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By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
Every year, the FHSU track team takes a few trips outside the borders of Kansas or its neighboring states. This year, a group of sprinters and jumpers made their way south to Canyon, Texas, where they competed at the Joe Meaker Classic & Multi, hosted by West Texas A&M.
Enjoying the warm weather, the Tigers performed well overall. Many athletes took the opportunity to improve their marks on the conference and the national list and to gain confidence ahead of the final stretch of the season.
The highlight of the meet was Annabeth Baalmann, who broke her outdoor school record in the pole vault, setting a new mark at 4.20 meters. This mark is close to her overall record (4.28 indoors) and placed her second in the nation and first in the MIAA.
“I was very happy to put up a good mark this weekend, because the weather was so nice, and I think I utilized it well, and so I was very happy with it,” Baalmann said. “Obviously, there’s more to come with bigger bars, but it’s a good start.”
For Baalmann, the focus now shifts toward the conference championship meet in two and a half weeks and for the national championship three weeks later.
“My plan is to just to keep in the same routine and get more reps on my full approach,” she said. “I’m excited to go back to practice and start working on more technical things in my job and see how much I can implement for conference, and then see how much I can improve in the couple weeks between conference and nationals.”
The warm weather was happily accepted by the Tigers, who are used to the colder, windier weather of Kansas, and more athletes have enjoyed it. Jayme Hagerman improved her personal record in the long jump to 5.74, placing her sixth in the conference, and also praised the weather afterward.
“I was definitely taking advantage of the weather; I love warm track meets, and just soaking up the opportunity, and knowing that people typically jump far there,” she said. “Like coach Peterson (Bohannon) kind of told us that we have a big opportunity to go here, and so I was just taking advantage of that opportunity.”
Hagerman made an improvement this past season and gave Bohannon credit for her ongoing success.
“I think just listening to what Peterson has me doing and getting my take-off leg down and focusing on going more up, instead of just straight out, helped a lot,” Hagerman said. “I didn’t really know how to long jump before since I only did it for a year in high school. And so he’s really worked with me on the technique of long jump.”
Reba Mader also impressed as the 400-meter specialist tried her luck in the 400 hurdles race, and in her first race in the event, clocked a time of 1:02.33, placing her fourth at the MIAA.
For the men, the Tigers sent two competitors to the decathlon competition and Nolan Churchman scored 7,138 points, placing fifth nationally and second in the MIAA. Drew Tolar scored 6,578 points, which ranks him fourth in the MIAA.
Another athlete who improved his performance was Nakari Morrical-Palmer, who ran an impressive time of 47.90 in the 400-meter dash and followed that with a time of 20.98 in the 200-meter race.
The Tigers will have another weekend where the team will spread out between different competitions. A few athletes will compete at Kanas Relays in Lawrence, the distance crew will travel to Salina for the Coyote Classic, and the rest of the team will compete at the Loper Invitational in Kearney, Nebraska.