Story by MAYAN PAZ Photos by MAX BOWYER
Tiger Media Network
After a long indoor season, the Fort Hays State University indoor track and field team reached the climax of the season at the MIAA Indoor Track and Field Championship at Northwest Missouri University. It was a three-day competition, and many athletes took themselves to the edge of their abilities and competed in several events.
Reba Mader is an example of that. Mader competed in the 60-meter dash prelims, and continued with a school record in the 400 meters, breaking 56 seconds for the first time in her career (55.94) and qualifying for the finals. She finished with a 400 relay performance, in addition to the 400 finals. She spoke about the special preparation for this challenging weekend.
“For me, it’s preparing my body and knowing that I have to take it race by race,” Mader said. “If you think about how many races you have, you’re going to be drained mentally, and so I think it’s important to just give it all I have for every race, and hope my body keeps helping it.”
The first two days of the competition were dedicated to the multi-events, preliminary rounds in the running events and some field events finals on the second day. The goal most of the Tigers set for themselves was to finish in the top eight of their event and score valuable points for the team. In the running events, Mader made her way to the 400-meter finals with a school record, and freshman Eden Bathurst qualified in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:22.32.
The Distance Medley Relay (DMR) team also managed to score, finishing eight in the finals, and Emily Diercks took the silver medal in the 5,000-meter race, with a time of 17:05.62. In the field events, high jumper Lanie Page finished sixth with a jump of 1.64 meters, and Annabeth Baalmann earned a second-place finish in the pole vault after a jump of 4.18. Baalmann also spoke about her performance.
“This was the biggest opening high I’ve ever had with 3.98, and so I had a good first attempt clearance on that, and then I went 4.08 on my first attempt. So that was really nice. It was a very good competition, there were four of us that made 4.08 on our first attempt. So after that, I kind of knew it was gonna be a dogfight to get into the top three,” she said. “And then I made 4.18 on my second attempt, which got me second. And had some really good attempts at a 14-foot bar again.”
Baalmann set a school record last week, clearing 4.28 meters. She will compete at nationals this week in pole vault.
On the Men’s side, Jaret Pfizenmaier finished sixth in the 5,000, and the DMR team finished seventh. Drew Tolar had an impressive performance in the heptathlon, finishing sixth with personal bests in every event except the 60 hurdlers dash, missing a personal best by 0.01 seconds. Hayden Albright was the only competitor to make finals in the sprint events, qualifying in both the 200 and 400-meter races.
Nolan Churchman competed in the long jump only an hour after his 400 preliminary round race and finished second with a school record of 7.42 meters, improving his personal best by 15 centimeters to break the 30-year-old record. Churchman qualified for nationals in both long jump and the heptathlon.
The last day of competition saw another school record, this time from Emily Diercks in the 3,000 race. Diercks earned a third-place finish with a time of 9:49.27. Mader finished seventh in the 400-meter race, Bathurst improved her qualifying mark in the 800 final, clocking 2:19.46 to finish fifth, and Jayme Hagerman added a seventh-place finish in the triple jump with a season-best of 11.49 meters. The women’s concluded the championship with an eighth-place finish in the 400 relay.
For the men, Hayden Albright finished sixth in the 200, eighth in the 400, and concluded his day racing for the 400 relay team. Alongside his brother, Avery Albright, with the addition of Nolan Churchman and Drew Tolar, the team took the bronze medal. Also on the men’s pole vault, Josiah Ball earned seventh, jumping 4.73 meters, and Jacob Clark finished second with a jump of 5.18 meters and qualified for nationals.
“I had a great opening bar, which I made on the first attempt, and I think that got me rolling. After that first jump, I knew I could make some big jumps, I was just struggling with some pole decisions and where to put the standards,” Clark said. “So I had to go to the third attempt with my 5.08 bar and 5.18 bar. But overall, really good day and great attempts at PR. So I’ll take it any day of the week.”
FHSU sprints coach Kelly Meyer was proud of the team’s performance and highlighted Albright’s effort during the weekend after competing in five races.
“I would really like to highlight Hayden’s performance year after year. We expect so much of him at conference, because he does so well in many events and sometimes, unfortunately for him, that means it’s just a huge load to bear at conference, but he always goes into it with a really great attitude, and he did very well,” she said. “I know he was disappointed in the results and just kind of how he’s feeling. He’s still a little banged up, but I’m so proud of how he performed.”
Baalmann, Clark and Churchman will compete Thursday through Saturday in Indianapolis.
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