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Hisey wins girls discus, shot put; boys thrive in middle distance races for win
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The track meet between Peru and host Rochester at Barnhart Field on April 18 was missing many things.
There was no 4 x 800 relay, there was no girls 3,200 meter race, and there was no pole vault.
However, there were 17 seniors, each with their own story culminating in the final home meet of the year.
Kendyll Bradley, Savanah Eccles, Melody Hisey, Macie Nelson, Araceli Ochoa, Zoe Seward, Lukas Clark, Alex Griggs, R.J. Keranko, Gabe Kerr, Payton Luhnow, Maverick Pyle, Austin Rogers, Chris Rohr, Mitchell Shafer, Hunter Shriver and Kaiden Towell went out as winners as the girls won 66-39 and the boys won 61-57.
Rochester winners in the girls meet included Hisey in both the discus and shot put, Ochoa in the 1,600 meters, Audrey Wagner in the 400, Seward in the 800 and Lilly Watson in the long jump.
The Lady Zs also won the meet-closing 4 x 400 relay with Bradley, Isabel Dunwoody, Macie Nelson and Wagner.
Showing an advantage in the middle and longer distances, Rochester scored 25 out of an available 27 points in the 400, 800 and 1,600. And led by Hisey and freshman Ashlynn Weyant, they also scored 16 out of a possible 18 points in the throwing events.
Hisey was balancing work on the school musical, “The Wizard of Oz,” with track. She said she only went to meets and not practices “for a long time.”
“I think I’m definitely happy with the places I got,” Hisey said after throwing the discus 79-1 ½ and the shot 27-6 ½. “But I think it only motivated me to do better at the next meet. Because I know I’m capable of more, and I think if I put in some more work, and since I won’t have time off for the musical, I think I’ll really reach some of my bigger goals, which is 100 feet in the discus.”
As for the middle distance proficiency, Rochester coach Ryan Helt praised Wagner, a sophomore who ran a 1:06.9 in the 400 despite dealing with tightness in her quad three days earlier at practice. He also has high hopes for Wagner’s future.
“I think she’s got a heck of a lot of talent,” Helt said. “We ran her in the 200 last week, and she ran the second fastest time we’ve had out of a 200 kid in the last 15 years or so. She’s just starting to figure it out. I think she’s going to end up being one of the better ones we’ve had go through this program.”
Rochester boys winners included Grant Bailey in the 1,600, Rohr in the 400, Towell in the 300 hurdles, Keranko in the 800, Lane Shank in the 3,200 and Harrison Dunwoody in the high jump.
The 4 x 400 relay, which consisted of Keranko, Rohr, Bailey and Shafer, won in 3:47.75.
Like the girls, the boys were also better than Peru in the 400, 800 and 1,600, outsourcing Peru 23-4. Dunwoody and freshman Carlos Plascencia followed Towell home in the 300 hurdles for a 1-2-3 sweep.
Bailey, a freshman, won the team’s ceremonial belt for the boys athlete who had the best week over the previous week.
“It’s really hard to put a finger on what it is we like about Grant except I just think he embraces competing,” Helt said. “He wants to run against the fastest guys. He wants to be that kid that’s chasing somebody down the stretch, and he’s a kid I’m really building a lot of trust in at this point.”
Towell said his 300 hurdles time was a lot better than it had been all season. He said he has been working “trying a lot of new things” with assistant coach Alysha Wachtmann, including cutting down on his start steps and getting faster in between the hurdles.
“I’m getting to a point where I’m starting to get back to where I was last year, and now I’m focused on going forward with it and seeing what I can get to with it this year,” Towell said. “I started slower than I did last year, but at the end of conference last year, where I ran tonight is where I was last year, so it’s nice to be back there this early in the season. From now, we’ll just look to build on that.”
Rochester track notes
Helt did not specify why the Oak Hill Relays were canceled on April 15, even though the weather was sunny and temperatures were around 80 degrees. He said they had a practice instead.
“We can only control the things we can control,” Helt said. “In that particular scenario, everything was out of our control, so we told the kids right away we’re going to try to make the best of it. It’s going to be a nice day. We’ll go in, and we’ll have a rigorous practice. We tried to simulate the intensity and the number of meters they would have. We got out our fancy new timing system, and we got that worked out a little bit, so the kids got some really nice splits. I guess my message to the kids is when stuff like that happens, we just have to find a way to turn it into a positive for us.”
