The Cardinals came out to show stellar performances for Tuesday night’s track and field events, breaking two new school records.
Junior Jaiden Bender came in first in the boys high jump reaching a height of 6’5”. The prior record was 6’4” held by graduate Garrett Durr in 2019.
The second record broken came from senior Kurtic McCormick in the pole vault event. McCormick achieved the new school record of 14’ 7”. The prior record of 14’6” was held by graduate Jonathan Bock in 2018.
Head coach Joe Pickett was proud of how his students competed in the first track and field meet. The meet was yet another sporting event where weather conditions were less than ideal.
Wind speeds reached upwards of 20 mph on the field working against students’ performances in events such as the javelin throw. Pickett said his team still worked their hardest despite the winds working against them.
“This exceeds the expectations for our first meet. I am just so proud of some of the efforts shown, especially considering the weather,” Pickett said.
The girls and boys both came out on top in javelin, having first place going to senior Mackenzie Mayer and junior Conor Dunback.
Mayer finished with a distance of 120’8”, followed by Dunback’s distance of 150’1”.
“The weather is not what we wanted today. For javelin, the headwind was definitely not ideal. You want a headwind but not this much,” Mayer said.
Mayer also finished first in the girls 800-meter run with a final time of 2:41.65. Mayer said she aimed for a better time but was pleased given the circumstances.
The Cardinals secured more first-place spots as the night progressed. Additional stand-out performances by the girls came from senior Stella Whalen in the 100-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 15.34 and 51.25 respectively.
Freshman Hanna Keltner finished first in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:44.61. Senior Maya Pattison finished first in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.89.
First-place boys holders came from sophomore Adrion Seals in the long jump finishing with a distance of 19’4”. Sophomore Zachary Arnold finished first in the 1,600-meter run with a final time of 5:05.89.
Dunback also finished first in both the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles with final times of 15.38 and 43.76 respectively.
The final events of the night were canceled due to the weather progressively getting worse. Athletes competing in the 2-mile and the 4×400 relays did not get to run.
“At this point in the night, we missed a couple of events. We won’t be able to make up for those events unfortunately due to safety reasons,” Pickett said.
Going up against the Cardinals were Paola, Wellsville and Piper. Much like Eudora, these schools came to compete to their fullest, too, Pickett said.
“They have really done well. We know that these schools have really competitive teams. It’s a good meet because it shows us where we’re at. This is a great place to start,” Pickett said.
From here, the Cardinals and the coaches will take what they’ve learned from this meet and keep improving in practice.
Pickett is eagerly awaiting the Eudora Cardinal Relays on April 22.
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Reach reporter William Crow at [email protected].
