Though the participants are fewer than in previous years, the output of those that remain may be higher. It came down to the final event as the Malcolm boys’ edged out Raymond Central to claim the team title at the April 16 Centennial Invite.
With the two teams tied at 118 apiece going into the 4x400-meter relay, the Clippers’ quartet of Nate Swenson, Thomas Lewis, Bricen Wilkie and Dalton Amen won the day’s finale with a time of 3:42, nearly 10 seconds ahead of Raymond Central. Malcolm finished with a team score of 128. The Mustangs had 126.
With some of last year’s sprinters making the difficult choice to join the baseball team, the Malcolm boys’ track team is down to just 18 athletes.
“Considering our numbers, we had a great meet,” Malcolm coach Kip Arnold said about the team’s highest point total of the season. “We had some big points come from three athletes. But, it took several others to score points for it all to add up. A true team effort.”
Amen helped score 30 points for the Clippers. In addition to the relay, the speedy senior earned gold in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
“Dalton’s strength is pushing him to another level in the final stretch of races,” Arnold said. “He’s always been a hard worker, and I think it’s really clicking for him this year.”
Josh Cantrell added 20 points to the team total by winning both shot put and discus.
“Josh is seeing the rewards from his technique work and his time in the weight room,” Arnold said about the junior. “He’s within a couple of inches of the shot put school record.”
Jake Walters also had a 20-point day. The sophomore won the 300-meter hurdles after a bronze medal leap in long jump and a fourth place finish in the 110-meter high hurdles.
“Coach (Scott) Amen has all of our hurdlers working hard and seeing improvement this year,” Arnold said. “Jake is running cleaner races each week, and that’s leading to great results.”
Swenson won the Clippers’ seventh gold medal of the day with an exciting finish in the 800-meter run. His time of 2:10.73 edged out Preston Wacker of Lakeview by two-one hundredths of a second.
The Malcolm girls took the top spot in four events as Halle Dolliver led the way with a 1:01.2 finish in the 400-meter dash. Dolliver was joined by Morgan Tiedeman, Jordy Small and Izzy Stenger as the 4x400-meter relay champions.
Samantha Back ran away with the 300-meter hurdles with a winning time of 51.6 seconds while Mikiah Witzel out threw her teammate Keira Farritor by three-and-a-half inches with the winning discus toss of 115-11.
Malcolm finished fourth with 86 team points. Centennial took the team title with 125.
The Clippers have two tough meets this week as they travel to Lakeview on Tuesday before heading to Ashland-Greenwood for the Trailblazer Conference Meet on Saturday, April 27.
