Indian track boys compete in pair of early season indoors

The Waukon Indian boys track team took part in a pair of indoor events this past week to further gear the Tribe for its fast-approaching outdoor season. In a pair of unscored meets last week, the Indians competed in the Northeast Iowa Conference Indoor at Luther College in Decorah Tuesday, March 22 and then matched up with some of the state’s larger schools at the Dickinson Relays in Cedar Falls Friday, March 25.

NEIC Indoor ...

In their first full team competition of the 2005 season, the track and field Tribe matched up against the other six teams in the Northeast Iowa Conference at the Luther College indoor track and field facility in Decorah Tuesday, March 22. No team scores were kept for the event, and Indian head coach Joe O’Neill says the main focus for his charges was just to get out and compete as best they could in this season’s early going.

“We wanted to just go over and compete, we weren’t too concerned with where we placed at this point in the season,” O’Neill commented. “We’ve been practicing for a while now in the less than ideal weather conditions, and we just wanted to give as many kids as we could the opportunity to finally compete.”

The Indians did garner a handful of top-end finishes against their conference counterparts, giving O’Neill reason to believe that the competitiveness of his team members is about right where it needs to be at this point. Couple that with the conditioning that is yet to come for the season, and O’Neill feels very positive about what this season may yet hold.

“Overall, we thought the kids competed very well,” he said. “Our focus in this meet was going out and finishing every race as hard as we could right on through to the end. Our conditioning is obviously not where we want it to be, since we haven’t done much of that with the weather the way it has been, but I was pretty pleased with how hard our kids went out after their races.”

Highest on that list of top-end finishes for the Orange and Black were the individual efforts of seniors Kyle McCormick and Eric Osterhaus and the relay effort of the Tribe’s medley crew. McCormick scored the Tribe’s lone event win of the evening, topping the high jump field with a leap of 5’8” that caught O’Neill’s attention as an impressive effort for this early in the year.

“Kyle is an experienced high jumper, and I’m very pleased with the height he cleared to win that event for us, especially considering the fact that he’s had very little work in that event so far this year,” O’Neill remarked.

McCormick and Osterhaus each also managed a pair of individual runner-up finishes for the Indians, McCormick blazing through the 55-meter high hurdles in 8.19 seconds and Osterhaus claiming second in the 800 meter run with a clocking of 2:12.38.

A third runner-up finish for the Tribe was recorded by the medley relay crew of senior Jesse Volbrecht, sophomores Nic Lloyd and Jeremy Hirth, and junior Lee Waters in a time of 4:06.38.

A senior-laden 4x800 relay crew for the Indians turned in what would be considered yet another medal-winning finish. Along with Osterhaus, fellow veterans Kendal Sickels, Dan Cook and Junior Swart teamed up for third place in that event with a clocking of 9:02.31.

“We had some 400 and 800 runners who ran some double races for us and did it very well,” O’Neill stated. “Running a pair of 800s or 400s in the same meet this early in the season can be difficult, but I was happy with how they went out after their second race just as hard as they did their first one.”

Indian results (places noted) for the Northeast Iowa Conference Indoor follow:

Shot put - Dylan Newton 40’11-1/2”; Levi Tinderholt 40’1”; Sean Rea 39’3-1/2”.

High jump - 1. Kyle McCormick 5’8”; Jeremiah Volbrecht 5’2”; Russell ReVoir N/A.

Long jump - 4. Ryan Snitker 17’11-3/4”; Jeremy Hirth 16’10-1/2”; Jimmy Larson 16’9”.

3200m - 4. Luke Weber 11:18.31; Luke Deal 12:55.95; Nathan Meyer 13:53.85.

55m hurdles - 2. Kyle McCormick 8.19; Russell ReVoir 9.20; Jeremiah Volbrecht 9.58.

55m dash - Jimmy Larson 7.15; Andrew Decker 7.17; Reed Kious 8.36.

4x800 - 3. Kendal Sickels, Dan Cook, Eric Osterhaus, Junior Swart 9:02.31.

200m - Jeremiah Volbrecht 25.87; Jon Seibert 25.94; Andrew Decker 26.74.

1600m - 6. Isaac Fenn 5:23.04; Hans Walleser 5:33.82; James Emerson 5:51.10.

4x200 - 5. Kyle McCormick, Nic Lloyd, Jon Seibert, Jesse Volbrecht 1:44.02.

400m - 4. Ryan Snitker 53.30; 5. Adam Schon 56.63; Jimmy Larson 58.71.

Medley - 2. Jesse Volbrecht, Nic Lloyd, Jeremy Hirth, Lee Waters 4:06.38.

800m - 2. Eric Osterhaus 2:12.38; 6. Kendal Sickels 2:16.71; Dan Cook 2:18.93; Dan Mathis 2:33.28.

