Last night the Charger boys' track team hosted thirteen other track teams from western Iowa in the Merritt Invitational. Named after Harely "Hap" Merritt, a long time teacher, coach, and administrator at Guthrie Center. the event brought together some of the best track athletes from the area.

Three of those good athletes run for ACGC and established records in their events. Clay Billheimer ran the 1600 meters in 4:30.82, which broke the record for the Merritt meet, but he finished second to Sean McDermott of Madrid who won the event in 4:25.56. So McDermott's name will go down in the record books as holding the record. However, Billheimer's time is the second fastest this season in class 2A, which bodes will for the junior as the state qualifying meet is this Thursday. He also established the ACGC record yesterday.

Another Charger record setter yesterday was Noah Nelson who ran a masterful race in the 3200 meter run. Nelson was among three runners who separated themselves from the pack after the first of eight laps. Jerry Jorgenson of Treynor led the trio, with Nelson running second and Jack Trudo of Van Meter in the third spot. The threesome stayed in that order, with no more than eight yards separating them, until Nelson made his move heading into lap number seven. Nelson moved to the front with Jorgenson in second and Trudo still in third. By the time the final lap began, Trudo had overtaken Jorgenson, and it became a two man race between Nelson and Trudo.

On the backstretch of the final lap Trudo began to gain on Nelson, and it looked as if it was going to be a thrilling finish. Well, it was a thrilling finish, but not because it was close. Trudo began to fade on the final turn and Nelson pulled away, easily winning the event and establishing, meet, stadium, and school records in the process. Nelson ran a strategic race and ran it well indeed!

Billheimer and Nelson were the only Chargers to record first place or second place finishes, but not the only ones to set a record. Gabe Rowley, ACGC hurdler, established an ACGC school record when he finished fourth in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 59.74.

Thursday the Chargers will travel to Van Meter for the state qualifying meet. Events begin at 4

PM.

ACGC RESULTS

Shot put DNP: Quynton Younker, 41'01" 400 m relay DNP: Austin Wierick, Cole Boyer,

DNP: Sam Madsen, 38'10.5" Kolby Jacobe, Dylan Soper, 48.32

Discus DNP: Collin Stowe, 122'04" 800 m relay DNP: Justin Plowman, Austin

DNP: Bryce Litter, 111'08" Wierick, Kolby Jacobe, Dylan Soper, 1:43.57

High Jump No entries 1600 m relay DNP: Carter Schildberg, Justin

Plowman, Garrett Young, Austin Wierick, 3:59.26

Long Jump No entries

3200 m relay DNP: Garrett Young, Donnie Swanson, Jason Goff, Joe Davis, 9:42.56

100 m dash DNP: Ben Kingery, 12.81

DNP: Flavio Gonzales, 13.23 800 medley DNP: Ben Kingery, Kolby Jacobe,

DNP: Caleb Lovelace, 13.24 Carter Schildberg, Austin Wierick, 1:47.03

200 m dash DNP: Carter Schildberg, 25.52 1600 medley DQ: Dylan Soper, Quenton Spack,

Carter Schildberg, Clay Billheimer

400 m dash No entries

440 hurdle relay 7th: Kolby Jacobe, Cole Boyer,

800 m run 3rd: Noah Nelson, 2:09.11 Gabe Rowley, Grady Laabs, 1:08.71

DNP: Donnie Swanson, 2:23.04

1600 m run 2nd: Clay Billheimer, 4:30.82

DNP: Garrett Young, 5:02.10

3200 m run 1st: Noach Nelson, 9:58.58

110 hurdles DNP: Cole Boyer, 17.61

400 hurdles 4th: Gabe Rowley, 59.74

DNP: Grady Laabs, 1:04.82

Team Scores

Madrid 81

Underwood 77

Van Meter 74

Wood Acad 72

Earlham 69

WCV 62

DMC 62

Audubon 56

Treynor 48

CAM 43

Panorama 39

ACGC 32

Ex-EHK 20

P-C 6