GRINNELL — The South Tama boys and girls track teams traveled to Grinnell College last Tuesday to compete at the indoor WaMaC conference meet, the final indoor track meet for the Trojans for the 2024 season. It was a good test for the Trojans as they look to race well against familiar conference opponents.

South Tama started off strong in the boys 1600 meter run as Senior James Brant was the first athlete to cross the finish line taking a convincing win with a time of 4:28.64. This was Brant’s second WaMaC indoor championship win during his high school career.

Following close behind in this same race were seniors Cade Rosenberger and Braxten Rohrs. Rosenberger placed 10th with a time of 4:53.19 while Rohrs finished 11th with a time of 4:53.94. Rohrs would also run the 800 meter dash later in the meet where he placed sixth with a time of 2:13.53.

On the sprinting side of things for the Trojans, junior Cody Blocker and senior Travis Cecak showcased impressive speed in the 200 meter dash. Blocker ran a time of 25.16, which placed him sixth scoring valuable team points for STC. Cecak finished with a time of 25.45, placing him 11th overall. Senior Chase Gustafson competed in the 400 meter dash, where he finished ninth overall.

South Tama also found success in the 4×800 and 4×400 meter relays. The 4×800 squad of Rosenberger, Josiah Houghton, Barrett Jesina and Brant placed fifth overall with a finishing time of 9:07.70. The 4×400 team of Cecak, Cyrell Etzen, Rosenberger, and Brant also placed fifth overall with a finishing time of 3:45.75. Both these relays scored big team points for the Trojan boys.

For the girls, senior Kayla Heck had a standout performance in the 800 meter dash as she placed seventh overall with a time of 2:44.51. Heck also anchored the girls distance medley relay squad to a ninth place finish with a time of 5:01.49.

The field events were where the Trojan girls really thrived as they were able to get several athletes to place highly. Freshman Alexis Thiessen placed sixth in the long jump with a leap of 15.1 feet. In the girls shot put sophomore Autumn Elsbury threw 31 feet, placing her 11th overall out of 45 athletes. Both of these finishes in the field events were very impressive for these young athletes in the competitive WaMaC conference.

Overall, both the boys and girls track teams competed well against the strong competition in the conference and proved that the 2024 track season is off to a great start with lots of time yet to improve for the important outdoor meets later in May. Both Trojan teams were set to compete on Thursday in La Porte City at Union High School for their first outdoor meet of the year.