Harlan Community Track Finishes Regular Season at Henderson Invite

Harlan Community Track Finishes Regular Season at Henderson Invite -

(5-5-25) – A final tune up to get set for the postseason.

The Bruce Henderson Invite in Atlantic saw the Harlan Community girls finish 5th overall with 86 pts, just 2 ½ pts out of 3rd.

Cyclone Girls’ Track Coach Jenny Hamilton liked seeing her athletes putting up personal best times.

“You can't go out and PR every single time, but you should expect consistent improvement from the beginning to the end of the season,” said Cyclone Girls’ Track Coach Jenny Hamilton. “So, that is awesome for the girls to have those PR late in the season.”

Another win for Lindsey Sonderman in the 1500M with a time of 4:45.00 while Ashlyn Rau continues a tremendous freshman campaign with an 11:05.26 to win the 3000M and shuttle hurdle relay team of Jaylee Schmitz, Ainsley Mages, Brinley Van Baale, and Ari Daniels also came in 3rd.

Josie Sonderman earned a 3rd place finish in the 400M. Her willingness to try different events has impressed Hamilton.

“Josie’s a freshman this year and she just came in with a really great attitude. She'll always do whatever's asked of her. Early in the season, she was trying to find her way as a sprinter, and we're kind of talking her into more of those mid distance races. It's been cool to see her mature and be open-minded about trying new things.”

Lewis Central’s girls’ team won the overall title with 104 pts.

The Cyclones finished 9th on the boys’ sides of Henderson Invite with 47.5 pts. But for Coach Sam Brummer, it wasn’t about the points.

“I thought, overall, we did a lot of good things,” said Brummer. “With just the size of our team, we're just not able to cover events like we'd want to… But I think the things that we are able to run, we're definitely progressing in the right way.”

Harlan Community got a 2nd place finish from Jeffery Gross in the 3200M with a time of 10:26.03 while the relay team of Cade Nelson, Hagen Sorensen, Landon Nihsen, and Sam Shields finished 2nd in the Sprint Medley and 3rd in the 4x200M. While there’s still room for improvement, Brummer is pleased to have some consistency in his relay teams.

“Just nice to again get kind of some solidarity and just some continuity amongst the relay group.”

Atlantic took the boys title with 124 pts, 7 points better than 2nd place Glenwood.

The postseason begins for Harlan Community track on Thursday when they compete in the Hawkeye 10 Conference Championships in Creston.

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats