The Hancock track and field program has come a long way in a short period of time. Back in the mid-2010s, the Owl track and field team were able to get to all their meets in one short bus with numbers hovering between 11 and 20 athletes. With the help of Kalee Nuest taking over in 2020, the program has seen an increase in participation and recently it paid off with the Hancock boys team winning a team Section 3A title in Pipestone May 28.
The improvement of the Hancock track and field team has a number of contributing factors. First, many athletes in other sports saw it as a great way to stay in shape for their fall or winter sport and eventually fell in love with the competition of track and field. “The boys started putting in work and track gave some of them a place to measure it. The girls’ numbers started to follow and I feel like we are just starting to see their best team performances,” head coach Kalee Nuest said.
It also helps that Nuest is close with all the students she coaches as her full-time job is teaching at the school. “I encourage a lot of my students not doing a spring sport to at least give track a try,” coach Nuest said. “I want all my students to try some sport, some season and if it’s track, awesome!”
While there are many reasons for the improvement of the Owl team, the athletes have the biggest role to play. “I cannot say enough about the kids I get to coach. They are the reason we’ve had the year that we’ve had. I keep them organized, on task and plan, plan, plan, but these athletes are just a special bunch,” coach Nuest said.
The Hancock boys earned the top spot in the Section 3A meet as a team with 83 points, 23 points clear of Montevideo in second place.
The Owl boys finished the meet advancing to state in five events. Jace Meierding qualified in two events, coming in second in the 300 hurdles with a time of 40.61 and winning the triple jump with a distance of 43 feet 4.25 inches. Preston Kisgen advanced in the high jump by winning the event with a height of 6 feet 2 inches. Preston Feucht was second in the triple jump with 41 feet 1 inch to advance to state and Jett Nuest moved on in the 800, winning the event with a time of 1:58.65.
For the Tiger boys, MACA finished in seventh place with 49 points and had four events advance to state. Grayson Gibson advanced in three events, winning the 110 hurdles with a time of 14.61, winning the long jump with 22 feet 7.25 inches and coming in second with a height of 6 feet 2 inches. Drake Grimm also advanced to state in the discus by finishing second with a toss of 158 feet 10 inches.
In the girls meet, the Owls finished in 13th place with 21 points. Luverne won the team meet with a score of 94.5.
Giana Feuchtenberger was the lone Hancock girl to punch her ticket to state, she was second in the 300 hurdles with a time of 47.17.
The MACA girls did not have any athletes punch their ticket to state and finished the meet in 17th out of 23 teams with 11.5 points.
The Class A state tournament will be held June 4-6 at St. Michael-Albertville.
