PR’s Abound at Zimney Last Chance
Beautiful weather greeted athletes and fans for the 2016 Bob Zimney Last Chance Meet on Monday, renamed to honor our current assistant coach and the former long-time head coach. The GF Last Chance meet has always served as a final opportunity for athletes to set PR’s or qualify for the ND State Meet before the Region. It now honors Zimney, who is completing his 39th consecutive year as a RR Track and Field Coach.
One of the biggest storylines heading into the meet was whether or not Zimney’s Hurdle Army could set the new single season scoring record for the 110 Hurdles. Heading into the meet, this year’s group needed to score 15 points to surpass the record of 288 points, which was was set in 2011 during the Jimmy Evers/Loren Bothun Era. Even with Mo sitting out to rest before the Region, Peter, Tyler, Carlos and Parker all rose to the occasion to place 1-4 and easily surpass the record with 29 points. A great accomplishment for Zimney’s athletes on his special night!
2016 110H Event Scoring Breakdown
| Meet | 60/110H Points Scored |
| Cobber Indoor | 36 |
| Bemidji Lion’s | 33 |
| State Indoor | 19 |
| EDC Indoor | 30 |
| Dual vs. GFC | 38 |
| Sertoma | 24 |
| Eagle Relays | 10 |
| May-Port CG (JV) | 7 |
| Shanley Inv | 28 |
| Packer Relays | 5 |
| Howard Wood | 5 |
| Fargo Rotary | 27 |
| East/West Classic | 11 |
| Zimney Last Chance | 29 |
| EDC Regional | ? |
| STATE | ? |
| TOTAL | 302 |
In the 300m Hurdle race, Peter Wysocki ran a huge PR (almost 3.5 seconds) to qualify for state and win the event. His time of 41.15 is currently #1 in the East and #2 in ND. Tyler Enerson also ran well here (2nd-41.73) and finally qualified after just missing the standard on several occasions throughout the season.
Another record in jeopardy was the freshman scoring record, held since 1989 by Mark Murdock at 155 points. Going into the meet, Carlos needed just under 15 points to surpass the record. After 2nd Place finishes in the long jump (19’1.5) and triple jump (42’9), the record fell. Carlos added a 3rd Place finish in the 110 Hurdles (16.14) and ran a leg on the 1st Place 4×400 Relay to further cement his status as one of the most talented freshman in RR school history. With two meets still remaining, he has scored 166.25 points this season.
The biggest individual point scorer was junior Devon Pope, who continued his fantastic season with wins in triple jump (43’) and the high jump (6’2). The impressive high jump performance was a state qualifying height and the first time Pope high jumped all season. He also teamed with Tyler Burian, Kassim Nsibirwa, and Parker Wenzel to win the 4×100 Relay in 44.84 seconds and just missed qualifying in the 100 after placing 4th with a time of 11.47 seconds.
The big news from the throwing circles was senior Russell Dukes, who managed a state qualifying 49’5 heave in the shot put to win the event. The performance is a PR and the first win of the season for Dukes. In the javelin, junior Ty Ogren bettered his PR by over 5’ to an impressive 175’9, which is #10 All-Time at RR. Liam Ogren (146’2) wound up 3rd, while Sam Schumacher (6th-138’6) and Seth Hanson (8th-123’6) had nice PR’s to round out the scoring.
In the 4×800 Relay, a sub-2:00 anchor split from Ty Boucher provided plenty of suspense but was not enough to qualify the team of Valentine, Hutchison, Carroll, and Boucher. They missed the standard by less than a second but won the event. In the 800 individual race, Boucher came back with a terrific 2:00.95 to qualify in that event. He now has qualified in the 800, 1600, and 3200. In the other distance races, the Dafoe’s D-Crew used its tremendous depth to pile on more points. Tim Dunham and Dalton Byrne both produced great efforts, but just missed the qualifying standard in the 1600 and 3200.
