The spotlight shines on Columbus Junction tonight at the Columbus Co-Ed Relays as several area schools get the outdoor track season underway.

The home Wildcat boys have already enjoyed success in the early season, finishing seventh in Class 1A at the Iowa Association of Track Coaches Indoor State Championships in Ames last week. Top ten highlights for the Wildcats included third for the 4×100 team of Juan Chairez, Alexander Rees, Lamar Ceant, and Kaden Amigon. Fourth for Amigon individually in the 60m dash and 200 and 10th in long jump, fourth for Russell Coil in the shot put, fifth for Rees in the 60m hurdles and seventh for the 4×800 team of Ty Muniz, Angel Venzor, Cade Storm and Damian Vergara. Both the Columbus boys and girls ran at the Dickinson Relays at the University of Northern Iowa earlier this month. The Wildcat boys were led by Amigon 16th in the 200, Coil 18th in shot put and Ceant 29th in long jump. The Wildcat girls got a top 30 performance from the 4×800 of Isabel Rendon, Ariana Vergara and Naveiah and Iris Garza.

The Lone Tree boys and girls travel to Columbus tonight. Both Lions teams ran at the Dickinson Relays at UNI. Top performers for the Lady Lions included 26th place for the 4×400 team of Vivian Zaruba, Ava Christofferson, Cate Sexton and Rylee Shield and a top 30 for Shield in the long jump. Pietro Setti led the Lion boys taking 45th in the 800 and the 4×200 team of Emmett Burke, Maddox Jondle, Domonic Garcia and Ethan Bockelman were 56th.

This is the first event of the year for the Winfield-Mt. Union boys and girls. A season ago at the State meet the boys scored 11 points, finishing 25th in 1A. Returners with top 10 highlights from Drake Stadium include Cam Buffington with his state long jump championship, Gabriel Hemsworth who was eighth in the 400 hurdles, Kohlby Newsom ninth in the 800 and three members, Buffington, Hemsworth and Abram Edwards, from the 10th place sprint medley relay. For the WMU girls, they return Josie Nelson from their state qualifying shuttle hurdle group.

The Hillcrest Academy Ravens and Highland Huskies both ran most recently at Central College in Pella. The Ravens also performed at the IATC State Championships in Ames where the boys scored three points with Owen Scott’s sixth place finish in high jump. The Raven girls were 17th in 1A in Ames with 20 points, led by a third in long jump, and fifth in the 60m dash and 400 for Rya Scott and fifth for Marie Yoder in the 3000.

These teams will be joined today by Central Lee, New London, and Van Buren. Action gets underway at 4:30, and continues into the evening in Columbus Junction.