April 1, 2025
Track and Field
On any given day, track practice at Earlham functions like a well-choreographed ballet. Kids on all four teams—high school boys and girls and middle school boys and girls—all work through their drills at the same time, one group never getting in the way of another. Sprinters, middle-distance and long-distance runners, jumpers and throwers—all working hard. No wasted motion. No wasted effort.
Head coaches Chris Caskey (boys) and Jon Peterson (girls) have delegated a ton of the coaching work to their knowledgeable and experienced assistants—Marty Dalton, Dion Braet, Kate Lindholm, Drew Evans, Alex Teig, John Sneller, and Tim Harskamp. Many of them design and implement the workouts while the head coaches oversee everything—almost as ‘track CEOs.’
“These guys do such an excellent job with everything,” said Coach Caskey. “It’s just a matter of coordinating things. Then I work with them to put the meet lineups together, trying to give kids a variety so they don’t get stagnant. And Coach Peterson is phenomenal. He always has been. He does a great job. He knows exactly what he wants to do and how he wants to do it. And I just try to stay out of his way.”
Success is so frequent with the Earlham track and field teams that it almost appears effortless. The exact opposite is true, of course. With a high standard set by coaches and previous athletes, current Cardinals, especially the upperclassmen, know what it takes to win at the highest level. They do the work because they love to win—and they love to compete at the Blue Oval in May.
A senior-heavy roster will lead the Cardinal boys this season.
“I think we’re really lucky, not only do we have talented seniors,” said Coach Caskey, “but they take a lot of pride in what they do and a lot of pride in the name across the chest. It doesn’t matter what they have to do to get it done—they don’t want to be the group that doesn’t get it done. Between how hard they work in practice, all the things they do in the off season, all the sports they’re in, all the things they do to make themselves competitive year-round, this group of seniors does it right. Like the other seniors we’ve had in the past. And you hope the younger guys are watching and want to be like them. That’s what keeps feeding it.”
This year’s seniors include Caleb Smith, Dallas Canoyer, Blake Tiemeyer, and Carson Maly. Those runners are good over a variety of distances, all the way from 100m and 3000m, giving Coach Caskey a ton of flexibility. Smith is the guy. Any Cardinal that ends up in a relay with him knows they’ve hit the big time. Trevor Lane is another excellent senior, specializing in sprints and the long jump.
The Cardinal girls have just five seniors this season, but 11 juniors, giving Coach Peterson as much experience that he’s had in a while. Two of those seniors, Taylor Rodgers and Hannah Frank, were members of the Class 1A state championship cross country team in the fall, and they’ll be counted on to the lead the way this spring.
“Taylor ran over 200 miles and ran some indoor meets in the winter,” said Coach Peterson. “She PRed in the 800 and 400 at the indoor meet in Ames. She’s run a lot of those races, so to be able to PR right out of the gate is pretty impressive.”
Rodgers and Frank have proved more than proficient at the 5K distance in the fall, but they aren’t just ‘long-distance’ runners. The two give Peterson plenty of options when he’s making out his lineup.
“Hannah loves running 800s and 400s, so she’ll mostly do that,” he said. “Taylor doesn’t mind running the 3000, 1500, and the 800, so she’ll do some of the long stuff.”
Both the Cardinal boys’ and girls’ teams will be able to put together some good relay teams, and hope to develop enough depth to put some of their ‘stars’ in some individual events come post season. Finding that depth sometimes comes down to throwing an athlete into the proverbial deep end and seeing if they can swim.
“Once someone finds out they can be part of a relay,” said Coach Caskey, “be part of a group that’s going to be successful, you put them in a position where they have to perform or they let the other three down. Then you find out a lot about kids. We have a lot that have turned out to be pretty good doing that.”
The Cardinal girls have some depth in the sprinter group this season, something they haven’t had in a while.
“Some of that junior group are looking faster during practices,” said Coach Peterson. “And I think the freshmen have some room to grow. They seem willing to do what you ask them to so far. I haven’t seen a lot of them racing except over a few hurdles. So we’ll learn a lot in the next two meets. I’ll put some of them in a 100, 200 and 400 and see what we have.”
