The Southeast Valley boys’ track season wrapped up their 2024 campaign once again this year at the state track and field championships on the Blue Oval in Des Moines this past weekend. The Jaguars had three events run on Friday, May 17th.

Jace Hanson was the first two events for Southeast Valley competing in the 110m high hurdles and the 400m hurdles. After hitting a hurdle in the highs, Jace finished 23rd overall in a time of 16.74. Shortly after an hour later, Jace then competed in the 400m hurdles just missing earning all-state honors with a 9th place finish. However his time of 55.72 lowered his school record he had set a week earlier by almost a second. Jace also competed in the 400m low hurdles last year at state and finished 14th.

The final event of the day was the 4 x 100m relay team of Dreyvon Steadman, Logan Jaeschke, Kayden Showers and Hanson. The 4 x 100m relay team also lowered their school record which they had set a week before running 44.30. The time was fast enough for 17th overall and did not qualify them for Saturday’s finals.   

“Our biggest goal going into the state meet is to try to finish higher than the place we qualified in and run our season’s best. The boys were able to run two school records, you can’t ask for more than that. How you place at state is all relevant to the performances of the other schools that qualify and this year, the competition at the state meet was outstanding.”

Jae Hanson will leave his legacy on this program with the other seniors on the team, Oscar Hanson, Isaiah Ihrg, Ben Thompson, Jace Nelson and Kegan Vangilder. Besides leaving their names all over the school records, freshmen records and top-ten list, this group of seniors never finished less than 3rd place at the Twin Lakes Conference meet, having been conference champions once and runner-up twice as well as being part of two state qualifying meet championships as well.

“It has been an honor to coach these seniors and watch their improvement over the past four years. However, the leadership they have exhibited with this year’s team and underclassmen as well as the confident young men they have become is even more exciting to see. This has also been a group that has lots of fun, but knows when to have fun and when it’s work time. I wish them all the best in all of their future endeavors,” commented Coach Nuss.

This year’s success though can’t be accomplished without a strong coaching staff. “I have to thank first year assistants Mathew Hanson and Bethany Rippentrop-Nuss with their help throughout the year as well as returning assistant Jim Duncan who continues to help our throwers make strides in what they do. I’m not always the easiest to work with, so I appreciate their patience while I try to figure out the best way to utilize their strengths to best fit what our team needs to accomplish.”