The Washington Demon and Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls track teams braved the weather Tuesday for a trip to Bob Murphy Stadium in Williamsburg and the annual Raider Co-Ed Invitational. On the boys side of the event, Washington had the top area finish taking seventh of 16 teams in the field with their 50 points. Clear Creek Amana won the team title with 92 points. The Demons had a pair of championship events on the night with Brayden Hartman winning the shot put on a throw of 51’1″, and Lance Sobaski racing by the field in the 800 with his time of 1:58.26. That time is a new Washington school record, beating the old record of 1:58.40 set by Darrel Shy in 1969. Sobaski spoke after the race about the run. “The field was good. They pushed me. There was energy all the way around the track the whole time so that really spiked the atmosphere and helped me a lot. Goal tonight was to go out and run my race. See what I could do. Leave my absolute all out there like I always aim to do.”
Other top finishes for the Demon boys included Elijah Morris runner-up in the 100, third for Quinn Wubbena in the 400 hurdles and third for the sprint medley team of Ethan Patterson, Lucas Kroll, Jacob Miller and Alec Ulin.
The Mid-Prairie boys were eighth in the team race with 38 points. The Hawks had one championship event on the night with Cain Brown flying by the field in the high jump, clearing 6’5″ and beating top ranked Derek Weisskopf on his home track. Brown spoke after the event about the win. “My form has declined over the year. I think I got too confident with my first meet. Tonight I think it was better for me. I mean, I have been working on it in practice. The number one kid in the state’s here. He’s a good jumper. I have gone against him before. I knew he was going to come out and jump high and whatever he got I was going to have to go higher, that’s what happened. I got a little bit higher than him. I love the competition. It helps me go higher. It helps my mindset, knowing that I have someone to go out there and catch and beat.”
Thaddeus Shetler was runner-up in the two-mile and third in the 800 while the Golden Hawk 4×800 team of Jayse Yoder, Robert Nagy, Blake Creed and Chandler Hershberger were also third.
In the girls half of the meet, Mid-Prairie had the top finish, taking seventh of 16 teams with 51 points. Solon won the team title with 154 points. The Hawks tallied two titles on the night with Sydney Yoder winning the 3000 in 10:51.02 and Mitzi Evans taking the 800 crown in 2:19.34. The two Hawks talked Tuesday about their wins. Evans said, “I was really nervous. I asked Sydney (Yoder) and Danielle Hostetler to pray for me before the race. They really gave me the encouragement that I needed to hear. It was great to hear them and everyone cheering me on through the race. I was really thankful for that.” Yoder added, “I just wanted to run a solid race and PR. I did that by a couple of seconds tonight.”
Other top finishes for the Hawks included a runner-up for the distance medley team of Madeline Schrader, Alyssa McDowell, Maya Nonnenmann and Yoder, third for Abby Fleming in the 3000 and third in the sprint medley for Emma Lueck, Colby Brown, and Mitzi and Tabitha Evans. The Washington Demon girls were 13th of 16 competing teams with eight points. Scoring events for the Demons included Grace Voss third in the high jump and ninth of the Demon 4×800 team of Voss, Kendall Hinrichsen, Isabella Lujan and Lauren Horak.