NEWS CHRONICLE PHOTO — The STC 4x800 team of Brant, Tyynismaa, Rosenberger and Rohrs (left to right) celebrate the first place victory at conference and breaking the 57-year-old school record in the event.

MARION — It was a rain filled day as the South Tama track and field team loaded the buses to compete at the WaMaC conference meet at Marion High School last Thursday.

The WaMaC has consistently been one of the strongest and most competitive conferences for track and field in 3A, so this will provide the Trojans with a good test before districts and state in the coming weeks. Despite the wet elements the weather was pretty idle for the athletes to put down some fast races, which is exactly what the Trojans were able to do.

Junior Cody Blocker had an impressive day in the sprint events for South Tama. First in the 100 meter dash, Blocker placed 11th in a stacked field with a time of 11.83. Then he doubled back for another 11th place finish in the 200 meter dash with a time of 24.23.

Following closely behind in that same race was senior Travis Cecak, who placed 13th with a time of 24.52. Later in the night, senior Jeramy Dolash clocked in a time of 1:01.14 in the 400 meter hurdles, which placed him ninth overall.

South Tama was able to get good team point production from the distance squad throughout the meet. In the 3200 meter run, sophomore Barrett Jesina ran an impressive personal best time of 10:24.29 to place seventh overall. Following close behind was senior Holden Schirmer who placed 9th with a time of 10:32.86.

In the 800 meter dash, senior Tommy Tyynismaa continued his 800 running dominance with a first place finish with a time of 1:58.73. Senior Cade Rosenberger was also able to score points for the Trojans in this race with an eighth place finish, running a time of 2:07.48. Finally, in the 1600 meter race, Tyynismaa was able to capture another first place finish with a time of 4:29.11 while senior James Brant finished 4th with a time of 4:38.05.

The performance of the day for the Trojans came in the 4×800 meter relay as the distance squad of Brant, Rohrs, Rosenberger, and Tyynismaa took first place in convincing fashion with a new season best time of 8:02.92 over a stacked WaMaC field. This time not only stands as the best in the WaMaC conference but is now also the best 4×800 time in all of 3A this season.

On top of that, this is the new South Tama 4×800 school record as these athletes took down the previous 57 year old record by 10 seconds.

Overall, South Tama finished in eighth place with a final score of 39 points. The Trojans will hit the track again on Thursday, May 7 at North Polk high school for the district meet as several athletes and relays will compete for the chance to run at the Iowa High School State Track Meet from May 16-18.