Baxter’s Richardson leads area athletes at Class 1A state qualifier

BROOKLYN — Matt Richardson and Logan Rainsbarger both qualified for the state track and field meet in events they competed in last year.

Richardson added another state event this season and freshman Max Handorf joins him as the Baxter boys track and field team placed fifth in the Class 1A state qualifier hosted by BGM on Thursday.

Richardson was the lone area athlete who clinched an automatic bid on Thursday, but Richardson and Handorf went 2-3 in the 1,600-meter run, Rainsbarger finished second in the 110 high hurdles and the Lynnville-Sully boys also advanced to state in the 4x100 relay.

“Unfortunately, the weather made for some unfavorable and tough conditions throughout much of the night,” L-S head boys track and field coach Darin Arkema said. “When the state qualifier list came out, I know there was some disappointment as we thought we may have done enough to have more than one event qualify to state. Certainly there were opportunities when you look at what it took to be a qualifier in some events.

“The room or margin for error or difference is awfully small at times in this sport. I was really proud of how our guys handled the night, and saw things all the way through.”

Defending state champion Lisbon ran away with the team title on Thursday, finishing with 174 points.

BCLUW (71.5) edged Iowa Valley (71) in second and the rest of the top five were North Cedar (69) and Baxter (67.5).

Lynnville-Sully (54) headlined the next group in a tie for sixth and the rest of the 14-team field featured English Valleys (54), Midland (40), Springville (34), BGM (34), Calamus-Wheatland (29), GMG (17), HLV (13) and Prince of Peace (10).

Richardson locked up an automatic bid into the 1A state meet with a narrow win in the 1,600. Richardson edged English Valleys’ Gage Heyne by .09 seconds and won the race in a career-best and school-record time of 4 minutes, 35.62 seconds.

The winner of each event in 1A throughout all the meets in the state secure an automatic bid into the state meet. The at-large bids go to the next 14 best times, distances and heights in each event.

Richardson’s 1,600 time was the third-fastest qualifying mark in 1A and it moves into the top 12 in 1A overall.

Heyne (9:54.75) edged Richardson in the 3,200 earlier in the night. But Richardson’s career-best and school-record time of 9:57.48 was good enough for second and another state berth.

Handorf secured his at-large state bid in third with a time of 10:20.1. Richardson’s 3,200 time was the fifth-best qualifying time and Handorf’s ranked 17th.

Rainsbarger returns to the state meet in the 110 high hurdles. He was the runner-up Thursday in 15.95, and that was the 18th-best qualifying time. Lincoln Betterton (17.31) placed sixth in the event.

The next-best finishes for Baxter came in the 4x200 and distance medley relays.

The 4x200 relay team of Treyton Travis, Cainan Travis, Rainsbarger and Cody Samson placed fourth in 1:38.14 and the distance medley relay team of Treyton Travis, Cainan Travis, Samson and Richardson took fourth in 3:51.71.

Logan Jones and Samson started both the 4x400 and 4x800 relays. They were joined by Handorf and Richardson in the 4x800 and finished fifth in 8:55.28 and Rainsbarger and Cainan Travis finished the 4x400 with the Bolts finishing fifth in 3:48.62.

Cael Wishman finished fifth in the 100 in 12.26 seconds and Carter Smith placed fifth in the discus with a toss of 127 feet, 6 inches.

There were plenty of timing issues throughout the night and the 100 was even ran twice after meet officials began the race from the wrong starting line.

The 100, 200 and 800 also were hand timed, which adds .24 seconds to each athlete’s time. The 4x400 relay did not start until 11 p.m.

“It was a very long night of competition as we had issues with the 100 dash starting at the wrong line and having to be rerun, delays with starting races because the camera and timing system got wet and weren’t working properly, etc,” Arkema said. “Despite all of that, our athletes did the best they could to have themselves ready and warmed up to compete and mentally focused to try and compete at their best.”

Corder Noun Harder opened the Hawks’ 4x100 relay team which clinched a state berth.

He also ran the 100 twice and his official converted time was clocked in 11.72. It took an 11.59 to clinch an at-large bid.

“Corder had gotten a great start like he usually does in the first running and came across in fourth,” Arkema said. “No way to really tell what times would have been if they ran from the correct line. But he was ready to go again the second time and again had a great start.”

The 4x100 relay team of Noun Harder, Dawson James, Jaiden Richards and Jack Bowlin finished second in a season-best time of 45.76. That was fast enough for the 21st-best qualifying time.

“The 4x100 team has been chasing a time under 46 seconds the whole season,” Arkema said. “They finally cracked that mark last week at Newton, and it was going to take another effort like that to probably qualify for state.

“We made adjustments to who we wanted running slightly longer or shorter legs, and the guys were diligent about getting warmed up and practicing those baton passes before the race. They knew they couldn’t give away time during those exchanges.”

The 4x800 relay also posted a time of 8:48.25 with Colton Alberts, Terran Gosselink, Michael Spooner and Hendick Lowry. That placed them fourth, but was about 4 seconds off a state berth despite running a season best by 10 seconds.

The shuttle hurdle relay team of Terrion Carter, Austin Larson, Gosselink and Conner Deal placed third in 1:09.51.

Gosselink (1:02.63) and Spooner (career-best 1:03.18) went 4-5 in the 400 hurdles, Lowry finished fifth in the 1,600 in 4:57.37 and Bowlin (18-6 1/2), Deal (5-4) and James (41-4 1/2) all finished sixth in the long jump, high jump and shot put, respectively.

“We knew coming in we would see some outstanding competitors from other schools in every event and they did not disappoint,” Arkema said. “Lisbon is the defending team champion, and showed their strength and depth, winning the meet by over 100 points.

“They will have some good stories to share about this track meet for years to come. I’m looking forward to the next week and the 4x100 relay trying to squeeze a little more time off and enjoy competing at state in Drake Stadium.”