The chance to advance to next week’s state meet in Des Moines is tonight for all high school track teams and plenty of area schools will make a trip to Wayland for districts.
WACO is one of 10 district host sites for class 1A and the meet will also feature area schools Highland, Columbus Community, Hillcrest Academy, Lone Tree, Sigourney, Keota, and Winfield-Mt. Union. Other teams making the trip for the co-ed competition include Calamus-Wheatland, Danville, Lisbon, New London, North Cedar, and Wapello. The Columbus Community boys won two of their final three meets and head coach Scott Dennler is ready for the loaded field. “I think this district might be the best in class 1A. We need to repeat performances like we have and if we do, we can get a lot of events to Des Moines.”
For the first time since 2017, the Columbus Community boys enjoyed a victory lap around the track on Thursday when they won the Pankoke Relays at Winfield-Mt. Union.
The Wildcats recorded 102 points on the evening to best second place New London with 96. A total of 17 Wildcats contributed to the scoring including two champions in Triston Miller with the 110m hurdles (16.98) and Mason Hodges in the discus (138’3’’). Runner-up events included 3200m run for Freddy Vergara (10:41), Kaden Amigon for long jump (19’2.5’’), and the 4x800m relay (9:32). Wildcat Head Coach Scott Dennler was ecstatic for his team to get their first crown in four years. “They took their victory lap and they were so happy. They have finished second three times, so to get over the hump and win was awesome. I was really happy for everyone especially our seniors, who have been grinding for six years. It was great to see.”