Apparently, Mother Nature doesn’t want to see outdoor track and field events until April.
She sent her message loud and clear last Saturday, sending for snow during this past weekend’s scheduled outdoor opener at Iowa City Regina High School.
The event was canceled and there is no makeup date.
West Liberty’s boys’ and girls’ track teams did not make the trip to the University of Dubuque on Tuesday, March 19, so the athletes had plenty of rest ahead of the March 26 meet at Wapello.
The girls’ team had yet to compete at a meet while the boys ran at the Hilltop Co-Ed Invite at Cornell College on March 18.
Monday’s rainstorm also affected the boys’ and girls’ golf teams.
The scheduled meets against West Branch were postponed to Thursday, March 28 at West Liberty Country Club (girls) and Cedars Edge Golf Course (boys).
The good news was that the West Liberty soccer teams still made their way onto the pitch for their season openers at Columbus Community High School.
Both teams won by identical 4-0 score lines to begin the season on a positive note.
Individual statistics were not available as of Tuesday morning.
Full coverage of Comets soccer will begin in next week’s edition with the first matches played inside West Liberty’s new stadium against Clear Creek-Amana and Mid-Prairie.
A first look at RVC track
10 of the 13 schools in the River Valley Conference took part in the 2024 River Valley Conference Indoor Championships on the campus of the University of Dubuque last week.
Only West Liberty, Wilton and Durant did not attend.
When the dust settled, nine performances were graded as “elite” according to Mile Split Iowa.
In the girls’ 1500 meter run, three times met the grade.
The top three placers in Maquoketa’s Izzy Hardin (4:55.85), Mid-Prairie’s Danielle Hostetler (5:00.09) and West Branch’s Grace Hamann (5:07.06) received the recognition.
Two girls’ high jumpers, Anamosa’s Alliya Vratney (5-03) and Iowa City Regina’s Reese Naeve (5-02) did so too.
In the long jump, it was just Mid-Prairie’s Emma Lueck who leaped 17 feet on the dot.
Three boys’ high jumpers also hit the MileSplit US Second Team standard.
Camanche’s Tyson Seeser (6-10), Maquoketa’s Tye Hardin (6-06) and Anamosa’s Ike Classas-Tubbs (6-02) surpassed the mark.
Seeser's and Hardin's jumps were the only two individual efforts at the RVC indoor meet to surpass MileSplit's "gold" standard.
On the team side of the proceedings, Maquoketa won the girls’ event with 93 team points.
Mid-Prairie (84), Tipton (71), Iowa City Regina (40) and Anamosa (35) comprised the top five.
On the boys’ side, Bellevue took the top spot with a 70-point performance.
Northeast (61), Camanche (59), Anamosa (54) and Monticello (44) were all close behind in this tight team scoring race.