Week 1 Track Recap

Well it was about as good of a first week as we could hope for. We got in four good practices and had some fun on Friday (although I'm not sure we succeeded in ridding our track of snow). We took a dozen athletes down to Illinois College for the Jacksonville Indoor Invitational; about 40 schools were crammed into the fieldhouse and despite being denied by the pizza delivery guy, EPG could not be denied some impressive performances. On the girls side we had a few PRs: Jen Ehresman in the long jump beat her 2013 effort by over a foot, jumping 13'8.5". Lauren Wilson also had a PR in the pit, as she went 27' in her first triple jump ever, and then bested that effort by a foot in her second jump, going 28'1. Maddie Morrison made her high school track debut in the 400, clocking 71.25 and Karlie Uphoff earned a PR in the 200 with her 36.13. In the shot put, Miranda Reeves was the highest placing Titan of the meet, earning a medal for her third place throw of 31'1". She is looking to out-throw herself this Wednesday at Illinois Wesleyan for the Normal West Lady Wildcat Invitational (see below). On the guys side, we placed 13th as a team, one place ahead of conference rival, DeeMack. Our first event, the 4x800, placed 4th (only three seconds from second) with a 9:18. Marc Hartness had the fastest split of the relay with his 2:16. Andy Layden and Hunter Cobbley also contributed PR splits to the relay. Hunter came back in the open 800 to set a PR by six seconds under his 2013 time, running a 2:18.8. Freshman Adam Ludy was right behind with a 2:19.3m which is a sixteen second PR over his junior high time. Those two earn "PR of the Meet" Honors. Our highest individual placers also came in a distance event as Jacob Ludy placed 4th in the 1600 with his 4:44.6 and Tyler DeMarb was 7th in 4:56.4. Gabe McKinley also earned two points for his 7th place long jump attempt of 19'1". Ryan Skare also had an excellent early long jump of 16'3.5", not bad for not having jumped in a pit since last May. EPG's other point earner was freshman Ethan Jenkins in the shot put, earning a single point for his 8th place throw of 40'7.5". The EPG record in the event is Codey Funk's 42'2", so keep your eyes out for the record being smashed this season as Kaston Keith has also been over 40' in practice.