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Comets finish regular season at New Hampton Track Invitational

Press photos by John Burbridge Comet senior Noah Robbins had a personal-best throw of 143 feet, 7 inches to win the discus.
Press photos by John Burbridge
Comet senior Noah Robbins had a personal-best throw of 143 feet, 7 inches to win the discus.

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

NEW HAMPTON — They had fun, fun, fun until it was time to run the 4-by-100 relay.

For Charles City and many of the other teams participating at the New Hampton Boys Invitational, it was the regular-season finale ahead of the conference, district and — for those fortunate enough to be qualifiers — state meets.

“This is a good time to work on your technique … things like hand-offs and takeoffs,” Charles City head coach Ryan Rahmiller said. “With conference coming up (on Thursday in Waukon), we’re resting some of our guys, and putting some people in events they normally don’t get a chance to do.

“We want this to be a fun meet for us.”

But the Comets were taking the 4-by-100 relay serious.

How serious?

“It’s been three years since we’ve won a 4-by-100 relay,” Rahmiller said of foursome of Bryce Foxen, Tyler Brockney, Brandon Bluhm and Shane Feller winning at the Hampton-Dumont Bulldog Relays last Friday with a time of 45.49 seconds.

“Crestwood has the top-rated 4-by-100 in our conference,” Rahmiller said, “so we’re trying to knock them off.”

Against the Cadet foursome of Connor Slifka, Tristan Bohr, Riley Wilson and Dalton Kerian, the aforementioned Comets improved their season-best with a time of 45 seconds flat. But Crestwood anchorman Kerian was able to hold off a surging Feller enabling the Cadets to win with a first-place time of 44.64 seconds.

Though they didn’t field a full-strength lineup, the Comets did end the regular season with some highlights.

Charles City senior Noah Robbins threw a personal-best 143 feet, 7 inches in the discus to win that event. Behind Crestwood runner-up Spencer Cuvelier (141-09), Comet sophomore Chris Duncan threw a personal-best 127 feet, 4 inches for third place.

Comet junior Brandon Bluhm won the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 10 ½ inches.

And Charles City sophomore Gavin Connell, who was a late addition to the 800-meter run, was able to overtake Waukon’s Tyler O’Neill down the homestretch to win that race by less than a second — 2:08.00 to 2:08.85. For Connell, that was a personal-best improvement of more than eight seconds.

In team standings, Waukon compiled a first-place total of 131 points, followed by New Hampton (111), Crestwood (101), Charles City (73.5), Oelwein (71) and Riceville (43.5).

Charles City will travel to Waukon on Thursday for the Northeast Iowa Conference Meet; the girls conference meet will also take place Thursday in Waukon.

The following Thursday (May 12), Charles City will host both the Boys District Meet and Girls Regional Meet.

Charles City senior Bryce Foxen, foreground, battles with Wyatt Wille of Waukon in the 110-meter hurdles. Foxen placed third (16.64 seconds), Wille was second (16.16) and Crestwood’s Noah Guyer placed first (16.06).
Charles City senior Bryce Foxen, foreground, battles with Wyatt Wille of Waukon in the 110-meter hurdles. Foxen placed third (16.64 seconds), Wille was second (16.16) and Crestwood’s Noah Guyer placed first (16.06).

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