Following a year layoff, the Aberdeen Roncalli track and field squads got out of the blocks on Monday during the Northern State Relays indoor track and field meet at the Barnett Center.

No team points were kept, but it’s safe to the say the Cavaliers were happy to be back competing following a year off because of COVID.

“The goal was to enjoy this once again. Just to be together and compete at a track meet again,” said Roncalli Coach Mark Stone. “I’m sure that every spring sport coach would say the same thing.”

Monday’s meet wasn’t so much about times and distances as it was about competing.

“I felt that we gave all the effort and then some that we asked for,” Stone said. “We’ve got a lot of growing to do, we’ve got a lot of learning to do. In many ways we’re inexperienced. Like all track teams, we haven’t done this for two years.”

Roncalli’s Anna Schmidt won the high jump and ran the opening leg on the winning 1,600-meter relay squad. The senior is just coming off her indoor swimming season.

“Swimming helps with everything,” she said. “I’m not in great running shape, but I’m in shape from swimming.”

Schmidt said there are differences between competing in an individual event and a relay, but that both feature team elements.

“The relay is definitely more stressful, because you don’t want to let anyone down. I think the individual event for me was just fun. I wanted to jump and it was a lot of fun,” Schmidt said. “I definitely think there is a team atmosphere though with the jumps, because we had four people jumping and I wanted them to do just as well as I did.”

Schmidt was happy she didn’t have to jump outdoors because of the wind. She said most days there isn’t much difference between jumping indoors or outdoors, but there is with running.

“I definitely like jumping better outdoors when the conditions are good, but indoors, there’s no difference for jumping,” she said. “Running on the track is definitely different, but jumping is good either way. (The track is) so much shorter and it gets a little hard to breathe.”

Roncalli’s Jaidyn Feickert won the 55-meter dash.

Paul Gutenkauf pulled off one of the closer finishes on the day. The freshman ran a strong anchor leg in the 800-meter sprint medley relay to clip his foe by less than half a second at the finish line.

“I honestly thought I wasn’t going to do it,” Gutenkauf said of his come-from-behind victory. “I just didn’t think I could.”

Gutenkauf trailed a runner from Lake Preston until passing him heading into the last turn on the final lap.

From there it was a sprint to the finish.

“I was pretty sure he was going to kick it in,” Gutenkauf said, “but I didn’t think he had it left.”

Dylan Hass of Miller had a strong day, winning the 55-meter dash and running the opening leg on the winning 640-meter relay team.

Hass was a study in concentration as he prepared his starting blocks prior to the relay.

“It’s very precise. You have to be accurate with them,” Hass said of the blocks. “You have to be quick off your feet, a lot of power.”

The sophomore has used the same formula for quite some time.

“I had an old coach that taught me how to do it, so I just learned from him,” Hass said of his block setting. “And that’s where I’m at today.”

Hass said there was a difference between his two events.

“In an individual event, you’ve got kids right next to you and you push yourself to do better,” he said. “In relays, you just push your whole team to do better.”

The meet got out to a difficult start when Roncalli’s Ella Hanson suffered an injury during the pole vault competition.

“Our hearts and minds are with Ella Hanson after her injury,” Stone said. “Ella is a big part of our team. We value her so much as a young lady.”

The Cavaliers return to action on Tuesday, April 6, at a meet in Ipswich.

“We’re just really pleased to be at it again,” Stone said. “We’re really excited with what we saw today. A lot of kids competed hard and we’ll keep getting better.”

Partipating teams: Aberdeen Roncalli, Lake Preston, Miller.

GIRLS’ DIVISION

55-Meter Dash: 1, Jaidyn Feickert, AR, :08.11; 2, Stella DeKnikker, LP, :08.12; 3, Madison Perkins, LP, :08.24; 4, Morgan Kolda, M, :08.29; 5, Aleah Schlechter, M, :08.58.

800-Meter Run: 1, Alexis Johnson, M, 3:27.93; 2, Maya Howard, M, 3:49.14.

1,600-Meter Run: 1, Gabbi Werdel, M, 6:34.56; 2, Alana Howard, M, 7:38.38.

Shot Put: 1, Taya Pawlowski, M, 30-2; 2, Sophia Madsen, AR, 29-6.75; 3, Joanlei Baker, M, 26-4.5; 4, Ilima Mounga, AR, 23-1.25; 5, Faith Danielson, AR, 22-11; 6, Brinna Zikmund, AR, 22-9; 7, Eva Madsen, AR, 21-7.25; 8, Sarah Mitzel, AR, 21-2.

High Jump: 1, Anna Schmidt, AR, 4-6; 2. Jaden Werdel, M, 4-4; 3, Bella Martinez, AR, 4-4; 4, Jaz Hart-Crissman, AR, 4-0.

Long Jump: 1, Ally Mullaney, M, 15-1.5; 2, Jaidyn Feickert, AR, 14-10.75; 3, Journey Palmer, M, 12-8; 4, Morgan Curd, LP, 12-2.25; 5, Madisen Martin, AR, 10-10.75.

