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Tigers have leveled up this season
Senior Haack is the lead horse for the Tigers’ high-ranked relays
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MARENGO — The Iowa Valley boys track and field team has leveled up this season.
Into a potential trophy contender in Class 1A that is.
Under head coach Casey Krull, the Tigers have put up double-digit points at the state meet in three straight years, qualifying in six events last season.
This year’s team has the potential to do much more than that, with the return of almost all of last season’s production.
Improvements already have been made during a hot start to the season for the Tigers, who are, as of Tuesday morning, ranked in the top 10 in eight events in 1A.
“The kids have worked really hard and put a lot of time in,” Krull said on the success this season. “A lot of these kids are three-, four-sport athletes and have put a ton of time in the weight-room, too.”
A big part of those events is senior Caleb Haack, who sits at third in the 200-meter and fourth in the 100. Haack also has anchored several of the team’s high-ranked relays, including a 1A top-ranked 1,600 relay that is Drake Relays bound.
Returning state medalist Josh Read in the high jump, the improvement of the shuttle hurdle relay and the emergence of Chance Hoyt in the 400 hurdles also provide other avenues for the Tigers to potentially add points.
To score big points at the state meet though, firepower is needed. The hard part is figuring out what four events Haack will do come the state qualifying meet.
For Haack, a Northern Illinois football commit, it is best not to think about that until the time comes.
“Right now I am just taking it one meet at a time and trying to take my mind off what I am going to be doing,” Haack said. “Time will tell on what we do.”
The Tigers must trust their depth and other key contributors to continue to step up.
“It is a good problem to have,” Krull said. “When we decide where we’re going to go with him, the big thing will be if we can take someone else and put them in that relay and still be competitive. These next couple weeks will be huge to help show us where to go with that.”
Until the postseason comes, the mentality remains the same for the Tigers.
“We got to (keep) building on the success, it’s not guaranteed,“ Krull said. ”Our guys know they gotta go and continue to work on improving times.“
“The mentality we have coming into practice every day is to put our heads downs and bust our butts,” Haack said.
The postseason will start with trying to defend a South Iowa Cedar League title from last season, which has some great competition across several events with the likes of teams such as Belle Plaine and English Valleys.
As it stands, those three teams alone lead the conference in 17 of 19 events.
The Tigers believe they have the pieces to make this a special season, but know it won’t come easy.
“Everything is lining up right now,” Haack said. “We have everything to reach our goals, we just got to put everything together and trust the work to try and accomplish something that hasn't been done for a very long time here.”
