Red Oak finishes fifth at home invitational
RED OAK — In their first home meet of the year, the Red Oak boys’ track team finished fifth out of eight teams at the Red Oak Invitational last Tuesday.
The Tigers finished with a score of 61. Shenandoah was first with 131, while Mount Ayr was second. Southwest Valley finished one spot ahead of Red Oak with 67 points.
Red Oak had two wins at the meet, both in distance races. Josh Sunberg powered his way through gusty winds to pick up a victory in the 3,200 with a time of 11:07.89.
Phillip Currin of Southwest Valley took fourth with 12:10.29 and Red Oak’s Ryan Dyson finished fifth with 12:20.64.
The other win came in the 1,600 when Logan LeRette ran 4:54.56, beating Shenandoah’s Joe Blake by five seconds.
Sunberg was third with 5:06, while Southwest Valley’s Lane Petersen was sixth with 5:24.34.
“A 4:54 in this wind is really great,” LeRette said. “I can’t complain much because of the conditions.”
LeRette has found himself in some close races with Blake, Shenandoah’s top distance runner, this season.
“The last time we raced, he was fresher than I was. I guess today, I was fresher than he was,” LeRette said. “I’m waiting for the day that we’re both fresh for this race so we can see who is the better miler.”
Red Oak had a notable second place finish in the high jump with Gabe Nelson, who jumped 5’10”. Scott Vanderhoof of Southwest Valley was third with 5’8”.
The other second place finish came in the 4x200 relay when the team of Hayden VanMeter, Dylan Graber, Rob Vial and Brock Isaacson ran a time of 1:39.89, two seconds behind Shenandoah.
The distance medley team for Red Oak took third as VanMeter, Isaacson, Vial and LeRette ran a time of 4:00.91.
VanMeter, Graber and Isaacson joined Eli Guerra to finish third in the 4x100 with a time of 47.51.
The 4x400 team (Vial, Nelson, Clay Selberg and Connor Johnson) finished fifth with 4:10.03, while the 4x800 team (Liam Eubank, Justin Newman, Gil Cooper and Johnson) took sixth with 10:42.19.
Southwest Valley had one win during the meet when Tony Klocke took the title in the 110-meter high hurdles, running a time of 15.22.