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By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Nework
As they traditionally do, the track team opened the season with two trips over one weekend. The team’s multi-athletes, along with a few long-distance runners, traveled to Pittsburg State University, where they competed in the Boo Rodgers Combined Events and the Crimson & Gold Invitational. The rest of the team made their way to the Washburn Alumni Invitational in Topeka to begin the season.
Senior Hayden Albright led FHSU in Topeka where he broke the meet record in the 400 meters, clocking a time of 47.93, the fastest season opener he ever ran over that distance. He then proceeded to impress, setting a new indoor personal record in the 200-meter race with a time of 21.39 seconds. His younger brother, Avery Albright, was also in good form, clocking a time of 49.38 seconds in the 400 before adding a result of 21.92 in the 200-meter dash. The two brothers placed first and second in the 400-meter race.
Hayden Albright was not the only one to set a meet record, as Jacob Clark cleared 5.25 meters in the pole vault, setting his best season opener ever. Clark was close to breaking the school record of 5.42 but came short. This mark has placed Clark at the top spot in the nation.
“I had a really good scorecard didn’t have many failures today. So it was just really good to get out there on the first time back and just show everyone what I’ve been working on and have a great season opener,” Clark said. “And that was the highest season opener I’ve ever had. I was also happy to attempt the school record already in the first meet.”
His teammate, Annabeth Baalmann, also had her best season opener in the female pole vault competition. Baalmann, in her first meet back after going through knee surgery over the summer, jumped over 3.95 meters, only 3 centimeters lower than her school record, and was also close to breaking it, attempting to go over the height of 4.05 meters.
“It felt really good to put up that big of a bar coming straight back from knee surgery, so I’m happy about that, but I still need to make a bigger bar to get into nationals,” Baalmann said. “So that’s what I’ll be working on going forward,” she said.
Vault coach Randy Stanley was happy with the way the Clark and Baalmann performed and also enjoyed going to the first meet of the season with the team after the long break from competition.
“We’ve been practicing really well, and I was, I was hoping for some good things, and good things happen,” he said. “We started in September, and I think that by December, you need to have a meet. You need to have some competition because you’ve been training for three months, and you need to get out and be able to compete, show yourself, see how things are going, and see where you are physically and mentally. See what kind of condition you’re in, and it gives you an idea of what you do and what you got to shoot for after Christmas.”
At Pittsburg State, senior Ethan Salmans impressed in the heptathlon, setting a personal best of 5,056 points. His most impressive result was the time he clocked in the 60-meter hurdles dash, 8.27 seconds, only 8 hundredths of a second from the school record for that distance.
In the individual events, Emily Diercks and Jaret Pfizenmaier performed well in the 5,000-meter race. Diercks finished second with a time of 17:14:41, and Pfizenmaier finished third with a personal best of 14:36:27.
The men’s and women’s teams will next compete at the UNK Pre-Holiday Classic on Friday.
Other notable performers –
Men –
60-meter dash – Toby Wahlmeier, 6.88 seconds.
200-meter dash – Nakari Moricall-Palmer, 21.80 seconds.
200-meter dash – Toby Wahlmeier, 21.83 seconds.
400-meter dash – Nakari Moricall-Palmer, 49.85 seconds.
Pole vault – Brady Deges, 4.85 meters.
Heptathlon – Nolan Churchman, 4,989 points.
1,000-meter race – Emery Wolfe, 2.36.92 minutes.
Women –
60-meter dash – Donna Jackson, 7.97 seconds.
400-meter dash – Reba Mader, 58.36 seconds.
High jump – Laine Page, 1.60 meters.