The track and field stars of Pella High School past are making their mark as the indoor season begins at the collegiate level.

Many former Little and Lady Dutch athletes kicked off the next level of their competitive careers over the past week or so.

Individual sprint champion and member of the 2018 Lady Dutch state champions Emily Vos made her debut for UNI at the North Dakota State Bison Invitational, placing 6th in the 60 meter dash (8.04) and 5th in the 200 meters (26.01). Pella alum and former long jump state champion Chase Van Sant is a junior for the Panthers, and placed 3rd at 7.01 meters in the long jump.

Emily’s fellow sprinting champion with the Lady Dutch Annika Pingel ran 1:42.5 in the new 600 meter dash for Doane College, finishing 2nd on January 12th, and then last weekend, placed 6th at the Scott Nisely Invitational in the 200 meter dash (27.16) and 2nd in the 400 meters (1:03.29).

At the Wartburg College open, Paighton Malek, also a 2018 state team track champion, claimed 1st place in the women’s long jump with a mark of 4.92 meters. Malek runs sprints and jumps for Hawkeye Community College.

Individual 400 meter hurdles champion in 2018 Avery Van Zee placed 2nd in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.8 at the Twilight Invitational, as he represented the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Van Zee also was on the 1st place 4×400 relay team and had his first ever competitive crack at the pole vault — an event not seen in Iowa High School competition.

For Northwestern College, former Pella boys distance runner Joshua Van Dusseldorp finished as the runner-up in the 600m, narrowly missing the NAIA provisional mark with a time of 1:22.