SLEEPY EYE - When Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop's Sam Gatton took the baton for the final leg of the boys' 4x400-meter relay at the Tomahawk Conference Track and Field Meet on Thursday, he didn't know that his Thunderbirds had already sealed the team title.
The only thing he was thinking about was passing the Minnesota Valley Lutheran runner ahead of him to get his team another two points.
"I knew it was close between MVL and us, so I knew it might be close at the end," Gatton said. "I knew those two points might matter."
Article Photos
Staff photo by Steve Muscatello
Sleepy Eye United’s Natalie Schwartz competes in the 4x800-meter relay during the Tomahawk Conference Track and Field Meet Thursday in Sleepy Eye.
For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com
Gatton crossed the line first in the race to put the Thunderbirds' first-place total at 134 points. Gatton ended up tying with the Chargers' Matt Tessmer as co-athletes of the meet on the boys' side.
MVL was second in the boys' team competition with 95 points, followed by Sleepy Eye United (41), Cedar Mountain/Comfrey/Springfield (30) and Wabasso (24).
Jamie Marti earned athlete of the meet on the girls' side with four first-place finishes to help guide SEU to victory with a team score of 126.
Rounding out the team scores on the girls' side were MVL (75), GFW (37), CMCS (34) and Wabasso (18).
Gatton earned first-place finishes in the high jump and 800-meters. The other Thunderbird boys to win events were Frank Fairchild in the 300-meter hurdles, Lucas Woods in the long jump and Shawn Jensen in the discus.
The GFW boys swept all four relay events.
"We kind of strategically placed everyone around so we could do well in the relays and everybody in their individual events, so there was a lot of planning on putting everybody where they were," Gatton said.
Tessmer earned a trio of first-place finishes, winning the 100-meters, the 200-meters and the 400-meters.
"I'm really happy," Tessmer said. "There was some stiff competition here and I just tried to perform my best, and the results came. Any meet, I just try to do my best, and there was definitely some stiff competition, they really pushed me. It was just a good day overall, I think."
Justin Steffl earned the MVL boys' only other first-place finish by winning the 3,200-meters.
"I think we did well," Tessmer said. "We've got a ton of good guys on our team... we've got too many people that have been doing well that I can even name, there's too many good guys that we've had."
Wabasso's Matt Zeug won the triple jump and the shot put.
Marti didn't let the combination of hot temperatures and a strong gusting wind affect her too much as she won the 200-meters, the 400-meters and the triple jump. She said her victory in the triple jump came as a surprise to her.
She was also a member of SEU's winning 4x200-meter relay team.
"Just running hard I guess, pushing all the way through the line," Marti said of the key to her success.
Also winning events for the SEU girls were Kennedy Pelzel (1,600-meters) and Kari Schumacher (3,200-meters).
The other multiple event winners on the girls' side besides Marti were GFW's Lexi Platz and MVL's Ashley Evers.
Platz throttled the competition in both the discus and shot put, winning the discus by almost 30 feet with a personal best throw of 125-feet-two-inches.
"I did my best in discus today, and it wasn't my best in shot, but it's going up in the general direction that I think I'll be peaking when I need to be next week," Platz said.
Evers won the 100-meter hurdles in 17.13 and the 300-meter hurdles in 47-69.
"The 300 hurdles felt really good, I haven't got 47 since my first race this year, so it felt good to get back in the swing again, [I hope to] go onto sub-suctions and kind of do the same thing there," Evers said.
MVL also received first-place finishes from Brianna Holtmeier in the 800 and Alicia Evenson in the high jump.
"I thought that we did really good as a team," Evers said. "We had a lot of people PR-ing and doing their best, a lot of people were just leaving their heart out there and just going for it."
All five Tomahawk Conference teams will now prepare to compete in their upcoming section tournaments. SEU, MVL and GFW will compete in Section 2A and CMCS and Wabasso will compete in Section 3A.
"You've just got to keep going in with confidence and keep working hard," Platz said. "[Thursday was] a great day, but you can't let that be the source of your views, you've just got to keep working hard."
Marti and the rest of her SEU teammates will be looking to repeat Thursday's success at sections.
"I'm excited now to run in sections and see if we can do even better," Marti said.
Girls
100-meter dash: 1. Kylee Wells (CMCS) 12.90; 2. Nikki Carr (SEU) 13.10; 3. Jessica Schmitz (SEU) 13.32; 4. Alicia Evenson (MVL) 13.45; 5. Angie Salfer (WAB) 13.59; 6. Joci Nestande (CMCS) 13.68.
200-meter dash: 1. Jamie Marti (SEU) 25.95; 2. Nikki Carr (SEU) 26.57; 3. Kylee Wells (CMCS) 26.97; 4. Ashley Evers (MVL) 27.28; 5. Jessica Schmitz (SEU) 27.88.
