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CAL-ASSIC

IOWA FALLS – As busy as he was, Cal Zahn didn’t have the time to stop and think as the North Central Conference track and field meet went on around him Monday evening.

Yes, it was cold. Yes, it was windy. And, yes, the field was solid. But did any of that bother Zahn? Not at all.

Competing in the high jump while simultaneously running a pair of races kept the Webster City senior in react-only mode, and he was more than up to the challenge. By the time the meet was over, Zahn had three new gold medals and one silver to add to his collection.

“Cal had another outstanding night,” WCHS head coach Tony Bussan said.

So did the entire Lynx squad.

Expected to finish somewhere in the middle of the eight-team field, WCHS bucked the odds by climbing to third with 96 points. Clear Lake, which had defeated the Lynx in every head-to-head meeting this season, was fourth with 85.

It was a team effort, too. WCHS won seven medals in all and placed in 15 events. The squad double-placed four times.

“We had an excellent team effort,” Bussan said. “We emphasized the important of everyone contributing during our preparation for the meet. The entire squad responded to the challenge and every member of our varsity lineup scored for us at some point.”

But it all started with Zahn and classmate Tanner Hoveland.

Zahn left the high jump briefly to scream down the track in 11.30 seconds in the 100-meter dash, which was good enough for second. And just moments after clearing 6 feet, 2 inches in the high jump – as it turned out that was all he’d need to grab the gold – he sprinted to the backside of the track to get ready to run the anchor leg of the 4×200 relay. He took the baton and held off a slew of challengers, including Clear Lake speedster Chandler Diercks, to give WCHS the win in 1:34.66.

Zane Carter, Gavin Dinsdale and Cory Keenan did the early work on the 4×200 and got Zahn the lead.

Hoveland ran first and Zahn last on the Lynx winning 4×100 (44.43). Dinsdale and Payton Kannuan ran the middle two legs.

Hoveland grabbed his own slice of individual glory by fending off a pair of Algona runners in the 110 high hurdles. Hoveland was first over the final hurdle and then sprinted to the finish line with a smile on his face in a time of 15.36.

Hoveland added a third-place finish as lead-off leg of the shuttle hurdle relay (1:02.05). Fernando Martinez, Jordan Tanner and Cody Blair were also members.

Kannuan (third, 19-0.5) and Keenan (fourth, 18-5) both produced critical points in the long jump.

No team had a prayer to catch pre-meet favorite and eventual team champion Algona, winners of eight straight NCC crowns and 16 in all. The Bulldogs gobbled up 19 medals – six gold, six silver and seven bronze – and 25 top-8 results for a staggering 177 points. Humboldt was a country mile away in second with 106.

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