MORRILL – Cooler temperatures and a nagging breeze greeted the Southeast High School track team at the Morrill Early Bird Invitational on Saturday, March 23. Taking the weather in stride, both the Cyclones and Lady Cyclones snagged plenty of hardware at their first official outdoor meet for the season.
The Lady Cyclones secured sixth place as a team out of 17 schools at the meet, posting 49 points.
Senior Tylar Stoddard garnered gold in the girls’ triple jump, hitting a state-qualifying mark of 32 feet, 3 ¼ inches. Stoddard beat the runner-up – Danika Hassel of Bayard – by more than six inches.
“Overall, I was happy with our performance (at Morrill),” coach Jeff Fullmer said. “I think we’ll see an improvement this week at Bayard in our overall team look because we’ll have a full team there. We were missing several athletes due to FFA and sickness.”
Sprints, throws and jumps “all were impressive,” Fullmer added.
“Our sprinters really stepped up this weekend,” Fullmer noted. “Our throwers and jumpers also looked good early. If we continue to improve and work on consistency, we’ll be tough in those events by years’ end.”
Girls top-eight highlights
Senior Harper Boche captured second place in the shot put, clearing 36-09 ½ with her toss. Boche went on to take fourth place in the discus with a mark of 97-07. The senior achieved state-qualifying marks in both events.
Sophomore Kaycee Kosmicki raced into second place in the 200-meter dash, timing in at 27.51 seconds and qualifying for state.
In the shot put, freshman Haylee Ekwall clinched third place with a throw measuring 34-11 and qualifying for state in the process.
Clocking the finals for the 100-meter dash in at 13.49 seconds, senior Sasha Haines secured fourth place in the event. Haines went on to place fifth in the 200-meter finals with a time of 28.75 seconds. The senior prequalified in the 100-meters.
Representing Southeast in the pole vault, junior Angie Logsdon obtained fourth place with a state-qualifying leap of 8-00. Logsdon also snapped up fifth place in the triple jump at 30-04.
In mid-distance and distance events, sophomore Anna Hartman pulled into sixth place in the 800-meters, at 3 minutes, 2.41 seconds, and seventh place in the 1600-meters, at 7:07.39.
Stoddard rounded out top-eight finishes placing seventh in the 200-meter finals with a time of 28.90 seconds and securing eighth in the 100-meters at 13.99 seconds.
Boys top eight highlights
Senior Wyatt Gladson was the lone athlete on the Cyclones’ squad to break into the finals in sprinting events. Gladson earned seventh place in the 200-meter finals, timing in at 25.13 seconds.
The boys’ 4x100-meter relay team placed eighth. Gladson, senior Lance York, freshman Trevor Jolovich and sophomore Liam Haas crossed the finish line in 51.92 seconds.
