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HOMETOWN FUN

WEBSTER CITY – Tony Bussan had plenty to smile about as he watched and judged the progress of his Webster City boys’ track and field team on a picturesque Tuesday night.

Throws, jumps, sprints, distance, relays – pick any of them at random and the odds are good WCHS showed improvement in front of its home fans at the Lynx Invitational.

The improvements across the board led to 84 points and a third-place finish amongst the seven teams in attendance. Humboldt continued to show off its prowess and won the meet easily with 142 points. Iowa Falls-Alden slotted into second with 105 1/2.

Humboldt went home with 15 medals, five of them gold, highlighted by a gold-silver sweep in the 3,200 and 1,600 meters.

Bussan acknowledged just how good the Wildcats were, but his focus was on what his team accomplished.

“Our squad had an excellent night of competition,” he said. “Humboldt continued to prove it is one of the strongest teams in the area and Iowa Falls-Alden gave them a good fight. But we had numerous highlights.”

WCHS won four events and claimed six medals, but it was about so much more than hardware. Of the 29 individuals and relays entered, the Lynx exceeded their seed distances and times on 20 occasions. They matched their seeds twice and fell below the standard just six times.

Sophomore thrower James Cherry didn’t match his season’s best in the shot put, but his heave of 41 feet, 5 inches was still good enough to scoop up the gold. He also blew away his previous top effort in the discus; his toss of 142-1 1/2 earned him the runner-up position behind Humboldt’s Jake Stockdale, who flew past 150 feet.

Payton Kannuan and Noah Perfect were both two-time gold medalists in front of the friendly crowd.

Kannuan opened the meet by soaring 19-0 1/2 to finish at the top of the long jump field. Perfect came out of Lane 3 in the 100-meter dash and had a good lean at the tape to claim victory in 11.27 seconds.

Kannuan and Perfect closed out their nights by running the third and fourth legs on the winning 4×100 relay. They were joined by Jordan Tanner and Zane Carter.

The 4×100 quartet’s time of 44.22 seconds improved upon its best clocking and moved it into the top 40 statewide. With the cutoff to qualify for Drake on Thursday, the group will likely earn one of the 80 invitations.

The Lynx shuttle hurdle relay – Tanner, Carter, Fernando Martinez and Ty Schnathorst – picked up the bronze while running a season’s best time of 1:02.38.

WCHS finished with 13 top-five performances.

Lynx JV

The WCHS junior varsity squad won eight medals on Tuesday, highlighted by victories by Dawson Hjelmeland in the 3,200 and Logan Mark in 400.

Hjelmeland was also second in the 1,600, as was Tucker Judkins in the 3,200, Cory Keenan in the long jump and the 4×400 relay.

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