4x400 - 4. Adam Schon, Nic Lloyd, Jeremy Hirth, Ryan Snitker 3:47.78.

Dickinson Relays ...

The Indian track and fieldsters matched themselves up against some of the best competition in the state Friday, March 25 when they competed in the Dickinson Relays at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. Waukon head coach Joe O’Neill said the goal of this meet was to see how his charges fared against some of the best competition around.

“Dickinson gave us a chance to compete against some of the bigger 3A and 4A schools,” O’Neill said. “We got the opportunity to see how our kids would compete against those bigger schools, and it also gave us a chance to get as many kids involved as we could.”

Most of the individual events at the meet had at least 60 competitors vying for placewinnings, with the relay events having at least half that many teams competing. The track Tribe, however, did not back down from those large numbers, placing themselves respectfully in nearly every event and scoring top-20 placewinnings in five events.

The Indians’ best showing of the day came in the 3200 meter run, where the senior tandem of Eric Osterhaus and Junior Swart each placed in the top 15 in the 61-runner field. Osterhaus claimed the Tribe’s best overall finish on the day by placing among the event’s distance-running elite with a fourth-place effort in 9:54.82. Swart clocked in at 10:27.80 for 15th place.

Osterhaus later came back in the meet to nearly complete a double top-10 placing for the day, placing 11th among 71 competitors in the 1600 meter run in a time of 4:47.14. “Eric showed that he is truly one of the better distance runners in the state with a great two-mile effort followed up by another near top-10 finish in the 1600 meters,” O’Neill commented.

Fellow senior Kyle McCormick also etched himself as a notable competitor at the meet, claiming a pair of top-15 individual finishes. He managed the Tribe’s only other top-10 finish at the meet with an 8.79 clocking in the 60 meter high hurdles for eighth place overall, and then soared 5’8” to place 15th in the 59-competitor high jump field.

“Kyle went down to Dickinson with a goal of at least qualifying for the finals in the high hurdles, and he did just that and more,” O’Neill said. “He actually qualified with the sixth fastest preliminary time, but ended up eighth in the finals. There were two heats in the finals, and he was in the fastest heat. All of those top hurdlers in that heat came across one right after the other, and Kyle was right in there with them.”

McCormick also led off an Indian medley relay effort that completed the Orange and Black’s list of top-20 finishes for the day. Fellow seniors Jesse Volbrecht, Ryan Snitker and Junior Swart joined forces with McCormick to place 18th overall in the 45-team field with a time of 3:58.50.

Coach O’Neill also cited some question-answering performances by a pair of quarter-milers at the meet. “We had some question marks coming into this season about where we could find another couple quarter-milers,” he said. “(Sophomore) Nic Lloyd and (senior) Adam Schon really answered those questions for us with some good individual and relay quarter miles, so I was happy to see those efforts from those two kids.”

Indian results (total teams competing in each event listed in parentheses) at the Dickinson Relays follow:

Shot put (83) - 52. Sean Rea 41’2”; 59. Dylan Newton 39’9-1/4”;.

Long jump (62) - 48. Devan Kuehn 17’7”.

High jump (59) - 15. Kyle McCormick 5’8”; 26. Jeremiah Volbrecht 5’6”.

3200m (61) - 4. Eric Osterhaus 9:54.82; 15. Junior Swart 10:27.80.

60m hurdles (71) - 8. Kyle McCormick 8.79; 61. Russell ReVoir 10.19; 63. Jeremiah Volbrecht 10.46.

60m dash (97) - 83. Jeremy Hirth 7.99; 88. Devan Kuehn 8.08.

4x800 (35) - 26. Kendal Sickels, Dan Cook, Hans Walleser, Lee Waters 9:21.76.

400m (91) - 38. Adam Schon 56.22; 59. Jeremy Hirth 58.00; 64. Nic Lloyd 58.38.

1600m (70) - 11. Eric Osterhaus 4:47.14; 59. Luke Weber 5:23.06.

Medley (45) - 18. Kyle McCormick, Jesse Volbrecht, Ryan Snitker, Junior Swart 3:58.50; 32. Jeremiah Volbrecht, Devan Kuehn, Russell ReVoir, Lee Waters N/A.

4x100 (N/A) - 37. Kyle McCormick, Devan Kuehn, Jesse Volbrecht, Jeremiah Volbrecht 49.07.

4x400 (46) - 25. Adam Schon, Nic Lloyd, Jeremy Hirth, Ryan Snitker 3:44.54.

The Indians will now prepare themselves for their very own Waukon Early Bird home invitational meet this Thursday, March 31. The meet is set to begin at 4 p.m. The Tribe will then pull double duty next week, traveling to the Oelwein Invitational Tuesday, April 5 and the Waverly-Shell Rock Invitational Friday, April 8.