400-meter dash: 1. Jamie Marti (SEU) 1:03.46; 2. Steph Palmer (GFW) 1:05.06; 3. Karli Kelly (CMCS) 1:05.57; 4. Vishe Rabb (CMCS) 1:06.39; 5. Halley Busse (GFW) 1:06.69; 6. Morgan Sanken (GFW) 1:07.77.
800-meter run: 1. Brianna Holtmeier (MVL) 2:43.19; 2. Hayley Neid (SEU) 2:44.80; 3. Natalie Schwartz (SEU) 2:45.33; 4. Jenn Palmer (GFW) 2:47.31; 5. Laura Schoenherr (MVL) 2:47.77; 6. Victoria Hardwick (CMCS) 2:47.82.
1,600-meter run: 1. Kennedy Pelzel (SEU) 5:55.09; 2. Martha Balge (MVL) 5:59.59; 3. Gabby Passmore (GFW) 6:01.43; 4. Laura Schoenherr (MVL) 6:12.37; 5. Tanisha Goblirsch (SEU) 6:14.06; 6. Jamie Brown (GFW) 6:21.73.
3,200-meter run: 1. Kari Schumacher (SEU) 13:13; 2. Talia Otto (MVL) 13:15; 3. Megan DeMaris (SEU) 14:26; 4. Emily Kustova (WAB) 14:58; 5. Angie Kiecker (SEU) 15.27.
100-meter hurdles: 1. Ashley Evers (MVL) 17.13; 2. Mariah Salfer (SEU) 17.68; 3. Sarah Ludwig (WAB) 18.05; 4. Jessica Busch (SEU) 18.46; 5. Sabrina Portner (SEU) 18.64; 6. Mariah Stein (MVL) 19.30.
300-meter hurdles: 1. Ashley Evers (MVL) 47.69; 2. Mariah Salfer (SEU) 51.02; 3. Jessica Busch (SEU) 53.30; 4. Sabrina Portner (SEU) 53.38; 5. Sarah Ludwig (WAB) 53.40; 6. Martha Balge (MVL) 53.90.
4x100-meter relay: 1. SEU 53.58; 2. MVL 55.71; 3. WAB 57.01; 4.
4x200-meter relay: 1. SEU 1:49.43; 2. MVL 1:54.11; 3. GFW 1:54.97; 4. CMCS 1:59.33.
4x400-meter relay: 1. SEU 4:26.44; 2. MVL 4:28; 3. GFW 4:56; 4. WAB 5:08.
4x800-meter relay: 1. SEU 10:59; 2. GFW 11:22; 3. MVL 11:36; 4. CMCS 12:23.
High Jump: 1. Alicia Evenson (MVL) 5-0; 2. Karli Kelly (CMCS) 4-10; 3. Rylee Weisensel (MVL) 4-8; 4. Martha Balge (MVL) 4-6; 5. Jessica Schmitz (SEU) 4-6; 6. Vishe Rabb (CMCS) 4-4.
Triple Jump: 1. Jamie Marti (SEU) 32-06; 2. Jessica Schmitz (SEU) 31-01.75; 3. Karli Kelly (CMCS) 31-0.25; 4. Hayley Neid (SEU) 30-0.5; 5. Angie Salfer (WAB) 29-04; 6. Josey Watkins (WAB) 28-07.
Long jump: 1. Karli Kelly (CMCS) 15-0; 2. Kayla Norris (MVL) 14-10; 3. Beth Zimmerli (WAB) 14-9.5; 4. Nikki Carr (SEU) 14-9.5; 5. Maggie Rauh (MVL) 14-6; 6. Ashley Evers (MVL) 14-4.
Shot Put: 1. Lexi Platz (GFW) 35-8; 2. Angela Prokosh (WAB) 31-5; 3. Annaliese Hoffman (MVL) 31-4; 4. Maddy Sagedahl (WAB) 27-9.5; 5. Kaelyn Platz (CMCS) 26-9.5; 6. Ashley Schmidt (GFW) 26-8.
Discus: 1. Lexi Platz (GFW) 125-2; 2. Angela Prokosch (WAB) 96-11; 3. Annaliese Hoffman (MVL) 94-1; 4. Katie Becker (GFW) 84; 5. Samantha Arnold (WAB) 79-8; 6. Lexi Jensen (GFW) 76-10.
Boys
100-meter dash: 1. Matt Tessmer (MVL) 11.56; 2. Tyler Larson (CMCS) 11.64; 3. Zach Wells (CMCS) 11.90; 4. Dillon Kober (SEU) 12.12; 5. Dylan Weidman (CMCS) 12.21; 6. Franz Metzger (GFW) 12.24.
