By Fred Kroner
Two Villa Grove relays emerged as conference champions on Monday (May 9) in the boys’ Lincoln Prairie Conference track and field meet at Cerro Gordo.
With the same three runners on two of the relays, the Blue Devils were victorious in the 400-and 800-meter relays.
An all-sophomore foursome of Gunner Cline, Mason Carter, Braydon Dowler and Layne Rund grabbed the top spot in the 400 relay with a time of 46.37 seconds.
Carter, Cline and Dowler were on the track for the 800-meter relay and were joined by Ryan Schlueter. Their winning time was 1:40.31.
Individually, Dowler was the runner-up in the 110-meter hurdles (18.22 seconds).
Four Blue Devils wound up in third place: Dowler (200 meters in 23.42 seconds), Rund (400 meters in 56.00 seconds), Kurt Zimmerman (3,200 meters in 11:58.58) and Elijah Kiesel (triple jump at 35 feet, 10 inches).
Zimmerman turned in a fourth-place performance in the 1,600 meters (5:25.14). Carter was fourth in the 100 meters (11.81 seconds), Isaac Horein was fourth in the 300-meter hurdles (49.84 seconds) and Kyler Williams was fourth in the triple jump (35 feet, 7 inches).
Also finishing fourth was the 1,600-meter relay unit of Brady Clodfelder, Rund, Nolan Morse and Schueter. Their time was 3:58.02.
The school’s 3,200-meter relay grouping of Austin Zoch, Zimmerman, Chase White and Logan Turner crossed in sixth place (11:06.11).
Other Villa Grove athletes among the top 10 were: Morse (fifth in the 300 hurdles in 52.95 seconds), Rund (fifth in the high jump at 5 feet, 7 inches), Cline (sixth in the 100 meters in 11.45 seconds), Carter (seventh in the 200 meters in 24.61 seconds),White (seventh in the 3,200 meters in 13:00.03), Connor Black (eighth in the shot put at 34 feet, 3 inches), Kiesel (ninth in the long jump at 16 feet, 6 inches) and White (10th in the 1,600 meters in 5:58.71).
The Blue Devils placed third in the 11-school meet with 77 points. Meet champion Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond totaled 117 points. Runner-up Arcola had 82 points.
Villa Grove will return to action in the Tuscola Class 1A Sectional on Wednesday (May 18).
