James Brant and Tommy Tyynismaa leading the 1600 meter run during their successful night at Norwalk on Monday.

After opening their 2023 outdoor campaign with a second place finish, the STC Boys Track and Field Team has had their sights set on excellence. From dominance in the distance events, numerous capable throwers, and young jumpers and sprinters, the team looks poised for a successful season.

At the Belle Plaine Boys Invitational, STC took second place to Grundy Center, quite a coincidence considering the next meet ended up being on the Spartans’ home track. The Trojans headed to Grundy Center on Thursday, April 6, for another thrilling matchup.

The night was a modest one after harsh winds slowed competitors down in the previous competition.

Starting the Trojans with an early 10 points was the calm and collected junior James Brant, winning the 3200 meter run in an impressive time of 10:12.56, roughly 10 seconds ahead of Emerson Vokes of Grundy Center. Vokes contested the first two laps with Brant before a gap formed, leading to a lonely six laps for the Trojan distance star.

The STC School record in the 3200 dates back to 1998 when Joe Hughes ran 9:57.35. Brant ran number two all time in the event last year at STC’s home meet, clocking in at a time of 9:57.79, narrowly missing Hughes’ decade spanning record.

Brant commented that running solo made attempting the record rather difficult and opted to conserve energy for the 1600 meter run later in the night.

Another matchup between the Spartans and Trojans happened directly after the 3200 in the 4×800 meter relay. With a slightly different lineup for both teams, Grundy Center eked out a win over the quartet of Cade Rosenberger, Holden Schirmer, “Big B” Braxten Rohrs, and Tommy Tyynismaa. On the anchor leg, Tyynismaa clocked in an impressive split of 1:56 narrowly being bested by Grundy Center’s relay team in a time of 8:44.93 to the Trojans’ 8:46.02.

Senior hurdle Specialist Aiden O’Clair made an impact in the 110 meter hurdles. With a time of 17.01 seconds, O’Clair secured second place, just being out-leaned by Grundy Center’s Tiernan Vokes by less than four hundredths of a second.

Coming back after the 4×800, Tommy Tyynismaa handled business in the open 800, winning by a margin of more than five seconds over the Spartans’ Kaden Lynch.

Rounding off STC’s major scoring was Brant once again, winning the 1600 meter run. In a show of tactical excellence, Brant once again bested Emerson Vokes. After two laps of allowing the young Spartan to content, Brant applied pressure and pulled away from his competitor. With a time of 4:55.36, Brant brought his successful night to a close. Collecting 26 team points for the Trojans after his win in the 1600 and 3200 along with a third place finish in the 400 meter dash.

After the night of running, jumping, and throwing had concluded the Spartans once again stood tall over the Trojans, boasting a team score of 214 to STC’s 116.

Distance medley breaks school record at Norwalk

The next meet on the schedule for the boys track team was Norwalk, an ultra-competitive night of track and field.

“Besides the Drake Relays or the State Meet, this is the toughest competition we’ll see,” Head Coach Danny Mayo said.

This competition proved helpful as Mayo and fellow coach Robert Tyynismaa combined two of their best sprinters and the dazzling duo of James Brant and Tommy Tyynismaa, into what turned out to be the best Distance Medley Relay in South Tama’s history.

With the competitive stage set, senior Trey Etzen blasted out of the blocks and rounded the bend into the backstretch, where he handed off to Travis Cecak to complete another 200 meters of the relay. From Cecak the baton went to Brant on the 400 meter leg, who charged full speed ahead leaving nothing left in the tank.

Next the baton went to Tommy Tyynismaa, who brought the Trojans home in a record breaking 3:37.62. The old record of 3:40.16, which had stood since 2009 was broken by an unprecedented 2.54 seconds.

After the eventful race, Coach Mayo commented that the goal of the night was to put forth a strong time in the distance medley in order to hopefully secure a spot on the starting line of the Drake Relays in late April.