The Union girls track team pictured Thursday, May 11, in Dike following their Class 2A district championship. PHOTO COURTESY OF CJ EILERS/GRUNDY REGISTER

DIKE – The Union girls track and field team swept the competition Thursday night in Dike to take the district crown at the Class 2A state-qualifying meet hosted by Dike-New Hartford.

The Knights automatically qualified eight entries across seven events with first place finishes from Kate Carlson in the 400-meter run, Sydney Anton in both the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles, Brigitte Rohrer in the shot put field event, and Alley Freemon in discus; and second place finishes from Amilia Condon in the 1,500-meter run, the 4X100m shuttle hurdle relay team, and Brigitte Rohrer in discus.

Union scored 116 team points beating out 11 other teams for the district championship including runner-up Aplington-Parkersburg which finished with 104 team points and Dike-New Hartford which finished in third with 80 points.

The Knights were swift and smart across field and track, racking up points 21 times with top-8 scoring finishes.

In the 100-meter dash, Aubrey Gates finished in sixth while her teammate Myah Pont finished in eighth place.

Kate Carlson took sixth in the 200-meter dash with Pont again claiming the eighth spot.

In the 400-meter run, Carlson took gold with a time of 1:02.99.

Distance runner Brynn Albertsen finished in eighth place in the 800-meter run, while her distance teammate Amilia Condon took silver in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 5:02.16 and bronze in the 3,000-meter run.

Sydney Anton locked up the competition in the girls’ individual hurdle events much as she did last week during the North Iowa Cedar League conference meet also held in Dike. Anton took gold again last night in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15:79. She also took gold in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:07.49 – beating her silver finish last week by a fraction of a second.

The Union girls’ relay teams performed well across all events entered, adding valuable points to the team total including the 4X100 shuttle hurdle team which took silver. Runners for the shuttle hurdle included Ava Mills, Reagan Sorensen, Sydney Anton, and Jailyn Petersen.

The Knights took fourth in both the 4X100 and the 4X800 relays, fifth in the 800 sprint medley, and seventh in the 4X200 and 4X400 relays.

On the field, Union cleaned up as well with Brigitte Rohrer taking gold in shot put with a put of 35 feet, 7 inches.

Alley Freemon also took gold in the discus field event with a throw of 106 feet, 8 inches, while Rohrer took silver with a throw of 106 feet, 3 inches.

In the high jump, Aubrey Gates finished in fifth. Ava Mills took eighth in the long jump.

Union boys

The Union boys team finished in eighth place out of 12 teams, scoring 46 team points. Grundy Center took the district championship with 129 points, Iowa Falls finished second with 113 points, and Aplington-Parkersburg came in third with 104 points.

Notable district finishes for the Knights boys included Levi Hadachek’s bronze in the 200-meter dash. Hadachek also finished fifth in the 100-meter dash.

Mason Mullen came in fourth in the 400-meter dash, while teammate Logan Rosauer took bronze in the 110-meter hurdles.

The Knights boys 4X100 meter relay team took fourth, while their sprint medley team took fifth.

Justice Luke took bronze in the high jump.

A full list of qualifiers for both the girls and boys teams – which in 2A will include eight more at-large qualifiers for each event – is expected later today.

All qualifiers will now advance to the 2023 Iowa High School Track and Field Championships set for May 18-20 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.