HURON – Aberdeen Central racked up multiple wins during the final tune up before the state meet during the Mark Wendelgass Relays on Thursday.
The Golden Eagles recorded six victories in the girls’ division and seven win in the boys’ division.
“We had a good day. We had one hour of good weather and then it went to heck, and it didn’t affect us,” said Central girls’ coach Jim Appl. “We didn’t run our best times of the year, but we ran as hard as we ever did. We beat some kids that beat us last week and that tells you something.”
The Eagles received first place finishes from Sadie Struble in the 300 hurdles, Gracie Rife in the 100-meter dash, Taryn Hermansen in the shot put, Ciara Frank in the long jump and the 400-meter and 800-meter relay squads. Members of the 400 team were Abigail Witte, Claire Schaunaman, Ayrlie Waldo and Rife. Runners on the 800 squad were Witte, Melissa Sandquist, Taryn Hettich and Rife.
Appl said those who qualified for state are looking forward to next week, while those whose season ended asked what they could do to help the team next season.
“We have a bunch of selfless kids who want to get better and are trying to improve,” Appl said.
He is hoping the Eagles make an impact at the state meet and end the season on a high note.
“We’ve been improving all year,” Appl said, “and I don’t feel like next week will be any different.”
The Central boys were led by Jacob Merxbauer who won the 200 and triple jump, finished second in the 100 and was third in the long jump.
“Jacob Merxbauer had another really good day,” said Central boys’ coach Greg Murley. “Jacob has been kind of our guy in the field the last few of weeks and done a really good job of picking up the pace.”
Aiden Heimann won the 110 hurdles, Drew Salfrank won the 400, Josh Martin won the 1,600, Brady Rohrbach won the shot put, and the 800-meter relay squad finished first. Team members are Heimann, Jack Soe, Carter Dingman and Salfrank.
“I thought kids competed really hard,” Murley said. “It was a good way to finish up the season for some kids and a good way to kind of tune up for next week at the state track meet.”
The Eagles plan on making some major noise at the state meet which runs Thursday through Saturday at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls.
“I think we’ve had a really good, solid season and we’ve progressed really well,” Murley said. “Now we just hope to kind see what we can do at the state level. We have hopes to get a trophy with a little guy on it.”
To see complete meet results, click on the following link:
https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/459408/results/all
