Article by Coach Maas:
The Whippet Track and Field Family opened their season at the Nelson-Daniels Classic on Friday night. The meet, named in honor of legendary WHS coaches Phil Nelson and John Daniels, turned out to be a great start for the Whippets.
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Setting the tone for the evening the girls 4×800 relay team gave a great effort in the first event of the year. Olive Coburn, Odessa Sonn, Ella Willman, and Jenna Lee ran hard to open the meet. Morgan Radaj finished 4th in the 55 M Dash in an outstanding field of sprinters running 7.82. Grace Black showed she’s back from an injury that slowed her most of her freshman year by winning her heat of the 55 in 7.98. Amanda Tovar rounded out the girls evening in the 55 sprinting to a very respectable 8.16. Running in her first hurdles race Emme Bullis advanced to the finals of the 55 M Highs and then finished 6th in a time of 9.93. When the 4×200 Relay came around the Whippet girls were ready to roll. In a very tough field that included defending State Champion Catholic Memorial. The team of Morgan Radaj, Abby Grosinske, Kacie Corollo, and Hailey Murphy finished third overall in 1:56.72. Corollo and Murphy teamed up with Emme Bullis and Catherine Skindingsrude in the 4×400 finishing 9th in 4:33.05.
In the pole vault Sydney Treder and Jenna Caldwell finished 3rd and 4th respectively and tied their all time bests with vaults of 9’ and 8’. Abby Grosinske narrowly missed her all time best in the shot put with a toss of 35’ 8” garnering a 3rd place finish. All in all, the girls of Whippet Track and Field competed their hearts out to the very end finishing 6th out of 24 teams with 31 points.
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On the boys side it didn’t take long for things to heat up when the Whippet 4X800 M relay took to the track.
Trenten Zahn ran a very smart lead off leg to put the whippets in first. Gio Anello, Daniel Trost, and Ignacio Cuevas finished things off in tough competition for a 3rd place finish. In the 55 M Dash Will Leibbrand, Jared Clapper, and Tyler Pavlik led the Whippet contingent with Leibbrand advancing to the finals and finishing a solid 6th running 6.84. Gio Anello and Denver Isbell ran solid races in the 800 with times of 2:15.55 and 2:22. While Will Hoffman and Cooper Hammond battled it out in the 1600. The quartet of Jack Mayer, Jared Clapper, Will Leibbrand, and Sashi Popke finished 4th in the 4×200 running 1:39.29. Juan Cuellar excited the Whippet crowd when he burst out to an early lead in the 400 M Dash and won going away in a time of 53.71.
Joe Gmur and Ben Stoll represented in the high jump with Gmur finishing 6th with a leap of 5’8”. Arturo Franco set a personal record of 41’ 11 ¾” in the shot put, while Sashi Popke won the pole vault going 13’ 6” along with a second place finish in the long Jump at 21’ 1 ½”.
With his anchor leg in the 4×200 Sashi scored 20 points and was named “The Athlete of The Meet”. The 4×400 contingent of Juan Cuellar, Jack Mayer, Ignacio Cuevas, and Trenten Zahn capped off the evening with a 3rd place finish helping the Whippet boys capture the team runner-up trophy with 50.5 points.
It was a great night and a great start for girls and boys of Whippet Track and Field. ONE TEAM/ONE FAMILY.
