The Southeast Valley boys’ track & field team started the 2023 season this week with a pair of indoor track meets. The first one was a trip to Cedar Falls for the UNI A.D. Dickinson Relays and the other was to Ames to ISU for the Iowa Track Coaches Association’s State Indoor Track meet.

Friday’s IATC State meet in Ames was divided by classes and the athletes had to qualify for the meet based on last year’s times or any indoor season. This year, the Southeast Valley had 10 boys qualify 7 different events for this year’s 2A division.

Cooper Nuss and Justin Loseke were the top finishers for the Jaguars and earned 5 team points to help the Jaguars finish 26th in the team standings. Cooper’s 3200m time of 10:34.51 earned him the 6th place medal in the race. Justin also placed for the Jaguars with a 7th place finish in the shot put. He had a season best throw of 45-04.75”.  

Cooper also anchored the 1600m medley relay along with Carl Berglund, Jace Hanson, and Eli Johnson to an 11th place finish and time of 3:56.24 which was a second better than last year’s PR. In the 60m hurdles, Isaiah Ihrig and Ben Thompson both improved their times from Tuesday’s meet running 11.07 and 11.53 respectively. Oscar Hanson improved his 800m time from Tuesday night running 2:19.28 and also finished 11th in the 3200m run (11:11.89). Nate Scott finished 15thn the shot put (40-00.25).

Carl Berglund (7.65) and Dreyvon Steadman (7.82) competed in the 60m dash and joined Eli and Jace in the 4 x 100m relay. The 4 x 100m relay ran a 47.20.

At UNI on Tuesday in the Jaguars’ first meet of the season. Here the Jaguars faced competition of all classes with multiple heats and flights highlighting some of the state’s best track & field athletes.

The top finishers for the Jaguars on Tuesday were Justin Loseke (shot put, 45-02.75), Cooper Nuss (1600m, 4:52.46), Colin Johnson (400m, 1:01.78), Carl Berglund (60m, 7.65), Isaiah Ihrig (60m hurdles, 11.39), and Dreyvon Steadman (200m, 26.17).

They also had three relays compete; the 4x 400m relay team finished 45th, the 4x 200m relay team finished 53rd and the 4x 800m relay team finished 70th. The Jaguars will compete in the final indoor meet of the season at Humboldt on St. Patrick’s day before having a week of practice before the outdoor season begins.