The Whippet Track and Field Team had their first meet of the season, competing at UW Whitewater in the Nelson-Daniel Classic. Named after legendary Whippet coaches Phil Nelson and Jack Daniel, the meet featured 36 teams from Wisconsin and Illinois. The Whippets competed their hearts out, many of them running in a huge meet like this for the first time.
In the girls competition Sydney Schildt showed why she is one of the top sprinters in the area finishing 6th overall in a very talented 55M dash final, running the fastest time ever for a Whippet sprinter indoors, running 7.47. Mya Graves-Koran dropped a half second off her time from last year in the 55M hurdles running 10.83 and giving the Whippets a lot to look forward to in the girls hurdles. Running the 1600 and 800 for the Whippets, Virginia Nelson came close to personal bests in her first races of the year running 6:09.57 for the 1600 and 2:49.18 for her 800. Lucy Davis and Atreya Wilson competed in the shot put setting marks of 20′ 11.5″ and 27′ 11.5″ respectively. Rounding out the competition for the Whippets was the 4X200M Relay composed of Isabelle Cohen, Peyton Comfort, Sydney Schildt and Mya Graves-Koran, Cohen and Comfort running indoors for the first time.
In the boys competition Juniors Frank Mbifi and Emiliano Olivares started things off with personal bests in the triple jump each making it to the finals in a talented triple jump competition. Olivares hit a mark of 38′ 7.75″ finishing 9th while Mbifi leapt to a 39′ 8.5″ mark placing 8th. Freshman, Cason Boudreau finished 11th overall in the 55 M hurdles narrowly missing the finals and running an outstanding time of 9.59. Teammate Ty Bucholtz lit up the track finishing second in his first ever indoor hurdle final. Bucholtz time of 7.99 was one of the fastest hurdle races ever run by a Whippet hurdler indoors., setting a high bar for the rest of the season. The 4X800M Relay team of Ty Carollo, Angel Kilar, Carson Miller, and Wyatt Esch raced to a 16th place finish overall, while Vinnie Juette, Aaron Garcia, Anjay Magana, and Evan Leising nailed their handoffs and sprinted to a 13th place finish in 1:41.32 in a hotly contested speed relay race. Sprinters Vinnie Juette, Langdon Coburn, Trevor Piper, and Leon Kimbrough got after it in the 55 M dash and though they did not reach the finals, they also set the bar high for Whippet sprinters this season. Caleb Pechous toured the track for the Whippets racing in his first ever indoor 400 giving it everything he had and in shot put competition the Whippets were represented by Austin Retzlaff and Harry Ritchie in the big man competition.
In what would be one of the most exciting events of the evening, Langdon Coburn came to compete in the pole vault competition. As the crowd began to gather at the south end of the Kachel Center, near the pole vault area, the bar kept going higher and so did Langdon. As his competitors fell off one by one Coburn kept going. When he vaulted 12′ 6″ to win the competition, many thought the event might be over as 12′ 6″ was his personal best, but Coburn had other ideas. As the bar went to 13′, Langdon had two narrow misses before soaring to a new personal best. Next, the bar was raised to 13′ 6″ and Coburn did not disappoint. When the dust settled Langdon was the Nelson-Daniel Champion in the vault with a new personal best of 13′ 6″.
All in all it was a great night to be a Whippet. The coaching staff is so proud of all of the student-athletes who competed on the evening, many in their first ever varsity competition giving us all a lot to look forward to this season.
