With H10 Championships Over, Cyclone Track Preps for State Qualifying

With H10 Championships Over, Cyclone Track Preps for State Qualifying –

(5-8-26) – It’s all built up to this. State Qualifying.

Harlan Community track has been battled their way through this season and now that the Hawkeye Ten Championships have concluded, they’re ready to take the next step on the season.

Cyclone girls’ track was got two H10 champs, the Distance Medley, with Brinley Van Baale, Josie Sonderman, Paige Sonderman, & Julia Heslink in a time of 4:23.58, and Heslink took the 800m individual title in 2:20.09. Heslink’s been expected to participate in several different events each meet and Hamliton believes she’s handled the heavier workload well.

“She did a great job handling that full plate,” said Hamilton. “She showed a lot of maturity with that and she's just a really neat girl, a really nea athlete to work with.

Hamilton has also appreciated the adaptability and leadership of Van Baale.

“Her versatility is mostly just because she has a great attitude and very open-minded. She's always willing to do anything that's asked or to fill any needs that the team has… She's really not afraid to try anything.”

Hamilton says they have a pretty good idea how they plan to attack the State Qualifying Meet.

“We've been looking at who runs well together on these relays, kind of the chemistry and the relays. We've got a pretty good idea how we're going to attack that and we're excited. It takes a lot to make it to the state meet. That's what makes it special.”

Harlan Community boys’ track didn’t earn any H10 championships, but had some close finishes that show promise for the future of the program. Cyclone Coach Sam Brummer felt he’s athletes showed a “mixed-bag” of results.

“I thought there were some things that underperformed, things that I thought we could have ran faster or were set up, we thought, for a little more success than maybe what happened and then there were some things that kind of surprised us and things maybe we weren't expecting to see in terms of times and places and kind of snuck in an 8th place here or 7th place there that maybe we weren't projected to get out of the slow heats or some of the other kind of events.”

Jeffery Gross put in a time of 10:21.28 in the 3200m to finish in 2nd place, less than 10 seconds behind winner, Kevin Coots of Lewis Central. The Cyclone Sprint Medley team of Jackson Ahrenholtz, Cade Nelson, Hagen Sorensen, & Foxx Arogtsinger also were 2nd, finishing in 1:36.40. Argotsinger also finished 3rd and Sam Shields 4th in the 400m. Brummer thinks these finishes are something his young team can learn from moving forward.

“I like our team. I think we got a good mix of youth and experience and kids that went down to State Track last year and hopefully want to get back this year. We know what we need to do to get better.”

And with that plan, Brummer knows his athletes now just need to implement it.

“We know the template and we know what we need to get and shooting for times and then it's just going to be up to the kids to go out and execute the game plan.”

State Track Qualifying for Harlan Community will take place in Glenwood on Thursday.

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