Boys 800 Meter Run
1 Boucher, Ty GFRR 2:00.95
4 Sartwell, Marcelles GFRR 2:12.89
5 Dunham, Tim GFRR 2:13.52
7 Quidera, Noah GFRR 2:15.85
Boys 1600 Meter Run
3 Dunham, Tim GFRR 4:38.35
4 Stenseth, Cole GFRR 4:47.10
5 Valentine, Will GFRR 4:53.82
6 Stricker, Isaiah GFRR 4:56.21
Boys 3200 Meter Run
2 Byrne, Dalton GFRR 10:10.40
3 Hutchison, Ben GFRR 10:12.24
4 Stenseth, Cole GFRR 10:26.56
5 Arason, Jake GFRR 10:49.74
7 Hugo, Thomas GFRR 11:42.40
The 4×400 Relay team of Nsibirwa, Boucher, Horcacitas, and Nyanforh ran with urgency but couldn’t reach the qualifying standard. The exciting anchor leg featured George holding off a hard-charging Davidson from Devils Lake, who happens to be one of the state’s top sprinters. The event capped a fantastic meet for RR, which saw PR’s in almost every event by a multitude of athletes, young and old. No doubt, a sign of good things to come for RR in the coming weeks and years!
Full results, here.
Meet photos, here.
A copy of what was written in the meet program on Coach Zimney is found below:
Today, we’d like to honor a special individual, Coach Bob Zimney. The Last Chance Track and Field Meet is an annual tradition in Grand Forks and serves as a final opportunity for athletes to qualify for the State Meet before Regional competition. One fixture at all of these meets has been Bob Zimney, a long-standing coach at Red River who is in his final season with the program. Today, we’d like to honor Coach Zimney and thank him for his years of dedication and service to the sport of track and field at Red River, in Grand Forks, and throughout all of North Dakota.
This spring marks Zimney’s 39th consecutive season as a track and field coach at Red River High School and 42nd overall. Zimney began his coaching career at Bottineau High School in the fall of 1974, where he spent one year as assistant track coach and two years as the head coach. He also served three seasons as assistant football coach and 9th grade boys basketball coach at Bottineau.
After moving to Grand Forks in the fall of 1977 and spending one year as assistant track and field coach under Ken Hallgrimson, Zimney was chosen to succeed Ken Hallgrimson following the 1978 season. He remained in that position until 2015, earning numerous accolades and serving as a constant fixture in Red River sports for nearly four decades. His longevity, success, and positive demeanor have helped him become one of the most well-respected coaches in not only North Dakota, but also the nation. He is a five-time nominee for National Coach of the Year, a four-time North Dakota Coach of the Year winner, and a fifteen-time East Region Coach of the Year winner. He has been inducted into the North Dakota High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the North Dakota High School Track and Field Hall of Fame, as well as the Mayville State University Coaches Hall of Fame.
From 1979-2015, Zimney led the Red River Boys team to 20 top-five finishes at the North Dakota State Track and Field Meet, including two State Championships (1983, 1992), three Runner-Up finishes (1988, 1991, 2009), seven Region Championships (1979, 1980, 1983, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2009), and fourteen Region Runner-Up finishes. His athletes won 55 individual state titles and ten state relay championships during his career. In addition to overseeing the entire program, Zimney’s specialties included coaching Red River’s hurdlers and relay teams. Zimney-coached athletes include six of the past eight 110 Meter Hurdle state champions, three athletes in North Dakota’s All-Time Top 10 Performance List in the 110 Meter Hurdles, three in the 300 Meter Hurdles, and one 4×100 Meter Relay team.
Zimney taught mathematics at Red River for 33 years before retiring from teaching in 2010. From 2006-2015, Zimney also served as assistant football coach at Red River, a position he . held between 1977-1998, for a total of 31 seasons. Furthermore, Zimney was elected to the North Dakota High School Coaches Association Executive Committee in 1993, serving a five-year term, which included one year as President in 1995. He also served on the Class A Boys Track & Field Advisory Committee for the North Dakota High School Activities Association for four separate terms totaling fourteen years of service.
In late June, Zimney will be inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Let’s all take a moment to recognize Coach Zim for his years of service and incredible dedication, passion, and commitment to track and field.
THANK YOU COACH ZIMNEY!
