CHARITON – Clarke’s Riley Domina brought home two South Central Conference individual medals Thursday, after winning both the 110 meter hurdles and 400 meter hurdles in Chariton.
At the beginning of the season, head coach Duane Matthess knew he had a capable enough athlete to stick in any event, but thinks he’s meshed with the events well.
“If he wasn’t already running the most difficult race in track in the 400 hurdles, he’d probably be pretty competitive in the open 400,” said Matthess. “He said that he felt really in his sweet spot in the 110 and shuttle hurdle as well as the 400 so we decided to not mess with our mojo there.”
Domina’s 400 meter hurdles time of 55.47 was the sixth best time in Class 3A, according to QuikStats.com and won him the conference crown by almost a full second.
His 110 meter hurdles run was an even tighter race, coming down to a photo finish in which he edged out Centerville’s Trent McCann by one-hundredth of a second with a 15.53.
The two golds earned the Indians 20 of their 34 team points on the evening, a result that left Clarke in seventh place as a collective team.
Clarke gained seven more team points from Dalton Stubbe who took third in the shot put and sixth in the discus.
Stubbe’s shot put toss of 41 feet, 2 inches was a new season best for the sophomore and was worthy of six team points and a third place medal.
The discus throw of 108-1 wasn’t his best launch of the season, but left his head coach pleased with the final result.
“Dalton has progressed as the year has gone on. That’s the meet where he was finally over 40 feet with his throw (in the shot put),” said Matthess. “He’s able to score some points for us.”
Spruceton Buddenhagen barely missed medaling in the shot put, taking seventh with a throw of 38-10 1/2 while earning 10th in the discus with a mark of 104-4.
Payton Winship was unable to get down a mark at the conference meet, scratching in four jumps, but responded with a new season-best leap of 21-7 in Leon Monday, during the rain shortened Central Decatur Invite.
“If he jumps consistently where he has been, he should be able to qualify for state,” said Matthess.
Clarke relay units swept up the rest of the team points for the Indians, with the best finish coming by way of the shuttle hurdle.
Taking fourth in the shuttle hurdle was the collective efforts of Tanner Fry, Zethann May, Domina and Winship in a time of 1:08.21.
Matthess added that breaking the 1:08 mark this season for the shuttle hurdle has been the bar to beat as the Indians manage to get close consistently, but can’t quite get on the opposite side of the mark.
The Indians 4x800 meter relay team of Colby Feehan, Steven Hiatt, Ethan Domina and Braedon Feehan secured a team point after taking sixth place in 9:44.87.
Winship also helped the Indians snag two more team points in the 4x100 meter relay along with Ryan Phillips, Alejandro Davis and Osten Blevins.
Ethan Domina and Steven Hiatt were ninth and 11th, respectively, in the 1,600 meter run while Davis and Braedon Feehan took the exact same results in the open 800.
Phillips and Chris Carson ran the 100 meter dash in 12.64 and 12.72, respectively, for ninth and 11th.
The Indians head to Dallas Center-Grimes High School Thursday for the State Qualifying Meet. They’ll be competing with ADM, Carlisle, DC-G, Knoxville, Norwalk, Oskaloosa and Winterset in Class 3A.
The top two finishers in each event qualify for the Co-ed State Track Meet May 16-18 at Drake Stadium with the next eight at-large spots up for grabs among the fastest non-automatic qualifiers in the state.
