Story by MAYAN PAZ Photo by MAX BOWYER
Tiger Media Network
Over the weekend, the FHSU Indoor Track and Field team split into two groups for competiton, one went to the Washburn Open, a two-day meet, and the other to the Charlie Foster Classic at Nebraska Kearney. Both groups had some success as the Tigers continue their start to the indoor season with the MIAA conference championships four weeks away.
Two notable performances for FHSU in Kearney were for Jayme Hagerman and Donna Jackson in the long jump competition. Both jumpers improved their personal records and finished in the top two spots in the meet. Hagerman jumped a distance of 5.56 meters, and Jackson leaped over 5.50 meters.
FHSU Head Coach Jason McCullough was happy with the performance of the team in both locations.
“At Kearney, it was a good opportunity for a lot of the younger athletes to get in a good performance and I thought they really worked hard and did a good job there,” he said. “At Washburn, this is probably the largest meet we’ve maybe ever been to. A lot of the athletes stepped up and did well. I was really pleased with the milers, they did extremely well. I had a lot of improvements from a lot of those athletes. I think a lot of athletes need to really focus on their health this week, getting healthy, staying healthy, eating right, and getting ready for the end of the season.”
While McCullough divided his time between the two meets, sprints coach Kelly Meyer was at Washburn for the two days of competition, where she escorted the multi-athletes in the heptathlon for men and pentathlon for women. For the Tigers, the men’s heptathlon was a successful competition. Nolan Churchman won the meet with 5,324 points, which puts him in third place in the nation and ensures his ticket to the national championship meet in Indianapolis. Ethan Salmans was second, with 4,983 points, and Drew Tolar, in his first-ever full heptathlon, scored 4,657 points and finished ninth. Kylin Rudzik scored 2,432 points in the women’s pentathlon and finished 26th.
“I was very happy with our Multis. Nolan is getting back up in the top three in the nation in the multi. Drew, our freshman, did really well in the multi, completing all of his events, and I was happy with Kylin, too, just being able to finish it; even if she’s been battling some injuries,” Meyer said. “I think sprints were generally pretty solid as well, but we have some work to do. I think next week we’ll be intentional about maybe some cross-training and just resting up a bit.”
Hayden and Avery Albright continued to impress as Hayden clocked a time of 21.54 in the 200, and Avery 49.01 in the 400. Reba Mader also performed well, running 600 yards at 1:27.81 on Friday and Saturday with a 57.88 over the 400-meter race. Some other impressive performances were of the Distance Medley Relay team, running a time of 10:07.20 and finishing third in the meet and first among division two teams (1,200 meters – Brady Stegman, 400 meters – Mayan Paz, 800 meters – Emery Wolfe, 1,600 meters – Christian Darrah). Brady Stegman listed a time of 4:14.66 in the men’s mile, while Christian Darrah improved his lifetime best to 4:09.19.
For the women, it was Emily Diercks who stood out. The talented distance runner broke the school record over the mile with 5:00.83 after breaking the school record in the 3,000-meter race last week. She responded to her performances.
“I feel really good. It makes me feel really confident. I know I have a lot more potential, and I’m just excited to break those records again,” she said. “I’m feeling really confident in the MIAA, I know I’m one of the top competitors for it. However, for nationals, I’m still trying to get faster marks to qualify for the 3k. I need to run a faster time to be able to run and compete at Nationals.”
McCullough addressed some more quality performances and said that overall, the weekend was a success for FHSU track and field.
“I thought that Josiah Ball had a great pole vault session. He had a personal best of 4.87, and that was pretty good to see. Annabeth Baalmann cleared some bars where she had been struggling earlier, and I thought she looked a lot better today (Baalmann cleared a height of 4.02, 4 centimeters shy of her school record). Then, the milers have been good as well. Emily broke the school record in the mile, and that’s two weeks in a row breaking a school record for her. And so overall, it was a pretty good day. Yesterday, we saw a good performance as well in the DMR, they finished third and that was a good performance for us. That was great to see.”
FHSU will compete next Friday at the Kansas State Steve Miller Invitational in Manhattan.