Pole Vault: 1, Greta Snaza, Milbank Area, 10-6; 2, Lillian Jensen, AR, 7-0.25.

640-Meter Relay: 1, Miller (Aleah Schlechter, Journey Palmer, Ally Mullaney, Jaden Werdel), 1:36.95; 2, Lake Preston, 1:38.70; 3, Aberdeen Roncalli, 1:41.26.

800-Meter Sprint Medley Relay: 1, Aberdeen Roncalli (Madisen Martin, Rachel Knapp, Ella Ulmer, Paige Schmidt), 3:45.47; 2, Aberdeen Roncalli II, 3:50.02; 3, Aberdeen Roncalli III, 3:50.32; 4, Lake Preston, 3:52.15; 5, Miller, 3:54.11.

1,600-Meter Relay: 1, Aberdeen Roncalli (Anna Schmidt, Olivia Ulmer, Rose Gutenkauf, Ella Ulmer), 4:48.68; 2, Lake Preston, 5:09.73.

BOYS’ DIVISION

55-Meter Hurdles: 1, Adam Turner, M, :09.93; 2, Zachery Behrends, AR, :09.95; 3, Ben Lohman, AR, :10.71; 4, Andrew Knox, M, :10.80; 5, Bergan Woodcock, LP, :11.21; 6, Ashton Wienk, LP, :11.38.

55-Meter Dash: 1, Dylan Hass, M, :07.29; 2, Josh McMasters, LP, :07.73; 3, Davon Rombough, M, :07.88; 4, Ashton Wienk, LP, :08.04; 5, Colby Harrell, M, :08.05; 6, Davin Bossart, M, :08.07; 7, Beau Price, AR, :08.45.

800-Meter Run: 1, Caden Gortmaker, M, 2:24.75; 2, Thomas Griffin, AR, 2:48.83; 3, Bergan Woodcock, LP, 3;42.19.

1,600-Meter Run: 1, Rhett McMasters, LP, 5:05.57; 2, Alex Schumacher, M, 5:06.56.

3,200-Meter Run: 1, Pierce Baumberger, M, 11:13.44; 2, Rhett McMasters, LP, 11:20.43; 3, Garrett Griffin, AR, 13:05.22.

Shot Put: 1, Noah Johnson, M, 49-8.25; 2, Jaden Anderberg, M, 40-11.5; 3, Brendon Livermont, AR, 37-00.25; 4, Ben Livermont, AR, 36-4; 5, Colby Harrell, M, 35-1.25; 6, Christopher Tvinnereim, LP, 34-2.75; 7, DJ Arunasalam, AR, 33-11.5; 8, Carson Helms, AR, 32-0.

High Jump: 1, Caden Gortmaker, M, 5-10.75; 2, Austin Meyers, AR, 5-5; 3, Caden Shelton, AR, 5-4.25; 4, (tie) Zeezrom Mounga, AR, 4-11, and Nathan Kornmann, AR, 4-11; 6, Thomas Griffin, AR, 4-9.

Long Jump: 1, Caden Gortmaker, M, 17-3.5; 2, Caden Shelton, AR, 17-2.75; 3, Josh McMasters, LP, 17-0.5; 4, Tyler Jurrens, LP, 15-6.25; 5, Jake Larsen, LP, 15-6; 6, Bryce Falken, AR, 14-11.25; 7, Will Goscicki, AR, 14-7; 8, Caden Schumacher, AR, 13-0.

Triple Jump: 1, Tyler Jurrens, LP, 32-3.5; 2, Jake Larsen, LP, 32-3.

Pole Vault: 1, Karson Weber, Milbank Area, 11-6.25; 2, Jayden Johnson, Milbank Area, 9-6.5; 3, (tie) Beau Price, AR, 7-6, and Garrett Weber, Milbank Area, 7-6; 5, James Batchelor, Milbank Area, 7-6.

640-Meter Relay: 1, Miller (Dylan Hass, Adam Turner, Colby Harrell, Andrew Knox), 1:23.92; 2, Lake Preston, 1:31.34; 3, Aberdeen Roncalli, 1:31.90; 4, Aberdeen Roncalli II, 1:34.83; 5, Aberdeen Roncalli III, 1:37.12.

800-Meter Sprint Medley Relay: 1, Aberdeen Roncalli (Michael Luu, Michael Weisenburger, Bryce Falken, Paul Gutenkauf), 3:36.45; 2, Lake Preston, 3:36.80; 3, Aberdeen Roncalli II, 3:39.31; 4, Aberdeen Roncalli III, 3;53.65.

1,600-Meter Relay: 1, Aberdeen Roncalli (Ben Lohman, Nathan Kornmann, Jayden Munroe, Caden Shelton), 4:20.05; 2, Lake Preston, 4:36.76.