Woodward-Granger track gets head start on promising season
With winter sports gear in the closet, the Hawks’ eyes turn toward the the spring season which got to a quicker start than usual this year.
Girls
With a new head coach, the Hawks girls track team found themselves in a couple of indoor competitions to get a head start on the season.
First, Woodward found itself at UNI on March 6 where the team set their first official markers of 2023. Three days later, a portion of the team was on the lanes in Ames for the IATC Indoor Championship, getting a gauge on some rivals moving into the outdoor season.
Seeing the most action, cross country state qualifier Eva Fleshner was the only Hawk to compete at both events running both mid and long distance.
Straight out of the gate in Cedar Falls, the freshman ran a 2 minute 36.7 second time in the 800-meter run for 22nd place. She rose to 12th place in the 1,500 with a time of 5:09.2. She shaved off three seconds three days later at the IATC and also closed a time of 11:14.4 in the 3,000-meter run for 18th place, going up against students most entirely from Class 3A or bigger schools.
The ninth grade group gets even more attention in the sprinting and field events this year, looking to be a rising group of leaders for the Hawks.
Aubri Bartelson steps into the spring season as a new name and has emerged as one of the team’s top sprinters as she ran a 8.48-second time in the 60-meter dash to place 48th overall. Woodward’s two other sprinters were outside of the top 200.
Jaidyn Achenbach has already made a name for herself both on the softball and basketball teams. Naturally, she’s carved a spot as a prime contributor for the track team as well. Her 14-foot-5 long jump placed 56th overall at the Dickinson Relays. That’s a foot longer than the team’s record last season.
Boys
The boys’ side was absent from the two outdoor precursors, heading into the new season trying to find new strengths after losing two state qualifiers from 2022 (Dylan Bird in long jump, Jack Meusburger in shotput).
Coming into the season, the team at least knows a couple of its strength like Dylan McCaulley whose speed guided him to become one of the best receivers in Woodward’s history. His nine touchdowns this past season were fueled by legs that ran an 11.63 second time in the 100-meter dash as a junior. Remove the 34 seniors that had faster times than him in 2022, McCaulley comes into his senior year ranked 45th among Class 2A and with plenty of room to grow as he did on the gridiron.
Another senior, Brayden Simons led the team in both the 110 and 400-meter hurdles with peaks of 17.60 seconds and 1:03.2 as a junior. Both those peak times would have finished among the top 24 at last year’s state meet. Now the question is, can he hit or improve those times on a regular basis to advance to the final heats as a senior.
This article originally appeared on Perry Chief: Woodward-Granger track gets head start on promising season
