BEA’s Taylor Ripley competes in the shot put at the Viesselman True Team Meet in Wells on April 9.

The Blue Earth Area track teams were back in action on April 9 when they traveled to Wells to participate in the United South Central Viesselman True Team Style Meet.

A total of six teams participated in the meet. In addition to the host USC/Alden Conger Rebels and the BEA Buccaneers, the other teams were Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial/Nicollet, Maple River, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown.

Girls Results

LCWM-N placed first with 295.5 points while NRHEG was second with 275. BEA came in third with 216 points, Maple River was fourth with 193, USC/AC placed fifth with 170.5 and WEM was sixth with 160.

The relay races saw BEA claim two second place finishes. In the 4×800-meter relay, Sidney Eitzmann, Caitlin Eitzmann, Madie Redepenning and Natalie Griffey finished second with a time of 12:08.61.

Also taking second place was the 4×200-meter relay team of Kyannah Brandt, Kate Armon, Tailor Douglas and Addison Armstrong. Their time of 1:59.91 was less than half of a second behind the first-place team from NRHEG.

Brandt, Armon, Caitlin Eitzmann and Douglas ran a 58.19 in the 4×100-meter relay to place fourth.

In the final event of the meet, Aubrey Woodwick, Sidney Eitzmann, Caitlin Eitzmann and Douglas finished in third place in the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 4:51.53.

Armstrong had a time of 1:04.51 in the 400-meter dash to finish in first place.

Armstrong finished second by two hundredths of a second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 29.44.

Woodwick crossed the finish line in 12:03.77 in the 3200-meter run to earn second place.

Chloe Groe was third in the shot put with a toss of 30-11.5. Groe placed second in the discus with a mark of 102-06. Taylor Ripley’s throw of 82-08 was good for sixth place.

Armstrong was second in the pole vault. She cleared the bar at a height of 10 feet. Douglas was fourth with a mark of 7-06.

Sidney Eitzmann placed sixth in the long jump with a leap of 13-04 and Sarah Dohm was fourth in the triple jump with a distance of 28-08.

Boys Results

Maple River tallied 313.5 points to finish 30 points ahead of runner-up LCWM-N who finished with 273.5 points. Coming in third was NRHEG with 201 points while WEM was fourth with 177.5, BEA was fifth with 167 and USC/AC was sixth with 128.5.

The Bucs’ 2×200-meter relay team won by a two-second margin over LCWM-N with a time of 1:41.47. BEA’s team was made up of Gage Barker, Caden Juba, Isaac Anderson and Tristan Hanson.

The same four runners placed fifth in the 4×100-meter relay with a time of 48.22.

Anderson, Aiden Donahue, Hayden Prestegard and Hanson were fourth in the 4×400-meter relay. Their time was 4:07.99.

Jacob Grandgenett had a good day at the track. He won the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.09 and the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.52. He placed second in the 100-meter dash in 11:87.

In the 300-meter hurdles, BEA’s Marcus Eckles placed sixth. His time was 47.86.

Donahue ran to a fourth-place finish in the 800-meter run when he crossed the finish line in 2:42.05. Oliver Ankeny was sixth in the same event with a time of 2:53.31.

Gibson Haase ran the 3200-meter run in 16:01.24 to earn fourth place in that event.

In the field events, it was Isaac Anderson bringing home a first-place finish for BEA in the high jump. Anderson’s winning height was 5-10.

BEA Indoor Invite

The Blue Earth Area track teams hosted the 2024 Buc Indoor Invitational on Thursday, April 4, on the campus of Minnesota State – Mankato.

In addition to BEA, Minnesota Valley Lutheran, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, St. James and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown were the other schools participating in the event.

Girls Results

JWP topped the girls event with 86 points. St. James claimed the runner-up spot with 60, MVL was third with 58.5, BEA was fourth with 48 and WEM was fifth with 40.33.

Addison Armstrong garnered first place in two events, the 400-meter dash and the pole vault.

Her winning time in the 400 was 66.1 while she cleared the bar at a height of nine feet to win the pole vault.

The Bucs had a number of other good performances during the meet.

Chloe Groe took second in the shot put with a toss of 33-9.5. Sarah Dohm’s jump of 4-8 gave her a second-place finish in the high jump and Sidney Eitzmann took third place in the long jump with a leap of 13-6.

Aubrey Woodwick crossed the finish line in 2:51.4 to finish in third place in the 800-meter run.

Also taking third place with a time of 2:04.2 was the Bucs’ 4×200-meter relay team of Armstrong, Kate Armon, Kyannah Brandt and Tailor Douglas.

