Justin Chapman | Echo
The No. 19 men's and women's track and field teams each hold one more meet in their regular season and will enter the postseason next Thursday.
The men's team finished 5th in their most recent meet, the Indiana Little State Championships. The women's team performed well enough to place third.
On the men's side, sophomore Caleb Anthony raced his way to third in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.69 seconds. The 1,500-meter race was a strong suit for the Trojans, as junior Ben Byrd finished 4th with a time of 4:02.82 and senior Alec DeVries finished 5th with a time of 4:05.40.
While DeVries finished 5th, he strives for better and is his own worst critic.
"I know I can go faster in what I competed in, in terms of (personal records) and what not," DeVries said. "I was a little harsh on myself; the result was okay, not great."
Junior Plenseh-Tay Sakeuh and senior Alex Berends brought home two victories on the women's side. Sakeuh earned a victory in the 100-meter hurdles with time of 14.61 seconds. Berends won the 1,500-meter race with a time of 4:44.05.
While both teams have finished in the top five in every one of their meets, their season is compressed this year due to weather.
According to interim head coach Ted Bowers, the toughest part about the schedule being compressed is not being able to experiment as planned. With a full schedule, Bowers can place certain players in different events over the course of the season.
Junior Margie Crosby said the weather has been mentally taxing for the Trojans. The weather is only feeling like spring now; however, there are only two weeks left in the season. Since the weather was colder for much of the season, many people did not run more events because they did not want to pull a muscle.
Even though the season has been short, Bowers is impressed with both team's performances thus far. Their next meet will be today and tomorrow in Hillsdale, Michigan. The meet will begin today at 3 p.m. and will resume tomorrow at 9 a.m.
This will be the last regular season meet for the track and field teams. The Crossroads League Championship will start May 3 and end on May 4.
"Photograph by Brad Timmerman"
