The Southeast Valley boys track & field team won their first meet of the 2024 season and they did it in front of the home crowd in Gowrie on Monday, April 15th. To make the victory a little sweeter, the Southeast Valley girls also won the girls division of the meet, making it a sweep for the home team.

The Jaguars scored 131 points in the win, outpacing conference foe South Central Calhoun’s 119.5 points in second and Woodward Granger who was 3rd with 88.5 points.

Jace Hanson was a double individual winner taking the 400m hurdles in a new meet record in a time of 56.99 as well as winning the 110m high hurdles in 16.38. Dreyvon Steadman, Brady Hanson and Kayden Showers joined Jace Hanson to also take gold in the 4 x 100m dash with a season best time of 45.56.

Alex Burger (Long jump, 18-06.75”), Oscar Hanson (3200m, 11:45.93), and Colin Johnson (400m hurdles, 58.68) all claimed individual silver medals. The sprint medley relay (1:42.87), the 4 x 800m relay (9:44.07) and the 4 x 400m (3:43.09) relays all earned runner-up honors as well. The sprint medley relay members were Brady Hanson, Kayden Showers, Logan Jaeschke and Dreyvon Steadman while the quartet of Ethan Tucker, Owen Nuss, Drew Dorsey and Ben Thompson ran the 4 x 800m relay. Alex Burger, Casey Hanson, Logan Jaeschke and Colin Johnson made up the 4 x 400m team. 

Aden Jepsen took 3rd place in the discus (105-10”) and 4th place in the shot put (39-04”) while teammate Steven Fisher also took 4th place in the shot put (35-06.5”). Along with Aden, Ethan Tucker (800m, 2:24.19), Logan Jaeschke (200m, 24.65) and Oscar Hanson (1600m, 5:14.64) also earned 3rd place medals in the meet. The shuttle hurdle relays team of Alex Burger, Colin Johnson, Gauge Jones and Casey Hanson also ran the 6th fastest time in school history to take 3rd in the shuttle hurdle.

Fourth place finishes went to Logan Bintz (3200m, 13:02.63) and Kayden Showers (200m, 24.78) as well as the 1600m medley relay (Brady Hanson, Casey Hanson, Owen Nuss, Alex Burger; 4:14.12) and 4 x 200m relay (Kolton Ollinger, Casey Hanson, Bryce Harrison, Gauge Jones; 1:43.91).

Dreyvon Steadman was 5th in the 100m dash (12.29) while Logan Bintz and Owen Nuss were 6th in the 800m and 1600m runs respectively.

Several JV events also competed in the meet and set season bests. These were Kaden Wellman in the discus (75-09”) and shot put (26-05”), Spencer Peterson (2:33.23) and Oliver Riehl (2:41.90) in the 800m run and the 4 x 100m relay of Jace Nelson, Gauge Jones, Kolton Ollinger and Riley Fawcett with a time of 49.37.

The Jaguars will compete next at South Central Calhoun on Friday, April 26th before heading to the Twin Lakes Conference meet at Emmetsburg on Tuesday, April 30th.