The Milford track and field team sent seven representatives to the Class B state track meet May 21 and 22 and brought home two medals – bronze for Isaac Roth in the 300-meter hurdles and eighth place for Cash Martin in the pole vault.
Coach Cody Gregory reviewed all the state performances.
Sarah Reynolds, junior, discus
Sarah placed second at districts to qualify for state - her first time. She threw a season-best of 104-0 at districts. Her first throw at state was 96-5, which was her third-best of the season. Sarah ended up 23rd in Class B.
Abby Crabtree, freshman, 400m
Abby set the school record in the 400m dash at districts with a time of 1:00.05. In her first appearance at state, she ran 1:01.99, which placed 24th. She was disappointed in the showing, but she has been battling a balky achilles tendon since the conference meet. She will benefit from some well-earned time off.
Avery Carter, junior, 3200m
This is Avery's third trip to the state track meet in as many years. As a freshman in Class C, he qualified in the 4x800 and the 1,600. Last year as a sophomore, he qualified in the 800 in Class B. This year, he added the 3,200 to his state-level performances. Avery placed 12th in Class B and improved his time to 9:50.45, which moved him to No. 2 on the MHS all-time charts.
Avery now owns school records in the 4x800 relay, 800m dash, 1600m run, and is four seconds off of the 3,200m run record. He truly has become one of Milford's best ever.
Isaac Roth, junior, 110m Hurdles, 300m Hurdles, 4x400m Relay
Speaking of one of Milford's best, Isaac qualified in three events for the second year in a row. As a freshman, Isaac qualified in Class C in the 300m hurdles and as part of the school-record 4x800 relay. Last year, he qualified in Class B in the 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles, and 400m dash, placing seventh in the 110m hurdles as a sophomore.
This year, he placed third in the 300m hurdles in a very impressive field of hurdlers. Isaac was in lane four of the fast heat by way of running the fastest qualifying district time. He was leading after the fifth hurdle.
There were more than a few opposing hurdle coaches that were very impressed with the way he ran the first 2/3 of the race. Unfortunately, he clipped the fifth hurdle, losing some of his momentum. He regained his footing and was able to finish but couldn't hold off Elkhorn's Brody Clevenger and GI Northwest's Dawson Urbanski.
All three of those guys will be back next year for a rematch. Isaac is now a school-record holder in the 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, 4x800m relay, and 60m hurdles. He is also No. 3 all-time in the 110m hurdles and 300m hurdles, and No. 4 all-time in the 400m dash.
Cash Martin, junior, Pole Vault
Cash Martin was able to clear 14-0 in his Burke Stadium debut, placing eighth overall in Class B. Cash had cleared 14-6 on two separate occasions this year, but was still pleased with his performance. Cash showed tremendous growth this season and will be looking to go up a pole size for next year to gain some extra inches (or feet!).
Zeb Reil, junior, Long Jump, 4x400m Relay
Zeb qualified for state for the first time since his freshman year, when he was on the 4x100m relay in Class C. This year, he qualified in two events, long jump and the 4x400m relay.
Zeb jumped a very respectable 20-6.25 - not his best, but right in line with his season averages. Between Cash and Zeb, I don't think you can point to a more improved athlete on our team.
Zeb really began to blossom during the second half of our season, not only in the long jump, but also as a member of the school-record-setting 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay.
You could definitely see a huge confidence boost in Zeb as the season went on and he began to see incremental growth week in and week out.
4x400m Relay
Connor Adams, junior, Kaleb Meierdierks, sophomore, Reil, Roth
This is Connor's and Kaleb's first time qualifying for state track. They've both really embraced the grit and strength that running a solid 400 requires. Every week they get better and better.
We've discussed Zeb and Isaac already, but this team, as a group, has become ultra-competitive at every meet we go to. When I took over the track program two years ago, I told the teams that you can tell the quality of a school's athletic programs (every sport, boys and girls) by how their track teams run the 4x400. It's starting to come together.
These four guys were disappointed with their performance at state, but they are determined to be in medal-contention a year from now. Knowing all four of these boys, I would be crazy to doubt any of them in pursuit of their goals. Again, some of the best to ever wear a Milford uniform.
