The Becker Bulldog boys track team started the season out on a high note Thursday night in Foley, repeating as the Granite Ridge Indoor Conference Champions. Becker won the meet with a score of 137.5 points. Mora was second with a 101 and third place was the host school with a 74.5.
“Our athletes took charge from the start of the meet and from the first event on we never trailed in the meet,” said Head Coach Paul Schmidt. “I am really proud of how our veteran athletes performed and pleasantly surprised by some of our newcomers and their performances.”
The 4x800 team of Jonathan Novak, Basil Ricker, Justin Kringler and Sam Ricker won the event with a time of 8:49.64.
“That was a big win as we finished third last year in that event,” said Schmidt.
David Myers kept things going by winning the 55M high hurdles with a time of 8.47. Michael Schmitz added valuable points for the team with a sixth place finish in the hurdles.
In the 55 meter dash, Austin Hemmelgarn placed second with a time of 6.79, which was just four-hundredth of a second off of first place. Kevin Andres added a fifth place finish.
In the 1600, Ricker was strong again, winning this race with a time of 4:53.91. Novak added a third place finish with a time of 5:06.37.
Becker scored huge points for the team in the 400M as Andres placed second with a 52.0 time, missing out on first place by one-hundredth of a second. Sidney Boros was third with a 55.13 time and Myers finished fifth with a 57.12.
The points continued to pile up in the 800M with Becker taking second and third. Jordan Gruenes finished at 2:13.43 and Kringler at 2:14.55.
Hemmelgarn got his second place finish of the night in the 200M with a time of 23.69 and Cody Johnson added a seventh place with a time of 25.45.
The boys 4x400M relay team capped off the running events with an indoor record-setting performance and first place finish of 3:37.04. Team members were Andres, Gruenes, Hemmelgarn and Boros.
Field events also scored nice points for Becker as William Schendel had a nice evening, taking second in the high jump at 5'6", third in the pole vault at 10'6" and seventh in the triple jump at 36'5.5".
Ethan Holm took second in the triple jump with a leap of 39' 7.5" and Jack Belde added a sixth pace finish in the same event with a 37' 3" leap. Holm also placed seventh in the pole vault with a 9' 6" vault and Cody Johnson had a personal best in the high jump at 5' 6", which netted him a fifth place finish.
“Overall, I was very pleased with how the evening went,” said Schmidt. “We were solid in many areas for our first official meet but we have lots of room to make improvements as the year progresses.”
Up Next
Becker’s next meet is scheduled for Monday in Becker. This was originally scheduled as an outdoor meet in Milaca but has been moved to an indoor meet in Becker due to weather.
