It’s been a good day for area athletes at the Iowa State High School track meet in Des Moines. Boys and girls in Classes 3A and 2A have had their first day of competition Thursday (5/16)…with Classes 4A and 1A continuing into this evening. Pella’s boys have had a couple of second place finishes in Class 3A: Nick DeJong in the discus and the Dutch 4 by 800 relay team of Tony Schmitz, Karl Miller, Drew VanHauen and Josiah Wittenberg. Also, Pella’s 4 by 100 shuttle hurdle relay team of Nolan Clayberg, Brandon Winegardner, Gabe Thomas and Jordan Buma had the best qualifying time in Thursday’s preliminaries. Oskaloosa’s Carter Huyser was fourth in the 800 meters, with the Indians’ Casey Hill 14th in the discus. Landon Kooiker of Fairfield won the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 7 inches—thanks to a tie-breaker because he didn’t have any misses. Grinnell’s 4 by 800 relay team got on the podium with a fifth place finish.
Checking 3A girls, Oskaloosa’s Faith DeRonde placed fifth in the shot with a throw of 119 feet, 9 inches, with Pella’s Elly Cairney seventh and Oskaloosa’s Sophia Dykstra 11th. Caroline McMartin of Pella was third in the 3000 meters and the Lady Dutch were 8th in the 4 by 800 relay. Oskaloosa’s Emma Kelderman was tenth in the high jump. Her jump of 5 feet, 2 inches would have tied her for seventh, but several other girls also cleared that height, and because Emma had one miss at a lower height, that kept her off the podium.
Moving to 2A boys, EBF’s Kalen Walker has qualified for both the 100 and 200 meter finals. Walker’s time of 10.92 seconds in the 100 was the fastest in the qualifying. Pella Christian’s Blake Veenstra placed fifth in the shot put, Payton Strovers of PCM was fourth in the long jump and the Mustangs’ 4 by 100 shuttle hurdle team qualified for the finals.
And in 2A girls, PCM has qualified for the finals in the Class 2A girls’ 4 by 100 shuttle hurdle relay; the Mustangs had the third best qualifying time.
