The MHS boys and girls track teams competed at the Topeka West Invitational last week, with both teams placing first.
The girls notched 207 points as a team, comfortably beating second place Emporia by 59 points.
“For our first high school Varsity meet of the season we did really well,” junior Hanna Pellant said. “It was a good meet to build off of.”
Pellant placed first in all of her events, including the 100m, 200m and long jump. Other standout performers include sophomore Jorryn Hall, who PR’d in shot-put, and junior Rebekah Pickering, who placed second in the 1600.
According to head coach Kory Cool, the biggest focus of the first few meets is to address the team’s strengths and weaknesses.
“Basically we are just trying to get a starting point to see where we are at right now… we have 64 days until State,” Cool said. “So now it’s time to train and work on improving those marks.”
On the boys side, the team continued their dominance from last year, placing first in 10 events. Most notably, Sam Molt placed first in Javelin, beating his second place competitor by nearly 50 feet. In addition, the 4×100 team consisting of senior Charles Morgan, senior Sam Molt, junior Jaydin Hudley and junior Crayton Rauch ran a 43.10, beating the mark last year’s school record-holding 4×100 team ran in their first meet. In high jump, seniors Vincent Malone and Aaron Newcomer both jumped 6-4, placing first.
As the season progresses, both the girls and boys teams will look to improve. A notable upcoming event is the KU Relays, which invite the best competition from Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri and surrounding states. Athletes from MHS will have three more meets to qualify for the invitational. Coach Cool anticipates around 20 kids from MHS will compete at the Lawrence meet, which is slated for April 18-20 at Rock Chalk Park.
“The focus for these future meets is to stay healthy, continue to improve at practice and help my teammates whenever I can,” Pellant said. “The KU Relays bring the best athletes from across the area, it should be great competition and I’m really looking forward to it.”
MHS Track and Field’s next meet is this Thursday at the Junction City Invitational, followed by the Olathe North Invitational on April 5. They will host a home meet on April 12 at Bishop Stadium.
