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The
Official Newspaper of Manchester and Delaware County, Iowa
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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Hawk shuttle hurdle team claims Class 3A State Championship
by Ken Boesenberg
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State championships are hard to come by no matter what the sport. It takes a tremendous amount of talent and some luck to end up on the top of the heap.
The West Delaware girls shuttle hurdle team of Robbie Sedain, Emily Havertape, Joann Feldmann and Cristen Dudak had the talent and like everyone else was hoping for just a little luck at this years State Co-ed Track Meet.
The quartet’s talent was evident as they posted their second fastest time of the season just when they needed it in the finals to claim the Class 3A shuttle hurdle championship.
The Hawks were the number one seed coming in with a time of 1:03.89 and held that seed in the preliminaries with a clocking of 1:06.05.
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State Champion hurdlers from West Delaware, Robbie Sedain, Emily Havertape, Joann Feldmann and Cristen Dudak |
In the finals Robbie Sedain gave the Hawks the lead after the first leg and sophomore Emily Havertape kept the Hawks in front at the half way point.
Senior Joann Feldmann ran a very clean third leg, leaving the fate of the team in the hands of senior Cristen Dudak.
Dudak, making her fourth straight trip to the finals and her third as the anchor stayed clean through the 10 hurdles and crossed the finish line four tenths of a second ahead of the Mt. Pleasant anchor to give the Hawks their first crown since 2002.
Their winning time was a very nice 1:04.94 with Mt. Pleasant crossing the line in 1:05.34.
Three of the four, Sedain, Feldmann and Dudak were running as a team for the third consecutive year.
In 2005 they placed third in a time of 1;05.81 and moved up to second last year to Mt. Pleasant with a time of 1:05.25.
Katlyn Heiserman, who suffered a torn ACL during this past basketball season ran on both of those teams for the Hawks.
With Katlyn unable to participate in this years track season, sophomore Emily Havertape stepped in and did an outstanding job for this years title team.
This years quartette has joined the 2002 team of Megan Nieman, Abby Lahr, Amy Klostermann and Deb Durey as the Hawks only state champions in the shuttle hurdle relay.
Over the past 10 years the Hawks have been a mainstay at the state track meet in this event.
During that 10 years there has been plenty of talent, but sometimes not the luck that plays an important part in the race.
After not placing in 1997 the Hawks were sixth in 1998. In 1999 and 2000 they were snake bit with falls and a DQ.
However, since their eighth place finish in 2001 they have not finished lower than third; placing 1st in 2002, 3rd in 2003, 2nd in 2004, 3rd in 2005, 2nd in 2006 and 1st this year.
Next season there will be three new faces in the line up that will have some big shoes to fill. That has been the case in the past so look for the shoes to be filled and look for the Hawks to once again make the field at next years state track meet.
In other action for the West Delaware girls at state Cristen Dudak took fifth in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 1:07.24 while teammate Robbie Sedain placed 14th at 1:09.89.
The 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 meter relay teams did not make the finals, but both ran their best times of the season at the state meet preliminaries.
The 4 x 100 team of Robbie Sedain, Joann Feldmann, Mandy Besler and Cristen Dudak ran 51.75 for 13th place overall.
The 4 x 200 team of Becca Gibbs, Robbie Sedain, Emily Havertape and Cristen Dudak posted a time of 1:51.04 for a 21st place overall finish.
In posting that time it should be noted that both Sedain and Dudak had finished the grueling 400-meter hurdle competition less than an hour earlier.
Joann Feldman competed in the 100 meter hurdles and posted a time of 17.08 in the prelims and did not qualify for the finals.
Senior Holly Tjaden ran a 2:30.79 in the 800-meter run to place 19th overall. Holly was making her first appearance at the state meet as an individual.
On the boys side of the meet the West Delaware Hawks shuttle hurdle team of Jacob Wall, Tom Gaffney, Adam Rave and Chris Harbaugh placed sixth in Class 3A with a season best time of 59.81.
The foursome just kept getting better as the late season moved along. Their preliminary time of 59.94 was better than their district qualifying time.
The Hawks also ran in the 4 x 200 meter relay with the foursome of Destry Sperfslage, Ben McDonald, Ryan Hauser and Brad McDonald. They posted a preliminary time of 1:33.49 which was 12th overall.
The 4 x 100 meter relay team of Chris Harbaugh, Ryan Hauser, Ben McDonald and Brad McDonald posted a time of 44.87 in the prelims which was 13th overall.
The Hawks had individual 110-meter hurdle competitors in Chris Harbaugh and Adam Rave.
Harbaugh ran 16.19 in the prelims for 13th overall while Rave posted a time of 17.04 for 22nd overall. |
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E. Delaware - P.O. Box 245 - Manchester, Iowa 52057
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Manchester Press 2005-2006
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