The indoor track season acts as a litmus for the outdoor track and field season offering the WaMaC conference teams an opportunity to toy with athlete combinations, preparation and challenging the coaches’ skills with tail end of spring break lineups. On Saturday, March 19, Head Coach Mark Sovers assessed the Spartans’ skills at the WaMaC Conference Invitational Indoor Meet.
“WaMaC Indoor (is a) really good opportunity for us to go out and compete as a program and find out where we are early in the season,” Sovers explained. “One of the goals this year is to develop the best complimentary track team we can be from top to bottom of our lineup.”
Grinnell College hosted the event with Benton Community, Clear Creek-Amana, Center Point-Urbana, Independence, Marion, Mount Vernon, South Tama County, Vinton-Shellsburg, West Delaware, Williamsburg and the Spartans competing.
“We were able to take that first step at the Indoor,” Coach Sovers continued.
He credited Spartan junior Adam Smith’s first place finish in the Shot put, a personal record, with a throw of 46-11.5; junior Blake Timmons’ third place finish in the 200-meter dash in 23.97; the sixth place finish in the 60-meter hurdles by sophomore Nash Kotar in 9.6; and the sixth place finish in the 1,600-meter distance medley relay by the team of sophomore Barrett Schade, sophomore Grant Knipper, sophomore Charlie Brandt and sophomore Wyatt Applegarth in 4:10.91.
Spartan freshman Jordan Schmidt hurled himself 16-8 to capture 11th place in the long jump and finished 13th with a 12.60 in the 60-meter hurdles, with sophomore Charlie Brant finishing 22nd with a 12.73 in 60-meter hurdles. In the 60-meter dash, senior Trin Eidahl ran to a seventh place finish with a 7.50, Kotar finished 14th (7.69), sophomore Rhett Mesch grabbed 17th (7.79) and junior Maddox Shipley (8.45) and sophomore Noah Kottenstette (8.65) finished 35th and 39th respectively.
In the 200-meter dash, Eidahl finished tenth with a 25.36, junior Dawson Fordice (25.93) closed in 17th and sophomore Ryan Walsh (26.09) in 18th.
Spartan junior Matthew Tvedte (1:04.49) and Kottenstette (1:08.69) finished 30th and 34th, respectively, in the 400-meter dash.
In the 4×200-meter relay, the Solon teams of Schade, Fordice, sophomore Brayden Moore and senior Brent Lumpkin (1:44.65) and Kottenstette, Walsh, Brandt and Knipper (1:45.52) ran to 13th and 14th place respectively.
Coach Sovers is eager for the outdoor season to commence.
“The goal this year is to develop our Field Events to lead the way for our team,” he said. “Field events are the areas where we have the most experience (returning) and we will look for them to set the tone early on at meets. Returning experience (includes) throws: Adam Smith and Ben Kampman; jumps: Parker Pentico, Brett White and Oaken Foster.
Coach Sovers continued, “Next, we will look to build our relays through the depth we have this year. We believe when you can be competitive in the relays it will strengthen your entire line up.”
Coach Sovers is pleased with the returning experienced athletes adding depth to the ranks.
“Athletes with returning experience: Blake Timmons, Jeremy Bachus, Ty Becicka, Rhyse Wear, Austin Knight, Rhett Mesch, Michael Yeomans in the long sprints. Trin Eidahl, Michael Pipolo, Jacob Timmons, Grant Gerdin, Jake Quillin and Sean Stahle in the short sprints. Brady Mullen, Nash Kotar, Charlie Brandt (and) Ben Duckett in the hurdles.”
Coach Sovers and the Spartans are prepared to start the outdoor season.
“We are excited for our schedule ahead,” he remarked. “The WaMaC conference is a great conference to find out who you are as a team. Competing against the teams in the WaMaC brings out the best in you with the quality of people in the league. If you can compete in the WaMaC, you feel like you can compete at a high level at all of our meets throughout the year.”
The Spartans’ 2022 track and field schedule is a busy one with meets starting Tuesday, March 29, at 4:30 p.m. at Tipton City Park; Friday, April 1, at Vinton-Shellsburg High School at 4:30 p.m.; Tuesday, April 5, at Williamsburg High School at 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 7, at Clear Creek Amana High School at 4:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 9, at Iowa City West High School at 10:30 a.m.; Tuesday, April 12, at Iowa Valley Community Schools at 4:15 p.m.; Thursday, April 14, at 4 p.m., Brady Street Stadium in Davenport; and Saturday, April 16, at Iowa City West High School at 10:30 a.m. Solon hosts their home meet on Tuesday, April 19, at 4:15 p.m. in Spartan Stadium, then return to the road, Thursday, April 21, at Davenport Assumption High School at 4 p.m.; Monday, April 25, at Center Point-Urbana High School at 4:30 p.m.; the Drake Relays are April 27-30; Thursday, April 28 at Clear Creek Amana High School at 4:45 p.m.; Thursday, May 5, at Beckman Catholic High School at 4:30 p.m.; the Varsity State Qualifier, TBA; and, the culmination, the State Track Meet at Drake University, May 18-20.
“We are looking forward to taking that first step during the indoor season and (giving) our athletes a chance to step up and compete in different areas they may not have the opportunity otherwise,” Coach Sovers summarized. “We are extremely excited to come together after spring break and compete in the outdoor season. The relays are going to bring out the best in all of us with our depth this year. When we can go compete for a spot on our relays, the best version of who we are will come out. 4×400-meter relay, shuttle hurdle and 4×800-meter relays will tell us a lot about our team.”