Rochester athletic director Kevin Renie praised Helt at a school board meeting the night before the Peru meet. He told the board that he hopes Helt stays as coach “for a long, long, long time.” The feelings appear to be mutual.
“I’ll say since Mr. Renie’s come in, he’s been very supportive of us,” Helt said. “He’s helped us along with facility upgrades. He’s been very reasonable with meeting our requests for new equipment and things and like that. He’s very supportive of our kids. … If we keep having kids who make the job fun for me, I’ll stay for a long, long, long time.”
Girls results: Rochester 66, Peru 39
Scoring on 5-3-1 basis for individual events and 5-0 basis for relays
Winners plus all Rochester scorers
100 m
1. Korba (PERU) – 13.12 seconds, 2. Kasey Gray (RHS) – 13.24, 3. Savanah Eccles (RHS) – 13.78
200 m
1. Korba (PERU) – 28.10, 2. Kasey Gray (RHS) – 30.09
400 m
1. Audrey Wagner (RHS) – 1:06.93, 2. Zoe Seward (RHS) – 1:13.09
800 m
1. Zoe Seward (RHS) – 2:36.28, 2. Araceli Ochoa (RHS) – 2:46.50, 3. Ella Hake (RHS) – 3:02.50
1,600 m
1. Araceli Ochoa (RHS) – 6:04.63, 2. Allyson Calloway (RHS) – 6:28.87
3,200 m
(not contested)
100 m hurdles
1. Macie Nelson (RHS) – 17.53 seconds
300 m hurdles
1. Bennett (PERU) – 52.50 seconds, 2. Macie Nelson (RHS) – 56.52
4 x 100 m relay
1. Peru – 53.81 seconds, 2. Rochester (Lilly Watson, Savanah Eccles, Kendyll Bradley, Kasey Gray) – 53.98
4 x 400 m relay
1. Rochester (Kendyll Bradley, Isabel Dunwoody, Macie Nelson, Audrey Wagner) – 4:40.28
4 x 800 m relay
(not contested)
Long jump
1. Lilly Watson (RHS) – 12-9 ½
High jump
1. Kirk (PERU) – 4-4
Discus
1. Melody Hisey (RHS) – 79-1 ½, 2. Ashlynn Weyant (RHS) – 78-5
Shot put
1. Melody Hisey (RHS) – 27-6 ½, 2. Ashlynn Weyant (RHS) – 27-2
Pole vault
(not contested)
Boys results: Rochester 70, Peru 57
Scoring on 5-3-1 basis for individual events and 5-0 basis for relays
Winners plus all Rochester scorers
100 m
1. Adejokun (PERU) – 11.22 seconds, 2. Maddox Jewell (RHS) – 11.87
200 m
1. Adejokun (PERU) – 24.50 seconds
400 m
1. Chris Rohr (RHS) – 56.90 seconds
800 m
1. R.J. Keranko (RHS) – 2:02.75, 2. Grant Bailey (RHS) – 2:12.25, 3. Chris Rohr (RHS) – 2:12.87
1,600 m
1. Grant Bailey (RHS) – 5:03.56, 2. Lane Shank (RHS) – 5:11.87, 3. Reece Johnson (RHS) – 5:17.60
3,200 m
1. Lane Shank (RHS) – 11:37.22
110 m hurdles
1. Strong (PERU) – 14.91 seconds, 2. Kaiden Towell (RHS) – 17.22, 3. Harrison Dunwoody (RHS) – 19.00
300 m hurdles
1. Kaiden Towell (RHS) – 46.58 seconds, 2. Harrison Dunwoody (RHS) – 50.37, 3. Carlos Plascencia (RHS) – 51.38
4 x 100 m relay
1. Peru – 47.28 seconds, 2. Rochester (Braden Krom, Maddox Jewell, Clarence Garrett, Mitchell Shafer) – 48.38
4 x 400 m relay
1. Rochester (R.J. Keranko, Chris Rohr, Grant Bailey, Mitchell Shafer) – 3:47.75, 2. Peru – 4:01.91
4 x 800 m relay
(not contested)
Long jump
1. Smithers (PERU) – 18-0, 3. Thatcher Sampsel (RHS) – 16-3 ½
High jump
1. Harrison Dunwoody (RHS) – 5-2
Discus
1. Luke-Sensel (PERU) – 112-5, 2. Austin Rogers (RHS) – 100-5
Shot put
1. Strong (PERU) – 42-2 ½, 2. Xavier Vance (RHS) – 40-11
Pole vault
(not contested)
