Tigers tie for fifth at Mustang Relays
SHENANDOAH — After not competing for more than a week, the Red Oak boys track team tied for fifth at the Mustang Relays in Shenandoah last Thursday.
The Tigers tied for fifth along with Clarinda, scoring 50 points. Glenwood won the meet with a team score of 149 points.
Essex and Villisca also competed at the meet with the Trojans placing 10th, while Villisca, short on competitors for several races, didn’t score points.
Casey Dykes scored the most points for Red Oak thanks to his strong finishes in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Dykes’ best finish was the 200 when he ran a time of 24.18 seconds, edging out Sam Kroepel of Shenandoah at the finish line. Joe Racine, also of Shenandoah, won the race with a time of 23.82 seconds.
Dykes placed third in the 100-meter dash, finishing behind Spencer Smith of Glenwood and Nicholas Shipley of Sidney with a time of 11.93 seconds.
Josh Sunberg had another of the highlights for Red Oak as he took second in the 1,600.
Sunberg raced neck and neck with Shenandoah’s Sean Skillern until Jeff Reeve of Glenwood took the lead on the final lap to steal the win.
Sunberg ran a time of 4:55.38, four-tenths of a second faster than Skillern.
Gavin French was the other Red Oak runner to place in the top sixth as he placed fifth with a time of 5:04.69. Austin Sorensen had the best finish for Villisca as he took seventh in the race.
In the relay races, Red Oak had four third place finishes (4x100, 4x200, 4x400 and distance medley).
In the 4x100, the team of Hayden Vanmeter, Dylan Graber, Phillip Decker and Dykes ran a time of 46.73 seconds, placing behind Shenandoah and Glenwood.
The same group ran in the 4x200 with a time of 1:37.24.
In the 4x400, the team of Shae Lewis, Hayden Vanmeter, Jared Sherman and Phillip Decker ran a time of 3:50.10. In the distance, it was Decker, Lewis, Sherman and Carl Mertz as they ran a time of 3:58.27.
Essex scored all of its points in the relay races.
In the shuttle hurdle, the Essex team of Zach Dailey, Brett Johnson, Austin Woods and Michael Mortimore ran a time of 1:23.10 to place third. The distance medley team placed sixth with a time of 4:07.10.
Red Oak will be home Thursday when they host the Tiger Relays. The meet starts at 5 p.m.