The Milford track team finished its first competition March 19 at the Bulldog Challenge in Seward with a new school record and multiple top-10 performances, Coach Cody Gregory said.
Isaac Roth appears to be recovering well from his hip injury during football season that kept him out of the first half of the basketball season. There is still soreness and tightness, but early results look very encouraging for him. His time of 8.52 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles puts him as the new school record holder in the event.
Connor Adams had a great first meet - his triple jump (41-3.5) is the second-longest of his career. He also ran an incredible first leg of the 4x400, Gregory said.
Zeb Reil also had a great day, but the results don’t show it. He scratched two huge jumps in the long jump by a toe. He looks primed for another big season, as does Colby Rautenberg in the high jump and long jump. He already matched his career best in the high jump at 5-10.
Cash Martin had the lone first-place finish for the team in the pole vault, clearing 13-6. He’s still adjusting to new poles, the coach said.
Thomas Belleau ran a PR time in the 60 (7.44 seconds) and also ran his fastest indoor 200 of his career (24.09 seconds).
In the girls’ competition, Abby Crabtree looked really good in the 400 and 4x4. For coming off a grueling basketball season and cross country season and only having one track workout following a much-needed week off, running a 1:02.82 in the 400 is incredible, Gregory said.
As for newcomers, Macie Carter announced her presence in the 1,600. She ran the third fastest time in school history, 5:39.02, which, until recently, would have been a school record by quite a bit.
Emery Newton also showed her value to the team. She was the top triple jumper (32-2) and high jumper (4-10, tied Shayla Rautenberg, but had fewer misses) and was running stride-for-stride with Crabtree through about 320 meters in the 400.
“A little more training and some more races under her belt and she’ll be a force to be reckoned with,” Gregory said.
The 4x400 relays started off the season very strongly compared to this time of the year last year. The girls probably would have run faster, but were just a bit too far out of contention on the small track, Gregory said.
“It’s hard to keep a visual on the team in front of you with such short straightaways in a fast race like that,” he said. Still, they ran 10 seconds faster than a year ago. The boys gave Blair a run for their money. Blair placed third at state last year and has three of their four runners back this year.
“They are an early contender for a state title and our guys were not far out of the race. They ran what they were running by midseason last year already,” Gregory said.
The team of Adams, Kaleb Meierdierks, Reil and Roth were second in 3:35.29.
Gregory said the freshmen and other newcomers turned in solid debut performances throughout the day.
“High school track is not the same as junior high,” he said. “I know that it was very eye-opening for some of our kids just how fast and competitive it is. Keep in mind, we’ve only had one full practice with the entire team, most of which was spent trying to get runway marks to be able to compete on Thursday. We are nowhere close to ready yet, but that’s a good thing! We won’t complain about having successful basketball and wrestling teams playing deep into the postseason.”
Up next for Milford is a meet at Douglas County West Friday, March 27. Events start at 2 p.m.
