Five events to compete in State Meet for CLHS boys

(Above) Clear Lake’s Austin Young gave it his all on the track.

Clear Lake High School athletes will compete in five events at the State Track Meet in Des Moines this week.  The Lions earned an impressive fourth place finish at the Class 2A State Qualifying Meet held in Garner May 12.

Forest City won the District with 102 points, followed by South Central Cal with 99 and Central Springs with 77.  Clear Lake scored 70 points to finish fourth.

Clear Lake’s only win in the meet came in the Shuttle Hurdle Relay, where Parker Truesdell, Parker Crispin, Zach Lester and Chase Bacon broke the tape in 1:00.16.

The 4x100 team of Zach Tatum, Cooper Merrill, Truesdell and Bacon finished as runner-up in a time of 44.22.  The same group placed third in the 4x200, narrowly missing an automatic qualification for State.  However, their time of 1:32.09 was good enough to make the cut.

Bacon and Crispin also qualified in individual events at State.  Bacon placed second in the 200 meters to advance with a time of 23.21.  Crispin was second in the 110 hurdles in 15.84.

“We are thrilled to be taking nine kids down to Des Moines and getting in five events,” said Coach AJ Feuerbach.  “We feel if we perform like we are capable, we have a great chance to make the finals in the 4x100 and Shuttle Hurdle.  Our individuals will look to compete hard and possibly make the finals also.  The 4x200 is sitting good.  We have the seed lane in heat 2 and we hope run our best and get a top eight time.

Narrowly missing a trip to State was Merrill in the 200 meters.  The senior was third in 11.77.

Other place winners included:

200: David Vohs, sixth, 24.65

400: Speed Toyne, fourth, 54.16; Nick Eggers, fifth, 54.66

Long jump: Luke Eggers, fifth, 17’8.75”

Distance Medley: Tatum, Merrill, Toyne, Lester, fifth, 3:44.69

“It has been a great overall year for the Clear Lake boys track team,” added Coach Feuerbach. “Our whole team improved throughout the year and I am very proud of our kids.  I am very fortunate to have Coach Troy Tysdahl and Coach Mike Callanan to help me get our kids to the levels that they want to go.”