Comets place 2nd in Orange Division while hosting relays

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CHARLES CITY — If long-standing science is correct, gravity should not be any different at Comet Field than it is anywhere else on the planet.

The air is also not thicker — or at least not that much — in Charles City than anywhere else in the state.

So why is this place where personal-best leaps in the long jump don’t exist?

Past Comet state qualifiers claim its the low approach and takeoff board as well as high sand pit.

Like Dean Smith being the only person who could hold Michael Jordan under 20, the long jump pit at Comet Field held Charles City senior Ryan Zuspan slightly under 20 feet — a rarity thus far this season — but couldn’t prevent him from winning the event Tuesday during the annual Comet Relays.

Charles City also got a first-place effort from Jeremiah Chapman in the 200 dash with a personal-best time of 23.63 seconds.

Earlier, the Comet shuttle hurdle relay team of John Sibuma, Dylan Koresh, Tino Tamayo and Cole Reams won their event with a time of 1:05.90.

Any alleged change of gravity or thickness of air didn’t prevent Comet junior Bradley Andrews from matching his personal-best clear of 6-feet even in the high jump. Ben Miller of Osage also cleared the same mark, but did it with fewer attempts and was declared winner of the event.

In a meet that also served as “Senior Night” for the Comets, Charles City compiled 119 points — 8 points shy of Forest City, which won the 8-team Orange Division field.

Competition in the Gray Division was concluded with Nashua-Plainfield’s 4-by-400 relay team of Tyson White, Luke Cerwinske, Austin Bienemann and Evan Kalainoff winning the race in 3:41. But the Huskies still were unable to catch Gray champion Northwood-Kensett, which won with 127 team points — 4 ahead of N-P.