The Southeast Valley boys’ team headed to Sioux Central (Sioux Rapids) on Thursday, May 14th for their class 2A state qualifying meet looking for their 10th team win of the season and looking to qualify as many events as possible for the state track & field meet in Des Moines. After overcoming a somewhat slow start, the Jaguars dominated the final half of the meet to secure the meet team title with 142.5 points to outdistance 2nd place Hinton with 105 points.

The night started off with field events. Deegan Brandel set a new personal best in the discus with a throw of 142’ 7” to finish 4th. In the shot put, Ian Brunner threw 42’ 11” to finish 8th. Colden Mapel was able to clear 5’ 8” on a windy night in high jump to also claim 4th place.

On the track, the sprint medley team got things started off strong when they won the race in a school record time of 1:33.82. The quartet of Bryce Harrison, Kayden Showers, Logan Jaeschke and Colin Johnson became the first state qualifiers of the night with the win.

Brothers Lincoln Akins and August Akins found team points in the 3200m run next with Lincoln finishing 5th (10:41.95) and August 8th (11:30.25). The 4 x 800m team of Kasen Loeffler, Drew Dorsey, Logan Bintz and Ethan Tucker also found a 5th place finish with a time of 9:20.45.

The next event saw the second state qualifying relay team for the Jaguars when Alex Burger, Casey Hanson, Kolton Ollinger and Colin Johnson ran a 1:00.87 in the shuttle hurdle relay to earn Southeast Valley’s second event win of the night.

The Jaguars were able to earn one point in the 100m dash when Riley Fawcett finished 8th in 12.36, before a quartet of freshmen set a new freshmen record in the distance medley relay. Parker Bintz, Josiah Hefley, Tucker Ollinger and Kasen Loeffler finished 7th in 4:07.94. 

In the open 400m dash, Landon Vote and Trennis Stevens both set big PRs to finish 4th and 7th respectively. Landon’s 54.04 is 8th all-time best in the 400 and Trennis ran 55.83. The 4 x 200m relay team of Riley Fawcett, Keelan Wellman, Ethan Martin and Leo Ramirez ran 1:39.78 to claim 7th.

With 7 events left in the evening, the Jaguars found themselves in 4th place and almost 30 points out of 1st when things started to click as Southeast Valley would win 5 of the last 7 events. Colin Johnson would earn his third event for the state meet when he won the 110m high hurdles in 15.26, while Kolton Ollinger’s 15.61 was third, but was good enough to also qualify for the state meet on time.

Next in the 800m run, Owen Nuss ran a personal best and 2nd all-time time in school history of 2:02.97 to claim runner-up honors and qualify for the state meet as well. Landon Vote also ran a PR of 2:09.49 to finish 4th. Kayden Showers and Logan Jaeschke then went 1st and 2nd in the 200m dash to also qualify for the state meet. Their times were 22.97 and 23.03 respectively.

Shortly after the 200m dash, Colin Johnson and Alex Burger duplicated the 1st and 2nd place finish in the 400m hurdles. Colin was the event winner in 53.96 and Alex was 54.99 to both advance to next weekend’s state meet in Des Moines. Lincoln Akins gave a great effort in the 1600m run with a personal best of 4:43.64 to finish 3rd, but unfortunately came up just short in his bid to make it to state.

With two relays remaining in the meet and the team title sealed, the Jaguars looked to qualify the last remaining relays for the state meet. In the 4 x 100m relay, Kayden Showers closed the final leg to beat KPWCRV by .004 of a second for the win and state qualifying bid. Casey Hanson, Logan Jaeschke and Bryce Harrison were the first three legs of the relay.

Finally the 4 x 400m relay team of Kolton Ollinger, Alex Burger, Keelan Wellman and Logan Jaeschke finished the night the same way the running events started. The team set a new school record in 3:28.44 to claim first place edging Hinton by .19 of a second and becoming the 11th event of the night to qualify for the state meet next weekend for the Jaguars.

“I am so proud of this team this year. We talked about how great teams have short memories and learn to overcome adversity and this is something that we did on Thursday. While I am excited that we qualified 11 events for state, we did what I am most proud of this team and that once again the win was a total team effort as we scored points in 18 of the 19 events. The depth of our team this year is what continues to amaze me,” commented Coach Nuss.

The 11 events that qualified for the state meet will compete in Des Moines on Thursday, May 21st, Friday May 22nd and Saturday May 23rd at Drake Stadium.