(Oakland, IA) – At the Western Iowa Conference Boy’s Track and Field Championship on Wednesday, the Riverside Bulldogs were able to finish in a cozy third place with a total of 101 team points. The Bulldogs featured a total of three first-place individual finishers on Wednesday. Dawson and Brody Henderson were able to finish first as Dawson earned first in the 1600-meter at 4:48.80 and Brody earned first in the 3200-meter at 10:36.31. The boys’ distance medley team was able to capture first with a lot of other personal bests and broken conference records.
Head Coach Alex Oliver was happy to see how well his boys performed at the meet and that has been a continued trend throughout the season. Both Dawson and Brody Henderson are two athletes to highlight as they are constantly getting in back-to-back events and competing for their team. Coach Oliver says that he doesn’t really give them a meet where they’re fresh but relies on their mental toughness to move forward.
The key to keeping this team moving forward is the athletes that are in the middle of the pack. It doesn’t always just rely on the top two runners in the meet, but rather it depends on the mentality that you have as an athlete to win your event. Nobody prefers third or fourth place over first, but you have to have the mindset of first place to earn it, just as Riverside has had all season.
Wednesday’s Western Iowa Conference meet helps the athletes prepare for the upcoming state qualifying meet at Fremont-Mills on Thursday. This conference has some of the toughest competition with some of the region’s best athletes, just in time for next week’s toughest competition.
Riverside will have just one more meet before Thursday, as they travel to Boyer Valley High School on Monday to take on local schools Missouri Valley, Boyer Valley, and Logan-Magnolia. The meet will start at 4:00 p.m.
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