With the wind blowing and the temperature dropping, the 2003 Husky track team opened their season with a dual meet at Salem Academy on Thursday.
“Our goals were to get a meet under our belts with the kids getting an idea as to where they are at with respect to their events,” explained Coach Billy Snow. “We let the kids pretty much choose what events and how many they did. We have a lot of new kids out this year and many of them, along with some of the vets, were a bit anxious about the first meet. But after four weeks of practice, we were all ready to get our feet wet and the competitive season rolling.”
The meet was supposed to be non scoring but SA kept score anyways. On the girls side, the Huskies won 13 of 15 events en route to a 96-21 toppling of the Crusaders.. The boys were close behind with 10 victories in their 91-53 victory.
One of the things we saw that was encouraging was a competitive effort by many of our kids, Coach Snow said.
“They got out on the track and stuck their nose in the race and gave it their best shot. We had some pleasant surprises where we found some people that will help the team come Districts and other who have the potential to get there,” Coach Snow added. ” We also saw a lot of our vets pick up where they left off last year near the end of the season. We do not normally expect that until a bit later in the season and that was another positive. In many other cases, though the time or mark may have not been what the kid wanted, the effort was there and that is most important at this point. If the kid is willing to give the effort and work in practice, the desired result will eventually come.”
GIRLS
In the field, the girls swept all three places in the five field events contested. Krystle Streight won the shot put in a lifetime PR of 32-00.75 with Shaina Burnett second (28-02) and Meaghan Schaefer, third.
Burnett turned the tables in the discus, winning at 84-04 with Streight second at 82-04. Megan Hershbeger was third at 68-05.
In the javelin, Kim Lovik won at 73-07 with Meaghan Schaefer right behind at 72-03. Amber Larsen took third at 70-04.
In the jumps, Ashley Smith won the long jump at 14-07 with Lisa Brocard second at 14-02. Frosh Kierya Shreves took third at 12-02.
In the triple jump, Brocard flipped the results with a near PR of 32-0 to take first and Smith going 29-11.5 for second. Nicki Emmert had a lifetime best 28-10.5 for third.
On the track, the short relay team of Ashley Smith, Nicki Emmert, Holly Keesecker, and Hannah Swanson won in a time of 56.46a which was faster than last year’s time at the same meet.
Hannah came bakk to win two individual events, the 100M high hurdles (17.99a) and the 200M (30.58a). Keesecker came back to take second in the 100M in a time of 15.17a.
In other sprint events, Lisa Brocard won the intermediate hurdles in 55.21a in her first attempt at this race. Lisa also took second in the high hurdles in 18.22a.
Other sprint placers included Kierya Shreves third in the 100M (15.54a) and third in the 200M (33.78a), Nicki Emmert third in the highs at 20.52a, Kim Lovik second in the 300M hurdles at 69.10a, and Heidi Darden second in the 400M (90.5).
Anne Helfrich and Megan Snow teamed up to sweep the top two places in the distance races. In the 1500M, Helfrich went 5.55.9 for first with Snow second at 6.20.1. In the 3000M, Helfrich won with Snow a tenth of a second behind. Both girls teamed up with Kim Lovik and Kayla Casteel to win the 1600M at the end.
BOYS
The boys won five of the six field events contested and were led by sweeps in the long jump and triple jump.
In the long jump, Mike Severns won in a lifetime best of 18-08.5, with Randy Nicholson second at 18-02 and Robert McGarry third at 17-07.5.
In the triple jump, Nicholson won at 37-10 with Kellen Petersen second at 35-02.25 and Seb Strickler third with a lifetime best of 32-11.
Matt Slauson won a pair of events led by the discus in a lifetime best of 145-06. In the shot, Slauson put 42-03 for the win. Sam Rodgers went 37-11 in the shot put for third and Robert Rice followed Matt in the discus at 102-09 for second.
In the javelin, Mike Severns broke his own school record from last year with the new javelin, going 149-10 for first place. Brett Badgett took third at 124-11. In the high jump, Robert McGarry (5-04) and Casey Baarson (5-02) went 2-3.
On the track, the short relay team of Mike Severns, Seth Graves, Randy Nicholson, and Paris Ramsey ran 46.43a for the win. The time was almost equal to the best all of last year and included two poor handoffs so the 45s should be coming soon.
John Lovik swept the two distance events, running solo in both. He won the 3000M in 9:56.7 and the 1500M in 4:38.1.
Anthony Ertsgaard (11:41.7) and Aaron Lovik (12.23.2) completed the sweep in the 3000M. Chris Burford (4:43.1) placed second to Lovik in the 1500. Mike Lummus led a 1-2 placing in the 800M, winning in 2:16.4 after a blistering first lap with Chris Burford in second at 2:18.4.
In the sprints, Paris Ramsey (11.74a) and Mike Severns (12.16a) both ran good early season times to finish first and third respectively.
In the 200M, Wayne Martinez (26.98a) and Ryan Sipe (27.32a) finished 2-3 to add some depth. Ian Lynn won the 400M from the front in a time of 56.0 with Seth Graves in third in a time of 58.0.
In the hurdles, Jeremy Fisher ran 18.98a to take second in the highs and 48.49a to place third in the intermediates. Casey Baarson ran a solid 46.92a in the intermediates for second place and Skyler Brown went 20.61a in the highs for third overall.
Finally, the team of Robert McGarry, Seth Graves, Chris Burford, and Ian Lynn took 2nd in the 1600M relay.
“Over spring break, we are hosting a heptathlon and decathlon on March 28-29 and on Saturday the 29th, we are also hosting the Mid Valley Throwers meet,” Coach Snow said. “We return to our regular meets with an eight team meet in Pleasant Hill on April 3rd.”