The junior sprinters include Ava Harris, Ava Jenkins, Kenna Harskamp, Kiely Keller, Avrie Fagan, Darby Moore, and Ally Presler. The freshmen include Eden Forcht, Jenna Yetter, and Kim Doud. Sophomore Lillie Strandberg has looked strong in early practices.
Senior Kenady Ridout and sophomore Shilyn Terrell will lead the throwing group, but both are dealing with injuries early in the season. Harskamp, Jenkins, Strandberg, and Forcht are experimenting with the discus.
There will be plenty of other athletes making an impact this season.
Girls
Junior Amanda Smith (High Jump, Middle Distance). She has shaken off a bad foot injury from a couple of years ago and looks like she is returning to form.
Junior Mackenzie Harger (Middle, Long Distance). Hard working and scrappy. A key member of the cross country champs.
Sophomores Shea Rodgers and freshman Kinsley Canoyer (Middle, Long Distance). Both made huge strides during cross country season and should continue their growth on the track.
Junior Taylor Waltz (Sprints). Will look to continue to improve after making big strides last year.
CeCe Stanley. A tough kid and competitor good at several distances.
Boys
Sophomore Dawson Braet and Junior Donovan Braet (Middle, Long Distance). They probably get tired of being listed together, but they’re both the kids of a coach and have a ton of accomplishments already and terrific upside.
Sophomores Keegan Long and A.J. Dunsky (Throwing). Coach Caskey is expecting big things from these guys.
Junior Griffin Messer (Middle, Long Distance). He made an impact during cross country season.
Junior Cason Amsden (Sprinter). A smooth hurdler that improved a lot last year.
Junior Josh Winey (Sprinter). Looking to bounce back from an injury that kept him out for most of wrestling season. Along with Amsden, he’ll be half of the shuttle hurdle team.
Sophomore David Nichols (Middle, Long Distance). Hard working, dedicated, and fast.
Golf
When the Earlham golfers swarmed across the course at 5×80 last Tuesday at the start of their qualifying round, they resembled a battalion establishing a beachhead. With nearly 35 kids on the teams, the Cardinals may not be invading a foreign country anytime soon, but they certainly should make their mark on Central Iowa golf courses this season.
Boys
Last season the Cards won their sectional meet, then finished 6th at the loaded district meet—just 7 strokes out of 2nd place. Five of the six golfers that were in the lineup that day will be back: seniors Davis Doud and Aiden Kaster, juniors Brodie Hamilton and Konnar Stiles, and sophomore Brady Reynolds.
Doud led the team last season with a combined adjusted average (43.23) and Kaster was second (45.29). Those two, along with freshman Blaine Vanderheiden, competed in several Iowa Junior PGA tournaments last summer, which should have their game sharpened this spring. Stiles, Hamilton, and Reynolds should have a leg up on making the varsity lineup, but plenty of competition will push everybody. Vanderheiden and fellow freshmen Colton Nixt, Konnar Keller and Will Harris, along with sophomores Karter Campbell and Jack McClure, could be a factor.
Girls
Most of the girls’ team is back this year, too, having lost just one senior to graduation. Junior Savannah Charlet was the Cardinals’ best scorer last year (56.39 combined adjusted average), followed by senior Presley Koberg (57.83) and sophomore Ava Goodrich (57.94). Junior Olivia Nixt and sophomore Piper Koberg are the other players returning from last year, and there are five underclassmen newcomers this season.
Moving up
The Cardinals will compete in Class 2A this season. The state uses schools’ Basic Educational Data Survey (BEDS) numbers to determine classifications. The BEDS number is raw enrollment count of 9th, 10th, and 11th graders at a school. With a BEDS number of 160, Earlham missed the 1A threshold by just three students. Class 2A consists of 96 schools, with the largest being the likes of PCM, Unity Christian, and Roland-Story. The bump up in class won’t make a difference during the season, of course, but could be a challenge in the post season.
“2A makes it a lot tougher,” said head coach Kaden Howard. “It threw us for a loop a little, but it doesn’t change our goals.”
