The North Tama girls track team pictured in Brooklyn at the BGM Bears Classic Relays on April 22, where they took silver in their division. -Photo courtesy Katey Holbach

The mighty Class 1A North Tama Redhawks girls track team put in another strong performance this past Thursday, May 5, in Baxter at the Iowa Star Conference Coed Meet – placing second overall out of 13 area teams and taking home five Conference Championships amid a slew of top 8 finishes.

“These girls have done some big and exciting things this season,” girls head coach Katey Holbach said in a Facebook posting ahead of the conference meet. “I can’t wait to see what they continue to do as we get closer to Conference and Districts. They may complain in the moment when I load them up in four events each, but they always perform and do what’s best for the team.”

Championships for the North Tama girls include defending champion Jules Breakenridge in the 800-meter run, Shae Ewoldt in the high jump, and defending champ Grace Lidgett in both the 3000-meter and 1500-meter run.

North Tama’s defending champion quartet for the 1600-meter distance medley relay also medaled first – the relay team included Lainey Willenbring, Zoey Rausch, Jules Breakenridge, and Lidgett.

Additional top eight finishes included the 4X400-meter relay team (Jules Breakenridge, Zoey Rausch, Ava Breakenridge, Lidgett) which took second with a season record time of 4:33.52; Breanna Sebetka in the 100-meter hurdles (4th); Willenbring in the 100-meter hurdles (5th); Zoey Rausch in the 200-meter run (5th); Sebetka in the high jump (5th); Ava Breakendridge in the 1500-meter run (5th); the 4X800-meter relay team (Jamie Jacobs, Jadyn Rausch, Izzy Hallet, Ava Breakenridge) which took fifth; the 4X100-meter relay team (Willenbring, Ewoldt, Briar Blake, Jadyn Rausch) which took fifth; Jules Breakenridge in the 400-meter run (6th); Zoey Rausch in the 100-meter run (7th); Ava Breakenridge in the 800-meter run (7th); Jacobs in the long jump (8th); and the 4X200-meter relay team (Ewoldt, Blake, Hallett, Jacobs) which took eighth.

North Tama girls finished second overall with 96 points – edging out third place finishers Baxter by one point – while the Iowa Star Conference title was again claimed by reigning champs Collins-Maxwell with 164 points. Don Bosco came in fourth with 66 points and Riceville came in fifth with 50.5 points.

North Tama boys track

On the boys side, North Tama finished 11th out of 13 teams with 18 points, most of which were earned by senior Gabe Kopriva.

Top three finishes for the Redhawk boys include Kopriva with a runner-up finish in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:00.77, as well as Kopriva’s bronze in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.56.

Other point-earning finishes for North Tama boys included the fifth place finish (49.78) by the 4X100-meter relay quartet composed of Kopriva, Jared Dvorak, Wyatt Hitchcock, and Kolt Knaack.

Baxter secured the Iowa Star Conference title with 136.5 points; Collins-Maxwell was the runner-up with 123.5 points; Tripoli came in third.

State qualifier

The North Tama High School track team will head to Hudson on Thursday, May 12, for the coed Class 1A State Qualifying Meet (site 5) where they’ll face many of the same teams they competed against in Baxter.

Events are set to begin at 4:00 p.m. at Hudson High School track located at 136 South Washington Street in Hudson.

No more than 24 athletes from each state qualifier event will advance to the 2022 Iowa High School State Track & Field Championships currently set for May 19-21 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Last year North Tama sent several athletes to state track including Jules Breakenridge in the 800-meter run and Grace Lidgett in both the 1500-meter run and the 3000-meter run. The girls’ distance medley relay quartet also went to state in 2021.

Tickets for this year’s state qualifier must be purchased online through the IHSAA Tickets page: https://www.iahsaa.org/tickets/.