Sports : Vikings set more VS records at State; boys, girls to compete Saturday

Grace Horst ran the 4 X 800 on Thursday and will run the 1500M on Saturday.

The Vinton-Shellsburg Vikings track team heads into Saturday in 2nd place among all Class 3A teams, with 34 points, seven behind 1st-place Pella.
Leading the Vikings on Friday were Tyler Bartz, who took second place in the long jump while setting a new school record for the second time this season; and the 4 X 200 team (Nick Hyland, Jordan Womochil, Joel Barnes and Bartz), which finished second with a time of 1:28.98 – and yes, that is yet another school record. The team broke the 2009 record earlier this season.

The Vikings have several good chances to add to their point total in the final day of competition, as they qualified two of their relay teams for Saturday’s Finals, and will be represented in the 1600M run by Cole Tharp.
The 4 X 400 team had the fourth-fastest qualifying time of 3:25.51. Runners include Hyland, Bartz, Blake Bohnsack and Barnes.

The 4 X 100 team had the second-fastest qualifying time of 41.17. Its runners – Cole Garwood, Barnes, Womochil and Hyland – will compete again on Saturday in the Finals.

Hyland will also compete in the 100M Finals; he finished 8th in preliminaries on Thursday.

Bartz’s new long jump record is 21 feet, 10.25 inches. His jump was 2.25 inches less than first place Chase Van Sant of Pella.
Blake Patterson also medaled for the Vikings, scoring 4 team points with his 5th-place finish in the shot put (50 feet, 7.75 inches). Tanner Bird finished in 10th place, with a toss of 48 feet, 2 inches.
The Distance Medley team finished in 11th place, with a time of 3:41.11. Its runners included Garwood, Conner Miracle, Womochil and Tharp.

Girls races set for Saturday
The VS girls have two representatives in Saturday events: Bristi Gerber in the 800M and Grace Horst in the 1500. Those two were part of the 4th place 4 X 800 relay team that broke its own record while finishing 4th on Thursday.

See a story about Thursday's events and VS successes HERE.