On Monday, March 14th the MMCRU Boys Track team traveled to Sioux Center to open up the season. There, they participated in the War Eagle Conference Indoor Preseason Meet, which was held at the indoor track at Dordt University. This meet is not official but is rather a preseason meet to provide some competition for teams a month before the outdoor season begins. Times, places, marks, and team scores are not officially reported, but are kept by the coaches. In addition to that, there were various events with unlimited entries which allowed everyone on the team to participate. This indoor meet also has a shorter list of events as there is no open 400 meter run, 4×800 meter relay, 3200 meter run, and various other events. The Dordt indoor track is also only 200 meters, so it is a very different experience for the runners.
The 4×200 meter relay was the opening running event for the meet. MMCRU’s main relay team ran a time of 1:44.78, with Gunnar Johnson running the best split of 24.02. The second relay team for the Royals ran a 1:49.21, and the third relay team ran a 1:58.6. Senior Brett Staab, junior Owen Alesch, and sophomore Kyler Bork headed the open 800 meter run for MMCRU. They ran times of 2:14, 2:18, and 2:19, respectively. In the boys’ 55 meter low hurdles, sophomore Jonah Petersen led the way for the Royals with a time of 9.5. Junior Andrew Barinsky had a time of 10.04. In this specific indoor meet, the 100 meter dash is replaced with the 55 meter dash. Gunnar Johnson was the quickest in times with a 6.33, and freshman Xander Tentinger was the second quickest with a time of 7.14. Senior Colin Pick led the Royals in times in the 200 meter hurdles with a 28.78. Junior foreign exchange student Max Stridde was second with a 28.8, and junior Josh Wetter was third for the Royals with a 29.01. The next boys race was the 1600 meter, which is a grueling eight laps around the track. Kaden Galles won the race with a time of 5:11, and Brayden Dirks was fourth in the race with a time of 5:30. The last race was the 4×400 meter relay, in which the Royals had three relay teams. The first team ran a 3:58.63, which earned third place in their heat. Kyler Bork led that team with a split of 58.61, and Owen Alesch had a 59.95. In the second heat, the Royals had a time of 4:09.69, and were led by Max Stridde with a split of 61.38. The Royals third team had a total relay time of 4:20.32, and were led by freshman Michael Peterson with a split of 61.32.
While the running events took place, the field events also went on throughout the meet. In shot put, sophomore Mitchell Schnepf threw it thirty-nine feet, freshman Michael Peterson threw it thirty-seven feet and three inches, and senior Michael Rupp threw it thirty-one feet and ten inches. In the long jump, freshman Lucas Braun had the longest jump for MMCRU of seventeen feet and seven inches. Freshman Tayden Hicks was next for the Royals with a jump of sixteen feet and 1.75 inches, and senior Eban Hicks was exactly one inch behind. In the high jump, freshmen Jace Colling and Lucas Braun had jumps of 5’6” and 5’4”.
Head Boys Track Coach Colin Youde was very excited with the first meet, “The team did an awesome job on Monday at the WEC Indoor track meet. We competed our butts off and ran, jumped, and threw very well. I am very proud of the guys’ effort. We still have a lot of work to do, but I fully expect this to be a GREAT year for the BOY’S ROYAL TRACK TEAM!” The Royals will head to the University of South Dakota on March 22nd to participate in the Dan Lennon Invitational. The Royals will be one of many teams participating, as schools from all over the Midwest are invited. This will be MMCRU’s last indoor meet of the year as they will head into the outdoor season. Their outdoor season will start on April 4th with the MMCRU Invitational in Marcus. Please come out and support the Royal boys on the track this season