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| Anna Bentley, UNI Panthers |
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| Brady Grunder, Kansas State University |
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| Sunkyu Holbert, Buena Vista University |
Sports Editor, Tipton Conservative
Despite not having a high shcool entry at the 2017 Drake Relays, Durant High School was well represented at the Drake Relays last week. A trio of alumni were competing for their respective colleges or university. They were Brady Grunder - Kansas State, Anna Bentley - UNI and Sunkyu Holbert - Buena Vista. Of the three, Bentley has a good story.
Bentley, an All-State softball player in high school and member of the Wildcats state championship softball team in 2012 team, had no plans of competing for the Panther track team.
“When I got to college in the fall of 2014, I tried out for the softball team as a walk-on,” said Bentley. Bentley Bentley had a 16-8 record in 166 innings pitched with a 1.81 ERA her senior season with 114 strikeouts against 32 walks. Opposing batters batted only .238 against her that season.
Bentley also tied for the fifth highest hit total in class 2A with 57 with Kaitlyn Boline of Alburnett. She batted .452, had a slugging percentage of .635 and an on-base percentage of .477. Bentley had 14 doubles, 3 home runs and 52 RBI’s, good for fourth in class 2A that summer.
“I didn’t make it,” she said. “but, the track team was looking at people to fill out the event. The softball coach talked to the track coaches and they contacted me. The softball coaches said I had a decent arm and the track coaches asked me if I wanted to try it out and I did,” said Bentley.
Learning a new sport was something exciting for Bentley. Throwing a javelin is not like a softball.
“It was an adjustment to start. It’s not like throwing a softball with a softball release point. Tthe javelin is a very areodynamic thing and very different throw. If you don’t throw it right, it’s not going to go far at all,” she said.
“You go from a running position, to a sideways run to the throwing motion over your head. You start out slow and want to build up speed to the throwing line. When you are doing the sideways run, you are pushing through with your hips and at the end, you stop your motion and let go,” said Bentley.
Bentley threw shot put and discus at Durant her freshman and sophomore seasons and has been doing it ever since. It is only an outdoor event and Bentley practices year round with practices getting more intense in late winter. This is the third outdoor season for her and this year is different as she is coming off of an injury.
“Drake is only the second time I have been at a meet this year. I’m taking it slow,” she said.
“I came last year after someone dropped out and that was very exciting. They were able to use one of throws from last season, since I didn’t have a throw in before the cut-off for entries this year. It was a decent throw I am just hoping that because I am coming off of an injury to just keep working on things that I have been working on in practice. I’d be happy with a decent throw,” said Bentley.
UNI is nearly the end of their outdoor season. After the Drake Relays, the Panthers will be at the University of Wisconsin Twilight meet May 5 before traveling to Wichita, Kansas for the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor championships May 11-14.
Bentley is majoring in elementary education at UNI.
Alyssa Olin from North Dakota State won the event with a best throw of 47.34m/155-4. Teammate Kayla Hochhalter was second with a throw of 45.28m/148-7 and Haley Pitko from Kansas State was third with a throw of 43.31m/142-1.
Grunder, a senior at Kansas State, won the Drake Relays title in the hammer throw. Opening competition in heat two, Grunder wasted no time jumping into the lead after recording a throw of 61.54m/201-11. On his second attempt, he became the only athlete in the competition to eclipse the 62-meter mark after a launch of 62.13m/203-10. It was not until his final attempt in the series that he posted his winning mark of 63.82m/209-04 to win the the event.
Grunder won the NJCAA national title in the event at Iowa Central Community College in 2014 with a then best throw of 189-4. He was also a two-time All-American at ICC. The Drake title was fitting for Grunder who finished second in the shot put to West Liberty’s Avery Meyers as a senior and the two had many epic battles in the shot put and discus. Grunder finished second at Drake that year in the discus, but a state title eluded him. He finished his high school career with records in both the shot put and discus. He is second on the all-time weight throw list at Kansas State.
Alex Renner form North Dakota State was second 61.22m/200-10 and Steffan Stroh from North Dakota State was third 61.0m/200-1. Teammate Kyle Smith was 4th.
Holbert, a freshman at BVU, competed on the Buena Vista 4X200-meter relay team. She ran the third leg of the race that saw the Beavers finish 10th in the women’s college division of the event last Friday night. The Beavers finished in a time of 1:46.21 with the team of Shania Wunschel, Madison Spear, Sunkyu Holbert, Mallory Spear. Holbert is no stranger to the blue oval having finished 20th in the 200 in 27.40 at the state meet as a senior last year.
Durant Alumni Drake Results:
Women’s Javelin: 1. Alyssa Olin (N. Dakota State) 155-4 (47.34 M), 2. Kayla Hochhalter (N. Dakota State) 148-7 (45.28 M), 3. Haley Pitko (Kansas State) 142-1 (43.31 M), 10. Megan Pohlman (St. Catherine) 128-8 (39.23 M), 15. Anna Bentley (UNI) 117-4 (35.76 M).
Saturday, April 29
Men’s Hammer Throw (Top-3 only): 1. Brady Grunder (Kansas State) 209.4 (63.82 M), 2. Alex Renner (N. Dakota State) 200-10 (61.22 M), 3. Steffan Stroh (N. Dakota State) 200-1 (61.0 M).
Women’s 4X200-meter relay College: 1. Minnesota State 1:39.80, 2. Oklahoma Baptist 1:39.98, 3. Fort Hays State 1:40.41, 7. Wartburg 1:43.09, 10. Buena Vista (Shania Wunschel, Madison Spear, Sunkyu Holbert, Mallory Spear) 1:46.21, 12. Dubuque 1:46.66, 13. Luther 1:49.43.
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