Top 5 Story Lines from Indoor Season

It’s fitting that the end of the indoor season lines up with our spring break. It makes the transition a little smoother, which also includes a chance to breathe a little bit. That being said, it is also a chance to reflect on what has been happening thus far for the Wildcats. Here are (in no particular order) the top five story lines from this indoor season:

1. The emergence of upperclassmen newcomers to track. Ivan Sierra began his competitive Shot Put career with a throw in the mid-30s, within 2 weeks he was consistently in the mid-40s and a great addition of depth to our throws crew. Nick Barner has stepped up big time as the leader of our sprint crew, even though this is his first season of track and field. And that was no clearer than his performance anchoring our winning 4x200 at Lewis Fast Times and then coming back to win the open 200 that same day. Jordan Facio ran sprints as a freshman but then took a year off, he is back as a junior. But this time as a distance runner, his first time trial this season he ran 5:51, now Jordan is a 5:04 miler and at Fast times PR’d twice in the 800 in a 45 minute span. All three of these guys are competitors first and now are finding a place to mix that competitiveness with their work ethic and talent to make a big impact for them and their teammates.
2. Tanner Evatt was one of our steadier performers last year in almost every meet he pole vaulted between 12’ and 12’6. But couldn’t seem to get over that hump. Tanner has been huge for us this season, he came into the season hungry for a great end to his high school career. His performance at WWS jumping 13’6 is just the start of what Tanner has in store for this season. The other beautiful thing about this is that Tanner’s success is just part of what the Pole Vault Crew has been doing, Frink 1.5 foot PR, and Cercone 1 foot PR. Not to mention our underclassmen continued improvement.
3. Not all the storylines that stand out this year are feel good stories. In fact one of the big stories so far has in fact been a feel bad story, as in injuries. Our frosh/soph crew has been down three of our top sprinters for the majority of the season. We are missing one senior leader with a hip/groin injury who was just cleared to run last week. We also faced some small setbacks with our top jumper’s IT band. But the thing that is a positive to take away is that each and every one of those guys has maintained a strong role on the team and kept a strong team first mindset. As those guys continue to get healthy they will slide back into contributing roles on this team. No team is immune to injuries, but great teams respond to those setbacks and use them as a chance to get better.
4. Geremiah Lawson has dealt with some injury setbacks and has missed a few chances. Last year at Prep Top Times he was the early leader, but was passed by an athlete to finish 2^nd This year was a different story. Geremiah struggled to hit the board on his first 5 attempts which were some very good attempts, but that doesn’t matter if you aren’t on the board. And what did Geremiah do on his final attempt? He hit the board and jumped 22’6, good enough for the win. A big win in the meet, but also for Geremiah to keep his head on his shoulders and be ready to control his approach when it mattered most on his last jump.
5. The idea that a rising tides lifts all ships is a great thought that is something that we know so well. The SPC is a conference that may be one of the best in the state with a lot of big, deep, talented, hard-working teams. And that is the level that we have rise to in order to compete with at our conference meet. Something that this indoor season we struggled with, missed hand-offs, missed chances to make a move when it presented itself, jumping a little flat. All of that combined for a somewhat tough afternoon. But here is how I know things are heading in the right direction, the following week every guy on the team recommitted to a chance to compete and that is exactly what they did all week at practice and then at the Lewis Fast Times Meet. Where we had 75% PRs and almost 90% season PRs. That also included 4 event victories (PV, 1600, 200, 4x200) and 2 second place finishes (55H, 1600). That was also the day Geremiah won the Long Jump at Prep Top Times. Resilience is a good quality and the bounce back we had at Fast Times is a great picture of it.

Looking forward to what’s next for the Wildcats. See you Saturday April 7^th at Blue Smoke.