Boys Team Scores – (1) Hancock 83 (2) Montevideo 60 (3) SWMC/Edgerton 56 (4) Redwood Valley 55.5 (5) Murray County Central 53.5 (6) Luverne 52 (7) MACA 49 (8) Lakeview 47 (9) BOLD/BLH 26.5 (10) Hills-Beaver Creek 26 (11) Benson/KMS 24.5 (12) Wabasso 24 (13) CMCS 21 (14) WWG/RRC 20 (15) MACCRAY/RCW 19 (15) Ortonville 19 (17) Canby/Minneota 18 (18) LqPV/DB 16 (19) Adrian/Ellsworth 14 (20) Pipestone area 13 (21) TMB 5 (22) YME 2
100 – (15) Brecken Schmidgall, MACA, 12.10
200 – (6) Brecken Schmidgall, MACA, 23.94; (7) Benton Schaefer, MACA, 23.96; (10) Seth Wilson, Hancock, 24.25
400 – (6) Benton Schaefer, MACA, 53.36; (15) Oliver Rechtzigel, Hancock, 56.94
800 – (1) Jett Nuest, Hancock, 1:58.65; (6) Brecken Grimm, MACA, 2:09.19; (11) David Black, Hancock, 2:12.37
1,600 – (3) Jett Nuest, Hancock, 4:30.72
3,200 – (5) Logan Pfaffmann, Hancock, 10:59.49; (14) Casey Raths, MACA, 12:15.96
110 Hurdles – (1) Grayson Gibson, MACA, 14.61
300 Hurdles – (2) Jace Meierding, Hancock, 40.61
4×100 – (11) Schaefer/Villela/Feucht/Charles, Hancock, 47.17
4×200 – (3) Schaefer/Villela/Wilson/Meierding, Hancock 1:34.29; (9) Hernandez/Schaefer/Schmidgall/Schmidgall, MACA, 1:37.53
4×400 – (5) Villela/Wilson/Nuest/Meierding, Hancock, 3:33.07; (11) Hernandez/Smith/Ordonez/Beyer, MACA, 3:58.04
4×800 – (3) Rechtzigel/Charles/Pfaffmann/Black, Hancock, 9:09.63; (15) Kleindl/Richards/Grimm/Kleindl 9:44.40
Shot Put – (8) Cruise Millette, Hancock, 44’ 7.5; (15) Drake Grimm, MACA, 40’ 6.5
Discus – (2) Drake Grimm, MACA, 158’ 10; (7) Connor Oltholft, MACA, 131’; (14) Cruise Millette, Hancock, 120’ 4
High Jump – (1) Preston Kisgen, Hancock, 6’ 2; (2) Grayson Gibson, MACA, 6’ 2
Pole Vault – (6) Emmett Charles, Hancock, 10’ 10
Long Jump – (1) Grayson Gibson, MACA, 22’ 7,25; (6) Preston Kisgen, Hancock, 20’; (13) Preston Feucht, Hancock, 18’ 3.75
Triple Jump – (1) Jace Meierding, Hancock, 43’ 4.25; (2) Preston Feucht, Hancock, 41’ 1; (5) Preston Kisgen, Hancock, 40’ 7.5
Girls Team Scores – (1) Luverne 94.5 (2) Hills-Beaver Creek 80 (3) Benson/KMS 67 (4) Redwood Valley 57.2 (5) Canby/Minneota 47.5 (6) MACCRAY/RCW 40 (7) BOLD/BLH 37 (8) Lakeview 35 (9) SWMC/Edgerton 33 (10) Montevideo 28.4 (11) Pipestone Area 27 (12) LqPV/DB 25.2 (13) Hancock 21 (14) Wabasso 20 (15) Murray County Central 19.7 (16) CMCS 13 (17) MACA 11.5 (18) RTR 11 (19) YME 9 (20) WWG/RRC 8 (21) Ortonville 7 (22) Adrian/Ellsworth 6 (23) TMB 4
400 – (9) Annabella Ekren, MACA, 1:03.13
800 – (6) Anna Boyle, MACA, 2:32.93; (16) Dorothy Redden, MACA, 2:43.62
1,600 – (4) Kendra Christianson, Hancock, 5:40.96; (9) Kendal Fischer, MACA, 5:56.71
3,200 – (13) Anya Fehr, MACA, 14:29.38
300 Hurdles – (2) Feuchtenberger, Hancock, 47.17
4×100 – (7) Schrupp/Fehr/Schmidgall/Nohl, MACA, 53.15; (9) Schmidgall/Bulman/Feuchtenberger/Feuchtenberger, Hancock, 53.56
4×200 – (7) Boyle/Ferrian/Ekren/Nohl, MACA, 1:53.12
4×400 – (13) Minnick/Christianson/Nesvig/Feuchtenberger, Hancock, 4:30.77
4×800 – (7) Christianson/Kellenberger/Christianson/Nesvig, Hancock, 10:39.33; (15) Fischer/Redden/Fehr/Seales, MACA, 11:57.42
Shot Put – (10) Olivia Huebner, MACA, 29’ 8
Discus – (12) Laura Kellenberger, Hancock, 95’ 6
Pole Vault – (4) Alayna Perkins, MACA, 8’ 2
Long Jump – (15) Lola Schmidgall, MACA, 14’ 3.25; (17) Fryda Pico Jon, MACA, 14’ 0.25
Triple Jump – (3) Giana Feuchtenberger, Hancock, 34’ 5.5; (11) Fryda Pico Jon, MACA, 31’ 10.5