Qualifying
The Cardinals performed well at their qualifying event on March 25. It wasn’t a competition setting, of course, but the total scores for the top six finishers for both the boys and girls would have equated into being among the best scores in school history. The top 6 boys’ scorers were Kaster, Doud, Stiles, Vanderheiden, Harris, and Hamilton. The top 6 girls’ scorers were: Presley Koberg, Charlet, Goodrich, Piper Koberg, Olivia Nixt, and Londyn Mapes. Presley’s score would’ve been the lowest 9-hole individual score since 2019.
Scrimmage
The Cards traveled to Coon Rapids for a scrimmage on March 27.
Led by Kaster (37), Doud (39), and Vanderheiden (37), the Cardinal boys had a team score of 157, which was 8 strokes better than any score last season.
The Cardinal girls’ team score was 213. Last season, no girl shot under 60 in a tournament, but in Coon Rapids, every player was at 57 or under. Piper led with 50 and Presley had 51.
“There is still plenty of growth that we would like to have but our foundation for the season is very good so far,” said Coach Howard.
Bonus bags!
Varsity players will get new, matching team golf bags this season. ECAB has purchased 16 bags for the teams.
Courses
There are plenty of ‘home’ meets at 5×80 Golf and Country Club near Menlo for the Cards this season. The boys will face a challenge in Pella, taking on some bigger schools on the challenging Bos Landen Golf Course. Other fun courses will be Jester Park near Granger, Crestwood Hills in Anita, and Three Lakes in Lenox.
Coach Howard is assisted by Kevin Williamson.
Soccer
In 2024, the Winterset/Earlham teams played some of their best soccer late in the season, and they’ll be looking build on that momentum in 2025. The boys won just 3 games last year, but 2 of those were in May—and one of those was an 11-1 win over Atlantic in the first round of the playoffs. The girls won three games in a row at the end of last season before falling in regional play.
Ryan Hobart is in his 4th year coaching the Husky boys. He took over that job in 2022 when Cody Sullivan stepped down. Sullivan is back this year, but this time as the girls’ coach. He coached the boys’ team for 17 years.
Sullivan is pleased to be coaching again.
“Getting back on the practice field, back on the field. That’s something unique, so I enjoy that,” he said.
Both coaches are pleased that the good weather has allowed them to practice outside more than in years past. Even so, they are faced with the challenge of spring break falling right in the middle of pre-season practices. Games come up really quickly after that, so their expectations for early season games are tempered.
“I want us to go out there and execute the basics,” said Coach Sullivan, “and be able to do what we’ve been practicing. I’m anxious to see how people respond to game situations. A lot of these girls, I’ve never seen play soccer before. In practice, we can scrimmage, but it’s not the same as a game situation. That first game is a gut check to see where we’re really at and where we need to go from there.”
Coach Hobart said, “We do our best with the time we have prior to our first game. Our first two games are non-conference. We did that on purpose to kind of gauge where we’re at and where people belong on the field and what positions fit them best.”
Both teams lost a lot of scoring and senior leadership to graduation, but the coaches feel they have some players that can fill the void this season.
For the boys, seniors Anders Aasen and Cohen Smith and junior Wyatt Swanson will be impactful.
“I feel comfortable with what we have,” said Coach Hobart. “We’re going to be a young team, but that’s not always a bad thing.”
The Husky girls’ strength should be their defense. Senior Maddy Hall is a tough physical defender and senior Rhaina Henderson is a strong, vocal leader on the back line.
Among the Earlham boys participating, Alex Kosloske is a strong midfielder, while Carter Frank could see significant playing time.
For the girls, Earlham junior Camryn Sly scored 3 goals last season. She’ll play either center midfield or forward this season.
“She’s a pretty tough player and somebody who’s going to get in there and mix it up,” said Coach Sullivan. And that’s what I need in the middle.”
Another Earlham junior is Valerie Meyer. She was the starting goalkeeper for the Huskies last year and will be competing for that job again this season.
Coach Hobart is assisted by Steven Irr. Coach Sullivan is assisted by Faith Donovan and Eric Kerr.
Earlham Echo 
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