Decorah Boys Track Opens Season Strong at Luther Invitational

DECORAH — The Decorah boys track team is just getting started, according to head coach Brian Waskow. Last Saturday, at Luther College's indoor track facility, Decorah hosted the following teams for its annual invitational: Crestwood; Grand Meadows, Minnesota; La Crosse Logan, Wisconsin; Onalaska, Wisconsin; South Winneshiek; and St. Charles. "Our indoor season has had some ups and downs," said Waskow. "But overall it's been very good so far. As we look toward the outdoor season, we need to continue improving in every aspect. I told the guys yesterday that this is just a starting point. We can never be complacent. We're always building for May." By "May," Waskow is referring to the state track meet, where Decorah hopes to be well represented. The team showed improvement with a solid meet at Luther. Some top performances included a record-breaking meet performance by the 4x200 relay team of Landon Quandahl, Peyton Webb, Trevor Kuennen and Davis Walter, with a time of 1:33.28, topping the second-place finisher by eight seconds. Senior Garrett See tied a meet record in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:03.68. The 800 was an overall strong race for Decorah, with three runners finishing in the top five. Freshman Leonard Nimrod placed fourth in 2:25.53, and fellow freshman Lucas Fankhauser finished just behind in 2:26.10. Other first-place finishes included senior Trevor Kuennen in the 200 in 23.90; sophomore Bennett Coppola in the 400 in 52.73; See in the 3,200 in 10:30.28; the 4x400 relay team of Peyton Webb, Kyle Pattison, Carter Riley and Landon Quandahl in 3:39.01; the 4x800 relay team of Bill Fullhart, Derek Hrdlicka, Oscar Grimstad and Lucas Fankhauser in 9:08.19; the sprint medley relay team of Grant Knutson, Gavin Knutson, Max Grimstad and Clarence Nimrod in 3:53.34; and Luke Franzen in the shot put with a throw of 48 feet, 5 inches. It was an impressive overall outing for the Vikings. The team will return to action March 27 with another home meet at Luther. Events begin at 4:30 p.m.