Track closing in on final weeks

Advith Natarajan, Managing Editor

April 25, 2024

MHS Track and Field is approaching its final tournaments before the post season with momentum. Over the past few weeks, the boys and girls teams have competed in multiple invitational tournaments.

In early April, they participated in the Olathe North invitational. The tournament invited some of the top competition from the KC area. The boys placed second with 88.5 points with notable first place finishes from senior Vincent Malone (high jump) and junior Crayton Rauch (long jump). The girls finished in sixth place with 55 points behind multiple second place finishes from juniors Hanna Pellant and Harli Omli.

“The season has got off to a good start,” Rauch said. “Lots of PR’s already and our team has been successful.”

Teams then competed at the home invitational, with both the boys and girls placing first with 151 points and 133.5 points respectively. The girls 4×800 relay team consisting of sophomore Talia Tindall, juniors Marlena Lewison and Sophia Salmans, and senior Haley Henningston placed first. Sophomore Jorryn Hall placed first in shot put and many others placed in the top 3.

On the boys side, numerous relays and events placed first, including Rauch in the 200m and 400m and senior Lucas Holdren in the 3200m.

Most recently, select members of the team competed at the KU Relays, which invite some of the best high school athletes in the midwest. From Manhattan High, 12 athletes competed. Malone placed fourth in high jump, and Pellant placed fourth in the 100m.

As the season draws to a close, the focus for the team will be peaking at the right time.

“The goal is to keep getting better,” Rauch said. “[We want to] peak at State and be in a spot to compete for a State championship personally and as a team.”

About the Contributors

Advith Natarajan, Managing Editor

Advith Natarajan is a junior at Manhattan High and the managing editor for The Mentor student newspaper. He has been a contributing writer for The Mentor for two years and is excited to step into a leadership role this year. Outside of MHS Natarajan has a passion for sports such as soccer, basketball and tennis, all of which he enjoys playing. He also plays guitar and piano.

Ava Gary-Hernandez, Staff Writer

Sophomore Ava Gary-Hernandez has been wrestling for three years. She finds wrestling comforting and considers it her “comfort sport.” Hernandez chose wrestling because she originally played basketball, but wanted to try out wrestling, and found that she enjoys wrestling more than basketball. Most of the time Hernandez wrestles here at MHS but ever so often, she has to travel outside of the city to wrestle. Typically, when people first meet her, they always assume she doesn’t do any sport, let alone wrestling. Hernandez’s “spark” to wrestling was two years ago when she won against the guys. “It just made me happy,” Hernandez said. Wrestling has become her favorite sport over the years. Her most interesting wrestling story was when she broke her hand while wrestling and was out for a quarter of the season because of it. “I enjoy bringing people to the mat,” Hernandez said. “It’s comforting.”