New London-Spicer
On Thursday, April 30, the boys traveled to the New London-Spicer Invitational.
In the first event of the day, the 3200- meter relay team broke the meet record in the 3200-meter relay by almost three seconds. The final time was 8:37.5.
Troy Wendlandt, Paynesville's 110-meter high hurdler, beat the competition as he ran a personal best time of 16.27.
Another good race by a Paynesville athlete was Dan Johnson's 800-meter run. He ran a personal best by almost a second, and for the first time ever, broke two minutes by running a 1:59.9.
The Paynesville two-milers delivered a one, two punch last Thursday. Clayton Lang and Adam Utsch, both freshmen, ran strong to lead the pack and swept the top two positions. Both ran personal bests of 10:39.7 and 10:49.7 respectivly. As usual in the final event of the meet, the 4 by 400 meter relay, the Paynesville team dominated the track. They ran a great time of 3:36.2 to beat the closest team by over three seconds. The team of Josh Jones, Dan Johnson, and Jeff Voss was anchored by eighth grader, Eric Rausch.
Team standings:
Annandale - 134
ACGC - 124
New London-Spicer - 109
Paynesville - 102.5
Melrose - 74
Minnewaska - 68
EVWK - 59
BKMS - 32.5
Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa - 7
Long Prairie-
Grey Eagle
On Tuesday, April 28, the team traveled to Long Prairie-Grey Eagle to get a feel for the track where the conference track meet will be held.
To lead off the meet, Paynesville's freshmen 3200-meter relay team finished second. The freshmen on the team were: Clayton Lang, Eric Korman, Travis Flanders, and Ryan Flanders.
The highest scoring event for the Bulldogs was in the 800-meter run. Dan Johnson, Luke Trees, and Josh Jones finished first, third, and fourth respectively. Especially impressive was Josh Jones who has missed some practices because of a pulled quad muscle. He is coming back strong and his 2:08 in the 800 helped to prove it.
Jones also jumped strong at this meet. His long and triple jumps, both placing him second, were 19'4" and 39'1.5".
Team standings
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle
Litchfield
Paynesville
Bertha-Hewitt-Verndale
Browerville
Upsala-Swanville
Paynesville
The third meet of the week was at home. The Bulldogs hosted three other teams on May 1. The men were certainly feeling the effects of competing a second day in a row as some of the tracksters were sore.
Again setting a personal best time in the 110-meter high hurdles was Troy Wendlandt. He ran a 15.84, but was just edged by a Litchfield runner for the win.
Luke Trees, the only Paynesville runner to win an event, won two events Friday. He ran a very gutsy 800-meter run. In the last 100 meters, tied with another runner, he edged the other runner for the win. He also leapt to victory in the high jump. With a jump of 5'10", tying his personal best, he beat the nearest competitors by two inches.
Josh Jones broke a barrier in the long jump by jumping 20'1".
Team standings
Litchfield - 110
ACGC - 63
EVWK - 52
Paynesville - 44