The North Butler track and field team will host the Top of Iowa Conference East Coed meet on Thursday.
The North Butler girls hold the second-best league marks in the 100-meter hurdles with Alexis Rose, 400-meter hurdles with Laney Brinkman, high jump with Addison Ulrich and Izzy O’Dowd in the discus. Head Coach Collin Freesemann on the top level competition in attendance.
“They are the most competitive meets and the ones that mean the most. When you start getting to the conference meet it’s really easy to get the girls kind of hyped up because they know that those are the ones that really matter and they’ve worked hard for all year,” says Freesemann. “It is fun watching the kids and we are lucky enough at our meet we’ve got some high quality teams here. Kadence Huck is worth the price of admission by herself for Nashua-Plainfield. Jacy Johnston and all of Saint Ansgar is really solid. It’s a competitive meet because we’ve got some of the state’s best.”
The North Butler boys have opportunities to secure titles and critical team points with the fastest times in some middle and distance races. Trager Pecha holds the league’s fastest time in the 800. Ezra Almelien holds the league’s fastest times in the 1600 and 3200.
West Fork’s Dax Suntken holds the second-best discus throw in the league, but will need a large increase to surpass Eli Kalainoff of Nashua-Plainfield. Head Coach Caleb Hovenga on familiarity competing at North Butler.
“Very nice to get in there and get a meet like that. We haven’t run that one in a few years, so getting to get familiar with the facility, even get the feel for it is pretty big. We are able to go in there, know what we’re expecting and know what we’re looking forward to,” says Hovenga. “We’ve been looking forward to this meet for about the whole season. This has been the one we’ve had circled since the very beginning. We’ve got some goals for the kids and some people that we’d like to see compete very, very well in a good chunk of events. I’m hoping we’ll be able to walk in there, look very good and put a good showing against some pretty good teams that we’ve got in our conference this year.”
The West Fork girls enter as favorites in the 400 hurdles with Evelyn Hitzhusen, Keara Wood in the high jump and Brylee Dickman in the shot put.
Other teams in attendance include Osage, Central Springs, Saint Ansgar, Northwood-Kensett, Newman Catholic and Nashua-Plainfield.
The meet is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. in Greene.
