The Lincoln County High boys track team won the 2017 NIAA 2A State Championship last weekend in Henderson.
On May 19 and 20, team members competed for a first place tie with White Pine. The team accumulated 130 points, enough for the Lynx first state championship since 1991.
Junior Landen Smith excelled at his events, winning first place in the 100, 200 and 400 meters and the 300 meter hurdles. He ran the hurdles in 41.44 seconds, surpassing his own personal record. Senior Tyler Frehner took first place in the 110 meter hurdles, becoming state champion with a time of 16.28 seconds and beating the school record.
Junior Benson Wadsworth placed first in the long jump event with a distance of 20 feet, 5.5 inches and third place in the triple jump event. Fellow junior Cody Dirks won third place in the 3200 meters event, surpassing his own personal record with a time of 10.31 minutes.
Sophomore Noah Smith placed second in the 100 meter dash and third place in both the 400 meter dash and the 110 meter hurdles.
For the girls, Brooklyn Hafen placed first in the high jump event, clearing a height of 5 feet. Hafen won first place in the event in every single meet during the season.
Senior Amy Thomas beat the school record in the 400 meters and won second place in both the 200 meter dash and as part of the girls’ 4×400 meter relay. The team also featured Haylee Zierow, Hailey Hooge and Maya Hafen. They finished with a time of 4 minutes 30.16 seconds.
Junior Danielle Lister placed second in the discus event.
Many Lincoln County track members beat their own personal records during the track meet, including senior Zach Florence in the shot put throwing a distance of 38’1.25,
Coached by Lacee Pearson and Jake Zierow, the team’s performance led to many individual state championships and the first team title in 26 years.
Landen Smith remarked that the last track meet of the season “ended very successfully” and that he was proud of the team’s progress, saying that “we had a lot of really good athletes this year.” Smith said he “set goals for himself at the beginning of the season and [he] beat all [his] goals by quite a bit.” Smith praised his coaches’ training during the year, saying how “hard they push us” and commenting on how “all our hard work paid off.”
