It was a record-setting week for West Liberty’s boys’ track and field team with senior Ryker Dengler making more headlines.
At last Tuesday’s (April 15) Indian Relays at Wapello High School, Dengler set the meet record for the 400 hurdles. His time of 55.83 seconds easily won the meet.
West Liberty finished sixth overall at the Wapello Indian Relays with 59 team points. The top five schools were Mediapolis (126), Washington (119), Wilton (101), Winfield-Mt. Union (100.5) and Danville (83).
In addition to Dengler’s performance in the 400 hurdles, he also won the 110-meter hurdles (15.07 seconds) and joined with Cameron Iske, Asher Simon and Braden Bickford to win the shuttle hurdle relay in 1:06.76.
Bickford was part of the other high-placing relay at this event. With Beckham Simon, Lleyton Simon and Enrique Michel, the Comets took third in the 4x200 in 1:37.45.
Lleyton Simon ran the open 200 and placed sixth in 25.01 seconds. Michel also excelled in the long jump, taking sixth with a mark of 17-02.
For the distance events, the best time came from Carlos Meraz in the 1600-meter run. He finished fourth with a time of 5:02.83.
Two days later, the Comets ran at Tipton’s Tiger Relays and placed fifth out of six teams in attendance.
Dengler once again shined by winning the 110-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles. The shuttle hurdle team took second with an improved time of 1:04.67.
Beckham Simon was also a winner in the 200-meter dash, taking it down with a time of 24.17 seconds.
He then ran the first leg of the winning 4x200 relay for West Liberty with Bickford, Lleyton Simon and Kaydn Bragg in 1:35.96.
Other standout times include Jonathan Juarez taking third in the 800-meter run (2:15.43) and Andre Nicholson placing third in the high jump (5-04).
The Comet girls also ran at Tipton, placing ninth out of 11 schools.
Payton Maas, a state qualifier last season, competed in the Para 100-, 200- and 400-meter events. She was the lone competitor, winning with respective times of 34.70 seconds, 1:06.04 and 2:09.47.
Sully Hall continued her success in the long jump, taking second with a jump of 17-07.
Individually, Kylee Daufeldt had a standout day with a pair of fifth-place finishes in the discus (102-03) and 100-meter hurdles (18.10 seconds).
She also anchored the shuttle hurdle relay with Alyssa Lenz, Jayleen Kivi and Liv Garcia. These girls took fourth place with a time of 1:14.49.
On a similar note with the distance events, Addison Guerra took fourth place in the 3,000 meter run in 12:10.70. She then ran the 800-meter leg of the distance medley relay.
The team of Guerra, Chandler Gingerich, Liv Garcia and Sully Hall placed fourth with a time of 4:53.81.
Dengler and Hall to compete in Blue Oval
Ryker Dengler and Sully Hall will soon return to their happy place.
Both Comets qualified for this week’s Drake Relays in Des Moines in one event.
Dengler qualified in the 400-meter hurdles and Hall did so in the long jump.
Dengler set his season-best 400 hurdles time of 55.01 seconds at the Eastern Iowa Track and Field Festival on April 12 at Iowa City West High School.
As of Monday evening, this time ranks 17th overall in the state and No. 1 in Class 2A. The next fastest time in Class 2A is Elijah Graves of Okoboji at 55.14 seconds.
For Hall, her best jump of 17-07 set in Tipton moved her up to the No. 21 in the oval Iowa high school girls’ long jump rankings. In Class 2A, that mark improves to No. 6.
Hall’s event starts on Thursday around 6 p.m. Dengler will run on Saturday in the 400-meter hurdle finals at approximately 2 p.m.