Weather gets in the way at Relays

Meet officials couldn’t quite beat the weather Saturday in Sioux City, keeping a handful of Jimmie athletes from competing.

Despite pushing the schedule ahead an hour, the festivities were called off with a couple events still to go.

Plenty was still accomplished, however, like Trent Roemmich placing second in the 400 hurdles (Friday) in a time of 54.48 and a fourth-place result in the 110 hurdles (15.60) Saturday.

“He ran a phenomenal race,” said JC men’s coach Ed Crawford of Roemmich’s time in the 400.

Rob Nelson had another strong meet with his 45-foot, 3-inch throw in the shot, a season-best. He was also third in the discus (146-8). Mike Findlay was eighth (137-8), the same place as Garrett Tenney in the hammer (138-11).

The Sioux City Relays is one of the top meets in the region, drawing many schools from the NAIA and NCAA ranks.

“This is a well-run meet and I hope the kids appreciated it and want to go back and improve next year,” said JC women’s coach Jim Clark.

Crawford stacked the men’s mile relay team, but that was one that did not get to compete.

Same was true for the women’s distance medley relay and 1600 relay, where they had two teams entered.

Both teams got solid efforts from the relay that did run.

Mallory Souder, Kayla Byle, Ashley Mueller and Jessica Steinwand placed sixth in the 4x800 in a time of 10:18.25.

Casey Geffre, Taylor Miller, Kadie Savage and Alyssa Sanders were eighth in the 800 relay, trimming two seconds off their qualifying time from Friday. All four are freshmen

Kayla Roemmich kept stacking quality throws. After a seasonal-best in the shot Friday, she spun the discus 39-4 to place ninth Saturday.

Souder and Andrea Markwart went 5:17.24 and 5:33.79 in the 1500 to place 23rd and 36th in a deep field.

Jolynn Warnes had a team-best 15-11 in the long jump.

“Our few team members who had been to this meet before did well — Mallory Souder, Kayla Byle and Kayla Roemmich in particular,” Clark said.

Nate Christensen had a lifetime best in the 1500 (4:11.66) for the Jimmies.

In the 4x200 relay, Evan Schreiner, Jarann Johnson, Matt Johnson and Ben Eastwell were fourth (1:31.47) behind only D-I South Dakota, Buena Vista and Northern State.

“Overall, it was a pretty good meet,” Crawford said. “We would have liked to get a few more things in, but we can’t complain too much. I thought for the most part we competed pretty well.”

The Jimmies are back in action on Saturday at the Minnesota-Morris Invitational.

Full results of the Sioux City Relays can be found at jamestownsun.com.

Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com

Tags: track and field, sports, track, jimmies