200-meter dash: Matt Tessmer (MVL) 23.24; 2. Zach Wells (CMCS) 23.61; 3. Lucas Woods (GFW) 23.70; 4. Franz Metzger (GFW) 24.57; 5. Jacob Anderson (CMCS) 25.35; 6. Jeremiah Timm (WAB) 25.64.
400-meter dash: 1. Matt Tessmer (MVL) 52.13; 2. Seth Wiechman (MVL) 53.09; 3. Alex Larson (CMCS) 55.24; 4. Zach Wells (CMCS) 58.94; 5. Ruben Astorga (SEU) 59.27; 6. Mitch Kiecker (GFW) 59.63.
800-meter run: 1. Sam Gatton (GFW) 2:13.53; 2. Mario Gomez (SEU) 2:16.03; 3. Tyler Larson (CMCS) 2:18.93; 4. Tyler Dummer (GFW) 2:20.52; 5. Zack Scharleman (MVL) 2:25.00; 6. Kyle Sassenberg (GFW) 2:25.70.
1,600-meter run: 1. Mario Gomez (SEU) 4:57.41; 2. Sam Gatton (GFW) 5:00.89; 3. Daniel Stelljes (MVL) 5:02.95; 4. Justin Steffl (MVL) 5:05.76; 5. Tyler Dummer (GFW) 5:13.68; 6. Brandon Roiger (SEU) 5:29.77.
3,200-meter run: 1. Justin Steffl (MVL) 11:22.55; 2. Daniel Stelljes (MVL) 11:26.51; 3. Jesse Rider (GFW) 11:59.59; 4. Brandon Roiger (SEU) 12:11.59; 5. Dylan Nachreiner (CMCS) 12:11.82; 6. Steven Joyce (SEU) 12:26.00.
110-meter hurdles: 1. Michael Sprenger (SEU) 17.73; 2. Frank Fairchild (GFW) 17.87; 3. John Wendler (MVL) 18.24; 4. Leighton Messner (GFW) 18.55; 5. Sam Dose (MVL) 19.56; 6. Nick Anderson (CMCS) 20.40.
300-meter hurdles: 1. Frank Fairchild (GFW) 44.39; 2. Michael Sprenger (SEU) 44.49; 3. John Wendler (MVL) 46.36; 4. Sam Dose (MVL) 46.77; 5. Leighton Messner (GFW) 49.79; 6. Nick Anderson (CMCS) 50.18.
4x100-meter relay: 1. GFW 49.09; 2. MVL 49.86; 3. SEU 51.37.
4x200-meter relay: 1. GFW 1:39.16; 2. CMCS 1:41.92; 3. MVL 1:43.66; 4. SEU 1:48.04.
4x400-meter relay: 1. GFW 3:48.20; 2. MVL 3:53.09; 3. CMCS 3:58.60; 4. SEU 4:05.23
4x800-meter relay: 1. GFW 9:56; 2. MVL 10:46.
High Jump: 1. Sam Gatton (GFW) 5-10; 2. Bobby Tisch (MVL) 5-8; 3. Jesse Rider (GFW) 5-6; 4. Mitch Kiecker (GFW) 5-4; 5. Seth Wiechman (MVL) 5-2.
Triple Jump: 1. Matt Zeug (WAB) 37-9.75; 2. Tyler Dummer (GFW) 37-7.25; 3. Lucas Woods (GFW) 36-9; 4. Dillon Kober (SEU) 36-8; 5. Mitch Kiecker (GFW) 35-3.75; 6. Jeremiah Timm (WAB) 35-2.
Long jump: 1. Lucas Woods (GFW) 18-10.5; 2. Matt Tessmer (MVL) 18-1.5; 3. Franz Metzger (GFW) 17-4; 4. Tyler Larson (CMCS) 17-2.5; 5. Jeremiah Timm (WAB) 16-11; 6. Mitch Kiecker (GFW) 16-6.5.
Shot Put: 1. Matt Zeug (WAB) 43-4.75; 2. Nick Goblirsch (WAB) 39-4.75; 3. Micah Schwecke (GFW) 38-7.75; 4. Brady Tetzloff (MVL) 38-5.25; 5. Shawn Jensen (GFW) 36-4; 6. Lance Briard (CMCS) 36-0.25.
Discus: 1. Shawn Jensen (GFW) 130-7; 2. Dan Timm (GFW) 121; 3. Mark Grunke (MVL) 117-3; 4. Micah Schwecke (GFW) 116-4; 5. Matt Zeug (WAB) 109-2; 6. Lance Briard (CMCS) 103-6.