Riders Runners-Up at Bison Snowbird
With a confusing week trying to figure out which meets to attend and fighting for buses, the Red River Track and Field Team landed themselves at the Bison Snowbird this last Friday the 31st of March. After a solid week of training, the Riders were fired up and ready to compete!
The day started off strong in the 4×800, which featured some unexpected athletes looking to try their hand at mid-distance events. The Riders put together two tightly contested relay teams who battled the whole race down to the line with a separation of 0.18 seconds to take home 4th and 5th place. Athletes included Grant Hoffarth, Sam Baah, Isaac Dafoe, and Matt Evans (4th-9:09.70) and Brody Andrade, Josh Neil, Scotty Johnson, and Micah Schindler (5th-9:09.88).
| 4×8 Splits | |
| Hoffarth | 2:09.9 |
| Neil | 2:15.3 |
| Evans | 2:15.8 |
| Schindler | 2:16.3 |
| Andrade | 2:18.8 |
| Johnson | 2:19.5 |
| Baah | 2:22.0 |
| I Dafoe | 2:22.0 |
For the first individual running event of the day, we look to the 60 meter hurdle prelims where the Riders truly showed their hurdle team depth. Lukas Heydt and Ben Strand ran a PR race, and Carter Byron ran a season-best race for all three of them to secure a spot in the finals later that day. Up and coming freshman Asher Suriano ran a respectable 9.90 in his first race at 39” hurdles to finish in the top half of all boys for the day. In the finals, Heydt ran another PR (8.63-#10 All-Time) to finish 2nd. Byron and Strand ran strong races as well, finishing 5th (8.96) and 7th (9.20).
In the 60 meter dash, the Riders had 4 of their 6 athletes run PR times in the prelims. Amir Dourdian narrowly missed qualifying for finals and finished 9th with a PR time of 7.30. Caleb Severson advanced to the final with a prelim time of 7.18 seconds. In the finals, he threw down another massive PR, running 7.09 seconds for a 3rd-place finish. The performance puts him #2 All-Time in Red River School History, missing the school record by 0.01 seconds.
The ball kept rolling with the 1600 meter run. The Riders had two placers in this event with Micah Larsen-Schmidt and Joseph Elmer Quinn II both running PR’s and placing 4th (4:45.38) and 8th (4:56.24), respectively. Kael Berberich, Jake Jenkins, and Asa Berberich also ran strong races.
In the chaos that is the indoor 4×200, the Riders managed a 6th place finish with a team who had never run together before (1:37.19-Dorudian, Mikey Mallory, Isaiah Gaye, Jonah Dafoe). The 4×2 B team, consisting of Logan Lambl, Kyle Schafer, Noah Brandvold, and Mike Andrei Villas (three sophomores and one freshman) ran faster than any group of underclassmen in school history with a dominant heat victory (1:39.23).
| 4×2 Splits | |
| J Dafoe | 23.9 |
| Dorudian | 24.0 |
| Schafer | 24.4 |
| Mallory | 24.5 |
| Villas | 24.5 |
| Gaye | 24.7 |
| Brandvold | 25.1 |
| Lambl | 25.2 |
Next on the track was the 400 meter dash, where the Riders had three season debuts from J. Dafoe, Heydt, and freshman Jack Matson. Dafoe and Heydt both ran smart races in a competitive field to finish in 4th (53.04) and 6th (54.51). Aidyn Wadlow, although not his first 400 of the season, clocked 59.04 for a season-best. Villas also ran well (58.97) coming back shortly after the 4×200.
In a highly anticipated race for sophomore distance standout Elijah Dafoe, the 800 meter race was one to watch. He dominated from the get-go, winning the race by three seconds and finishing with a time of 2:04.07. That is the fastest indoor 800 meter ever run by a sophomore at Red River. Not forgotten were the PR’s from Quinn (2:16.71) and Scotty Johnson (2:22.44) in their 800 meter season debut.
The 200 meter dash saw six Riders compete with four of those being season openers. Dorudian (24.40) and fellow senior Jaden Chine (25.04) hit PR’s. Severson again entered the Indoor Top Ten list with a 5th-place effort. His time of 23.45 is #5 All-Time.
In the final individual running event of the day, the Riders had 5 athletes run the 3200 for the first time this season. The boys put together some good performances with two PR’s from Micah Larsen-Schmidt and Schindler. Evans, Asa Berberich, and Baah battled the large field of athletes as they navigated around the track. Larsen-Schmidt finished 3rd overall with a time of 10:35.86.
To cap off the track events and the meet, Red River had two teams in the 4×400 relay and had some exciting performances. The “A” relay upset the field in the first heat and took home 1st place in a season-best time for J Dafoe, Heydt, Severson, and Hoffarth. Their time of 3:34.55 is the third fastest in Red River indoor history. Not to be slighted is Hoffarth, who “threw down” in the final leg and ran a 52.4 second split, which is the second fastest junior indoor 400m split ever. In the second heat, the Riders flexed their quarter-mile depth with an outstanding performance from Neil, E. Dafoe, Schafer, and Andrade. Their time of 3:42.31 placed 4th overall, beating a number of school’s “A” teams in the process.
| 4×4 Splits | |
| Hoffarth | 52.4 |
| Severson | 53.2 |
| Heydt | 54.4 |
| J Dafoe | 54.5 |
| Andrade | 54.7 |
| Neil | 55.1 |
| Schafer | 56.1 |
| E Dafoe | 56.4 |
Turning to the field events, we take our eyes to the sky to see Hudson Flom vaulting himself into 2nd place with a performance tied for his best ever (12’0). The Riders also had two other athletes Jack Kouba (9’0) and Suriano (8’0) make their season debuts in the pole vault.
Moving our peepers to Pearce Parks and Byron in their high jump season debuts, we see Parks with an impressive jump of 5’ 08” to finish 8th. Byron, battling with balancing three events going on at once, was able to produce a jump of 5’ 04”
Byron turned it around in the long jump, hitting 20’ 02” which is a season-best and secured 2nd-place. Gaye, Strand, and Kouba also competed, placing in the top 16 of 43 who competed.
In the triple jump, the Riders had three jumpers compete, with Strand finishing 4th (39’9.25). Gaye barely missed the podium and took 9th (39’1.25) while Carson Blegen finished 13th (35’10). It appears the jumpers were a little out of sorts without their fearless Coach Delmore, who may have missed his first meet in 47 years due to a nasty illness. The jump squad looks to rebound in a big way once Delmore returns.
Last but certainly not least, the shot putters put on a show with 4 PR’s from Quinn Nelson (44’4), Cooper Schweigert (41’4), James Walters (40’4), and Dawson VanSickle (40’0). Logan Arason (47’11) and Quinn Nelson were able to make the podium in 4th and 8th place efforts, respectively.
In the team race, the Riders finished 2nd out of 15 teams and are looking ahead to a busy but exciting week of competition. The EDC JV Indoor is scheduled for Tuesday the 4th and the EDC Indoor is set for Thursday the 6th!
Full results, splits, and points can be found, HERE. Meet photos can be found, HERE. For the current season’s top marks, splits, relay teams, and point totals, click HERE.
*Recap submitted by senior Jonah Dafoe and junior Micah Larsen-Schmidt, both co-captains of the team