Comet boys earn 5 firsts in lone home track meet of the season

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Tuesday’s Comet Relays was the only meet the Charles City boys track team will host this season.

Brandon Bluhm couldn’t get so lucky.

“This is a terrible place to jump,” said Bluhm, echoing the sentiments of former long jump teammate Shane Feller, who also couldn’t stand jumping at home.

Nonetheless, during “Senior Night” Bluhm mentioned that competing with and against Feller home and away as one of his favorite memories during his career with Charles City.

Feller was able to qualify for the State Track and Field Championships last season and took third in the Class 3A division. Bluhm came up a spot short of qualifying.

So far this season, Bluhm has jumped distances of at least 20 feet in all of his meets. The Comet Relays, despite being held at a “terrible” place to takeoff and land, were no exception as Bluhm recorded a first-place leap of 21 feet, ½ inch — 3 ¼ inches shy of his personal best.

“I guess my goal is to reach 22 feet,” said Bluhm, who is still trying to qualify for the Drake Relays with one more meet to make the cut.

“I’m doing some things differently this year,” Bluhm said. “I’m eating better … and I’m drinking no pop. That makes a difference.”

Though Feller is gone, Bluhm is suddenly being challenged by another teammate — Jaden Foster, who recorded his first 20-footer — 20 feet, 3 ½ inches — which was good enough for second place.

Foster, who returned to track his senior year after a five-year hiatus to better prepare himself to play football for Iowa Central next fall, Bluhm, Adam Stewart and anchorman Zion Jordan won the 4-by-200 relay with a time of 1 minute, 34.83 seconds.

“They dropped a second from their previous best,” Charles City track coach Ryan Rahmiller said. “They are just continuing to get better and are going to be one of our best bets in getting down to state.”

In the Orange Division, Charles City placed second with 111.5 team points. Forest City, who was strongly represented in the throwing events with Kyle Brown and Colton Shipman finishing one-two in the shot put, was a distant first with 140 points.

Scoring 24 points for the Comets was junior Gavin Connell, who was a wide-margin winner in the 3,200 (10:46.93) and 1,600 (4:56.32).

In between those races, Connell competed in the 800 where he got caught and momentarily trapped within a cluster of runners at the start before finishing fourth.

“The 800 is a physical race, and Gavin stumbled a bit in the first 15 yards,” Rahmiller said. “He still recorded a personal-best time (2:06.36) by nearly four seconds.”

Charles City got its fifth first-place finish of the night with the 4-by-110 shuttle hurdle relay team of Stewart, John Sibuma, Elliott Sinnwell and Dylan Koresh combining efforts for a season-best time of 1:05.76.

In the Gray Division, Saint Ansgar won with 170 team points.