Aberdeen Central received a big boost from an up and coming freshman to cap off a productive day during the Class AA State Track and Field Meet at Howard Wood Field on Friday.
Sam Schultz, running the sprint medley relay with a trio of seniors for the first time this season, came up big on his anchor leg to propel the Golden Eagles to a heat victory and eventual fourth-place finish.
After the seniors had staked him to a lead, Schultz did his best to try to maintain it. However, he actually lost it, before finding another gear down the stretch to pull off the victory.
“That was really scary. I remember thinking before the race, don’t let that Watertown kid catch me, because he ran way faster than my PR had,” Schultz said. “On that second lap I heard them coming up and I was hurting, but at the end I just gave it everything I had.”
Schultz initially thought that he was fading and then discovered he had plenty left in the tank.
“I knew I had them the last 80 meters,” Schultz said. “I just felt my kick come on and I knew I wasn’t going to slow down after that.”
Schultz knew how much pressure was on him running with a group that included Gabe Johnson, Carter Dingman and Drew Salfrank.
“This is their last medley they’ll run in high school,” Schultz said, “(I was) super scared that I was going to throw it.”
Instead, he ended up saving it.
“The freshman kind of came through for us,” said Central boys’ coach Greg Murley.
He filled in for someone else who wasn’t feeling well and made the most of his opportunity.
“The cool thing about him, he’s a kid that was a sprinter in middle school,” Murley said. “I was very OK with leaving him at the 200s, 400s, as a freshman and hopefully later on progressing him. He was the one who decided to move up. He’s a competitor.”
Central’s top finisher on the day was Taryn Hermansen who finished second in the shot put. The freshman entered the meet ranked second, but pre-meet ratings don’t ensure anything as Hermansen found out last season.
“I was going in ranked third and came out tenth,” Hermansen said. “I was very disappointed last year and I wanted to prove something this year.”
Hermansen used that motivation to record a personal best throw on Thursday.
“I was really ready to go today,” Hermansen said. “I was going to do everything I could to get my farthest throw off today.”
Ciara Frank finished third in the long jump. The junior was ranked second coming into the meet, but is coming off a knee injury so she was pleased with her finish.
“I’ve had to take the past two weeks pretty easy,” Frank said, “so I was really happy with the way things went.”
Frank had a jump of more than 17-feet early in the competition to help ensure her place among the top jumpers.
“I was really fast coming down the runway and I had good pop,” Frank said of that attempt.
While for the most part the Golden Eagles did what they were expected to do, there were a couple of big exceptions to the rule.
One of those came in the 110-meter high hurdles where Aiden Heimann won his preliminary heat to punch his ticket to the finals despite coming into the meet seeded ninth.
“I’ve kind of been in my head the last few weeks, just overthinking things,,” Heimann said. “I finally figured out this week in practice, relax and just ran it, and sure enough I pulled a 14.9 out.”
That’s a personal record time and gives the senior a boost heading into the final two days of competition.
“When I got done I wanted to run again, but I have to wait,” Heimann said. “It’s going to give me some momentum coming into these next few events.”
Central also received a boost in the girls’ division as well when Claire Schaunaman qualified for the finals in the 100 and also helped to lead the 800-meter relay team to a spot in the finals as well.
“We got two events for sure on Saturday,” said Central girls’ coach Jim Appl, “so we’re not shut out on Saturday, so that’s good. Arrow up right now.”
Appl was also pleased with the performances of both of the team’s individual place-winners on the day.
“That was a good job,” Appl said of Hermansen in the shot put, “especially for a ninth-grader coming in here for a throwing event and end up getting second. That’s awesome.”
Frank has been among the top AA jumpers all season and produced a big effort despite her recent limitations.
“For her to come in and jump the way she did after a sluggish last 2-3 weeks (by her standards),” Appl said, “I was really pleased to see (that).”
The Golden Eagles have plenty of athletes who will be competing when action resumes today, but they got off to a solid start on the opening day.
“Overall, I’m happy that the kids are competing,” Murley said. “You just try to nickel and dime points in these meets and kids understand that.”
To see complete first day results, click on the following link:
