Last Wednesday the Wildcat track teams travelled to Waynesville for the Waynesville Invitational. The weather was perfect, and this may be the first time that has ever happened. With the great weather came some great performances for both the boys and girls teams. With 13 girls teams, and 14 boys teams in attendance, including multiple big schools, the competition level was high.

The girls team was not intimidated and had our best finish of the year, taking 4th place out of 13 teams. Once again the top point scorer for the team was Laila Black, who finished 2nd in both the 800 and 1600 meter runs, as well as anchoring the 4x400 meter relay team that included Sienna Finton, Reagan Pieschel, and Roe Perkins, and finished 4th. In addition to being part of the 4x400 meter relay team Sienna added points to the girls total with a 4th place finish in high jump and as part of the 5th place 4x200 meter relay team along with Reagan Pieschel, Roe Perkins and Savannah Steiner. Other great individual performances came from Gigi Perkins with a 6th place finish in the 800 meter run, Brooklyn Hall with a 6th place finish in the 3200 meter run, Jaylene Ashley with a 7th place finish in shot put, and Roe Perkins with a 5th place finish in the 400 just ahead of teammate Reagan Pieschel who finished in 6th.

For the boys our team was led by Eli Koss, who came to dominate in hurdles, and racked up 18.25 points for the team. Koss was the high point scorer for the team thanks to a first place finish in the 300 hurdles to go along with a second place finish in the 110 hurdles as well as being part of the 4x400 meter relay. Also contributing to the team score by placing in both hurdles with new PR’s was Hunter Cook, who finished 7th in both the 300 hurdles and the 110 hurdles. Christian Knipper came away with a 5th place finish in shot put. While Oliver Crosthwaite and Daniel Osborne both had 6th place finishes in the 800 and 3200 respectively. The 4x200 meter relay team of Sebastian Perez, Bryce Jordan, Connor Ramsey and Michael Spencer finished 4th and brought down our season best time in the event by over 15 seconds.

For our second meet of the week the track teams travelled to Dixie High School on Friday for the Greyhound Invitational where we faced off against 16 other teams and possibly the best overall competition so far this season. The weather was great for most of the night with just a few sprinkles and cooler temps as the sun went down.

On the boys side our top performances came from Oliver Crosthwaite and Eli Koss who scored 9 and 8 points respectively for the team. Oliver came away with a 3rd place finish in the 800 meter run as well as a 6th place finish in the 1600 meter run. Koss was again a force on the hurdles with a 6th place finish in the 110 hurdles as well as a 4th place finish in the 300 hurdles.

The girls gave it everything they had and were able to come away with an 8th place overall finish out of 17 teams. The top scorers for the girls team were Laila Black and Sienna Finton. Laila earned 10.5 points for the team by finishing 2nd overall in the 800 meter run and also scored points as part of the 4x400 meter relay team that finished in first place. Sienna was also a member of the first place 4x400 relay team as well as the 2nd place 4x200 meter relay team along with finishing 5th in the 300 meter hurdles and 8th in the high jump earning 9.5 points for the team. Reagan Pieschel and Roe Perkins were also big contributors as both earned 4.5 points by being a part of the first place 4x400 meter relay team and the 4x200 meter relay team. Reagan earned an additional 2 points with a 7th place finish in the 400 meter run.

This Friday the teams will be travelling to Vandalia for the Vandalia Butler Invitational. Field events start at 4:30 followed by running events at 5. Come out and cheer on the Wildcats.