Red Oak has top finishers at Creston, Shenandoah

CRESTON — The Red Oak Tigers track and field team picked up several top six finishes at the Creston Panther Relays Friday afternoon.

Andy Vial had the key highlight of the meet for Red Oak with a second place finish in the high jump. Vial, the lone individual finisher, jumped 6’ for the event.

In the relay events, the Tigers picked up four top six finishes.
Their best finish was fifth in the 4x200 and 4x400 relays.

The 4x200 team, which featured Brendon Birt, Tanner Johnson, Nick Leinen and Matt Soe, finished with a time of 1:39.65.

In the 4x400, the team of Vial, Leinen, Soe and Brandon Bergren ran a time of 3:47.89.

The 4x800 and the distance medley relay teams took home sixth at the Panther Relays.

In the 4x800, the team of Soe, Bergren, Jared Sherman and Teddy Fields ran a time of 9:20.52.

In the medley relay, Birt, Johnson, Fields and Jose Perez ran a time of 4:13.14.

Last Tuesday, Red Oak finished 10th at the Mustang Relays at Shenandoah High School.

Andy Vial provided one of the key highlights with a third place finish in the high jump. Vial was tied for third, along with a half dozen other jumpers.

Matt Soe was another top individual finisher, taking fourth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.45 seconds. Soe was third in his heat, behind Chase Jahnke of Griswold and Darius Washington-Johnson of Clarinda Academy.

Brandon Bergren also had a fourth place finish, but in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:01.68. Bergren in fact won his heat, defeating Parker Rice, of Shenandoah, and Essex's Justin Moyer and Branson Naico.

In the discus throw, Dustin Jones took home his first top six finish of the season, by finishing fifth with a throw of 111’05”.

In the 1,600 meter run, Josh Sunberg won his heat, but finished sixth with a time of 5:09.20. Sunberg finished ahead of teammate Logan LeRette, who was second in the heat, but 12th overall.
In the relay events, Red Oak had four sixth place finishes (4x100, 4x200, 4x400 and 4x800).

Red Oak will have one meet during the week and that will be their home meet.

The Tigers will host the Red Oak Invitational, which starts at 5 p.m. Tuesday.