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A pair of relay teams powered the Sibley East boys Saturday in the season opening Minnesota River Conference (MRC) indoor track meet at Minnesota State University - Mankato.

Chasing down top honors were Wolverines who made up the 4×200 and 4×400 relay teams. Sibley East’s Eric Thies and Dan Okon also won events in the five team competition.

Combining strides for an easy win in the 4×200 relay were Wolverines Dustin Meyer, Marcus Evans, Josh Turan and Mason Matz. The Sibley East foursome clocked a time of 1:36, eight seconds faster than the runnerup team from Belle Plaine.

Sibley East also ran away with top honors in the 4×400 relay. Matz, Evans, Thies and Turan posted a first place time of 3:45, six seconds better than the second place squad.

Thies, a standout in distance competitions, opened his senior season with a victory in the 1600 meter race. He clocked a winning time of 4:43, seven seconds faster than runnerup Joe Stuewe of Le Sueur-Henderson.

Thies and Stuewe traded spots in the 800 meter race. Stuewe was the winner with a time of 2:08. That was six seconds better than Thies.

Turan also added second place points for the Wolverines. He was runnerup in the 55 meter race with a time of 6.65 seconds. Bryce Prax of Le Sueur-Henderson won the event with a 6.62 clocking.

Sibley East’s medley relay team finished third with a time of 4:16. Members of that squad included Okon, Alex Weber, Vaughn Tackmann and Andrew Thies. A Belle Plaine foursome won this event with a time of 4:04.

Tackmann added a fourth place points for Sibley East in the 800 meter race. He clocked a time of 2:21, 13 seconds shy of the winning pace.

Other top six finishes for Sibley East came in the following events:

Shot Put - Chris Turan finished sixth with a mark of 37’-9”;

4×800 Relay - Tackmann, Andrew Thies, Ben Wieman and Caleb Ling finished sixth with a time of 10:09;

“This meet was a learning experience for our guys,” Sibley East head coach Travis Raske said. “We have many new, young faces that looked a bit scared up on the starting line for the first time. The meet played out the way I expected for our team.”

Raske said Le Sueur-Henderson surprised the field by capturing the team championship. The Giants, led by Bryce Prax and Caleb Giesen, finished first with 173 team points. Prax and Giesen combined to produce 74 points for LSH.

Mayer Lutheran was runnerup with a 156 total, followed by Belle Plaine (104), Sibley East (78) and Jordan (74).

“The surprise of the meet was LSH winning,” Raske said. “Mayer Lutheran is usually the dominant force.”

Raske said Holy Family also has some strong track athletes but the team did not compete Saturday. Holy Family was absent from the field because it was busy winning a Class AA boys’ state basketball championship.