place finish in the 4x200 as they ran a time of 1:36.70.
Finally, the 4x800 team, which featured Gil Cooper, Liam Eubank, Ryan Dyson and Talor Smith scored an eighth-place finish with a time of 11:01.71.
Red Oak will move on from the Hawkeye 10 meet as they put their focus on getting to state. It all begins Thursday when both Red Oak teams go back to Treynor for the state qualifying meet.
Southwest Valley, Shenandoah, Clarinda, Missouri Valley, Underwood and Panorama will be among the teams competing in the Class 2A field.
Last year, Walker, Sunberg and Graber were the state qualifiers. This year, Red Oak will try to send more track athletes to the famed Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
The meet starts at 4 p.m. at Treynor High School.