BEA’s 4×400-meter team of Caitlin Eitzmann, Madie Redepenning, Iree McKay and Natalie Griffey placed fifth with a time of 5:05.2.

Boys Results

The BEA boys finished in the middle of the pack with 47.5 points. Finishing first was MVL with 109 points while JWP was the runner-up with 76. St. James was fourth with 34.5 and WEM was fifth with 23.

Sprinting to a first-place finish in the 200-meter dash was Jacob Grandgenett with a time of 23.8. Grandgenett’s time put him in third place overall on the Bucs’ Indoor Honor Roll.

Grandgenett and his teammate Gage Barker tied for second place in the 55-meter dash. Their recorded times of 6.5 seconds earned the pair of junior sprinters the number one spot on the BEA indoor honor roll.

Marcus Eckles had identical times in the 55-meter high hurdles as well as the 55-meter intermediate hurdles. His time was 9.4 seconds in both events and he finished second in the intermediate hurdles and third in the high hurdles.

Barker placed third in the pole vault with a height of 7-0 and Isaac Anderson was second in the high jump when he cleared the bar at 5-10. With that leap, Anderson moved into eighth place on the BEA Indoor Honor Roll.

Barker and Caden Juba tied for third place in the long jump. They each had a leap of 17-3.

Tristan Hanson placed fourth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.9.

The 4×200-meter relay team of Barker, Juba, Hanson and Grandgenett finished second with a time of 1:42.5.

St. James Invite

Blue Earth Area competed in their first outdoor track meet of the season when they traveled to St. James for the St. James Invite on Tuesday, April 2.

In addition to BEA, the other five teams competing were Madelia-Truman/Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Martin Luther, Minnesota Valley Lutheran, Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop, Redwood Valley and the host St. James Saints.

Girls Results

Redwood Valley placed first with 140 team points followed by the host Saints with 107.6. GFW placed third with 88, MVL was fourth with 83.33, BEA was fifth with 81 and MT/GHEC/ML was sixth with 44.

Addison Armstrong finished first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 66.77 and fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 29.89.

Armstrong also nabbed first place in the pole vault when she made it over the bar at 10 feet. Tailor Douglas placed third in the pole vault with a mark of 8-0.

In other field events, Sarah Dohm was first in the high jump with a jump of 4-8. Teammate Addison Smith was sixth at 4-0.

Dohm was fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 28-0 while Sidney Eitzmann was sixth at 27-0.

Taylor Ripley’s toss of 27-0 was good for fourth place in the shot put and Anna Mwangi threw the discus 73-4 to also finish in fourth place.

BEA placed fourth in three different relays. The combination of Kyannah Brandt, Kate Armon, Smith and Douglas had a time of 2:05.28 for their fourth-place finish in the 4×200 race.

In the 4×100-meter relay, it was Grace Schavey, Ruby Allis, Smith and Aaliyah Worden racing to a fourth-place finish with a time of 61.2.

Also finishing fourth was the 4×800-meter relay team of Sidney Eitzmann, Caitlin Eitzmann, Madie Redepenning and Aubrey Woodwick with a time of 11:47.15.

The 4×400-meter relay team of Armon, Sidney Eitzmann, Caitlin Eitzmann and Douglas ran to a third place finish in 4:59.31.

Woodwick earned a third-place finish in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:47.

The hurdle events saw Brandt finish sixth in the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 20.61 and Redepenning placing fifth in the 300-meter low hurdles with a time of 63.54.

Boys Results

Redwood Valley and MVL tied for the top spot with 132 team points each. GFW was third with 120.5, St. James placed fourth with 87.5, BEA came in fifth with 41.5 and MT/GHEC/ML was sixth with 32.5.

Jacob Grandgenett cruised to first place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.51. He also placed fourth in the 100-meter dash in 11.89 and took sixth in the discus with a throw of 91-6.5.

The Bucs’ 4×400-meter relay team of Gage Barker, Caden Juba, Tristan Hanson and Grandgenett placed fifth with a time of 3:56.95.

Barker, Juba, Branson Hauskins and Hanson were fourth in the 4×200-meter relay in 1:44.89.

Marcus Eckles was fifth in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 49.12 and sixth in the 110-meter high hurdles in 19.31.

Barker placed fifth in the pole vault by clearing the bar at 7-0.

Isaac Anderson’s jump of 5-6 was good for second place in the high jump. Hauskins cleared the bar at 5-2 to take sixth place.

Eckles was fifth in the long jump with a mark of 17-7.5 and Barker was sixth in the same event with a leap of 17-4.5.