PHOTO BY MAGGIE JESINA - STC senior Barrett Jesina (center) poses with head coach Edgar Tapia (left) and assistant coach Myles Eick (right) after breaking the school-record in the 3200 at Newton.

DES MOINES — As the STC track and field teams approach the postseason, one school record has recently fallen and two others are officially in the danger zone.

Senior Barrett Jesina broke the school record in the 3200 on Thursday, April 23, at the Newton Cardinal Invite. Jesina turned in a time of 9:52.36, just beating out the school record of 9:52.79. That time was held by Jesina’s former teammate, Tommy Tyynismaa, who had set the mark in 2023.

Over the past weekend senior Cadel Connor had the distinct honor of running the 1600 at the Drake Relays. Connor bettered his previous best time in the event by four seconds and finished in 13th place at the blue oval with a time of 4:17.38. That puts him three-hundredths of a second off of the school-record, which is also currently held by Tyynismaa (4:17.35).

Connor, being new to the Trojans, shared his appreciation as he inches close to making history.

“Its definitely the boost I needed to get to Drake. It’s helping me to run with someone like Barrett in a great community with great coaches.”

NEWS CHRONICLE PHOTO - STC senior Barrett Jesina runs the 3200 at Hudson earlier in the season. Jesina broke the school-record in the 3200 last week at Newton.

On the girls team, a quartet of Trojans continue to inch their way closer and closer to the school- record in the 4×100 relay. Sophomores Brylee Nelson, Sydney Arp, Scout Ridout, and Maylee Rucker also ran at the Drake Relays this past weekend. Among 92 teams, they finished in 55th place in the qualifying round with a time of 50.76. The current school-record is 50.01 held by a quartet from 2016. That group included: Shae Slaven, Lauren Yuska, Allison Yuska, and Isabelle Tyynismaa.

Women’s head track coach Emily Chyma, added her thoughts to improving times

“Track and field has really exploded in the last 10 years – way faster times and farther distances because athletes are training differently. We have been working with the girls to not get stuck in excuses and to know that positive thought and hard work equals positive results.”

Also competing at the Drake Relays was senior Timmothy Chandonia. Chandonia competed in the shot put and finished in 23rd place with a top throw of 47-03.50.

After the Trojan senior’s first throw, the automated measurement system registered a distance of 59 feet, 10 inches, putting Chandonia into the lead.

“I didn’t know what was going on until Sam showed me,” said Chandonia. “I was astonished”

Meet officials quickly realized the automated measuring system had made an error and after grabbing a tape measure, his actual mark of 47 feet, 3 1/4 inches was entered into the results and stood as his best throw of the competition.

As the season begins to wind down, the girls team will travel to the BGM Coed Track Meet on Friday, May 1, for their final regular season completion. Both the boys and girls teams will travel to Benton on Thursday, May 7, for the annual WaMaC conference meet. And, for the state qualifying meet, both teams will travel to Mount Vernon on Thursday, May 14, to compete for a place in the 2026 State Track Meet.