Red Oak finishes fifth at Southern Division meet

SHENANDOAH — The Red Oak boys track and field team began the 2012 season with a fifth place finish at the Hawkeye Ten South Division meet in Shenandoah, last Tuesday.

Five teams competed at the meet as Red Oak ended the day with a score of 24 points.

“There were a lot of pleasant surprises. We’ve been worried about our lack of speed,” Red Oak Track Coach Jim Hambright said. “Some of our kids turned around, they ran really hard, showed some guts.”
Hambright added he was happy with what he saw from the team in its season debut.

“We have a long way to improve. Spring break just kills us,” he said. “At this time of the year, we work for three weeks. We get in some sort of shape. The kids take off on spring break and  we don’t see half of them. I don’t know how much they run or work out and then they come back and they have a track meet in two days.”

Glenwood won the team title with a score of 149 points.

Andy Vial provided the highlights for Red Oak by earning a pair of third place finishes for the meet. Vial took third in the 400-meter dash with a run of 56.13 seconds, a tenth of a second behind Alex Archer of Clarinda for second. Vial also picked up third place points for the Tigers in the high jump. Four of the jumpers all had a jump of 5’8”.

Vial was also part of the distance medley team that took home fifth with a time of 4:13.14.

“[Vial’s’] never been a strong runner, he’s always been a high jumper,” Hambright said. “I think he may turn around and help us once he starts figuring out that he can actually compete.”

Brandon Bergren also had a top finish for Red Oak, individually, as he finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:03.16.

Nick Leinen finished fifth for the Tigers in the discus throw with 108’7”. Dustin Jones was a foot behind Leinen in sixth.

Phillip Decker had a sixth place finish for the Tigers in the long jump event. Decker jumped 17’5” to score points for the Tigers.

In the relays, Red Oak had a fourth place finish in the 4x200 and the 4x400.

Hambright said he was very happy with the baton exchanges during the relay events.

“Last year, we had some real serious problems with our baton exchanges,” Hambright said. “I was real happy with the exchanges for the most part.”

Red Oak will be in action Tuesday in Glenwood to compete in the Ram Invite. Thursday, they travel to Clarinda to compete in the Cardinal Relays.