Cadet boys’ track team will count on many newcomers, veterans

CRESCO - The 2018 Crestwood boys’ track team will have solid numbers featuring a good mix of veterans and newcomers. A total of 44 students from grades nine through 12 will compete this spring.

The nine seniors on the team include: Darian Gossman, Chris Guest, Jared Haskin, Raymond Himli, Jackson Smith, Ryan Steffen, Dayton Swatek, Carlos Beascochea and Kristian Szajna. Guest competed at State in 2017 in the 110 meter high hurdles.

Eight juniors will hit the track including: Kody Berns, Boston Ferrie, Jon Henry, Frank Hrdlicka, Zackary Lane, Luis Lares, Jonathon Millage and Shane Vokaty.

A total of 18 sophomores will compete including: Logan Albert, Kael Anderlik, Kamryn Erickson, Colby Frazer, Tyrone Grant, Braden Hayes, Eduardo Jimenez, Bryden Juelsgaard, Niklaus Knobloch, Daniel Lares, Lucas McGee, David Meinecke, Wyatt Scheidel, Matthew Slifka, Walker Sobolik, Bryer Thompson, Tristan Wetherington, Reece Wilson.

Ten freshmen will compete including: Nathaniel Bigalk, Trey Burnikel, Gabe Grabau, Carter Henry, Kade Munkel, Justin Nibaur, Mason Peter, Landon Simiele, Sawyer Swatek, Reid Wiley.

Returning letterwinners include: Chris Guest, Jared Haskin, Raymond Himli, Jackson Smith, Dayton Swatek, Kody Berns, Boston Ferrie, Jon Henry, Zackary Lane, Shane Vokaty, Logan Albert, Kael Anderlik, Colby Frazer, Braden Hayes, Bryden Juelsgaard, Wyatt Scheidel, Walker Sobolik and Reece Wilson.

Crestwood Head Coach Chris Lentz said he anticipates the team to perform well in several events.

“I think we’ll have some good jumpers,” Lentz said. “We’re hoping to have a few guys who can clear six feet in the high jump. With the long jump, we’ve got some guys returning who might be able to push the 20-foot range. We haven’t had a chance yet to work on that yet (outside) because of the snow.”

Crestwood was scheduled to compete in its first indoor meet on March 20 at Wartburg College.

“The Wartburg Indoor Meet will give us our first taste of what we can do in terms of mixing and matching guys with certain events,” Lentz said. “We’ll have some decent speed. We need to find the right combination to be competitive in the spring relays. We have some potential with our distance guys.

‘Right now (in mid-March) it’s too early to tell where we are as a team (in terms of how competitive we will be at meets). We are gearing up to peak in May. We can time our running in the hallways at school, but that’s not very accurate. 

“With 45 total guys on the team, our numbers are decent. We might have some guys who have the potential to chuck the shot put pretty well. We lost our discus guy (Spencer Cuvelier to graduation), but we’ve got some guys who have been working on that. We’re hoping to crack the 130 to 140-foot range with the discus. In the shot put, we’re looking to get some guys in the upper 40-foot range. 

“The guys know what they need to do. We just need to get some decent weather so we can practice outside. We need to get some time on the track so we can work on running the curves and how we get out of the blocks. Nobody likes to practice inside, but this is northeast Iowa. You never know what will happen with the weather,” Lentz said.

The coach said that the hurdles might be a possible strength this year.

“Chris Guest will be our top performer in the high hurdles, but we also have some other guys working on hurdles,” Lentz said. “We might be able to put together a good shuttle hurdle relay team. We’ve got a few younger guys who competed in the hurdles last year. 

“We just need to get on the track and see what our guys can do. We’ll put some guys on the track who will perform and get after it, and hopefully, they’ll have a a chance to get down to the big blue oval in Des Moines (at the State Meet),” Lentz said.

The coach noted that the team doesn’t have any specific goals for the year yet, but the main goal will be improvement.

“The main thing we want to do is improve every day,” Lentz said. “The guys are here to become better athletes and improve their skills. If they drop their finishing time by two-tenths of a second over the last time, they are getting better. If the guys can improve a few steps every day, now and then, things will click and some of them will make a big leap.”

Lentz said he has not solidified his lineup in terms of who will compete in which event yet.

“Until we can get some official times on guys in certain events, we’ll work on different combinations for relays and other events. We want to see where we can use guys best in events because each guy can compete in up to four events. We’ll mix and match guys in events to see where we can score the most (team) points.

“Once we can get outside for a meet, we can use our full roster and maybe run some JV events, which will give us more official times on guys. We will shuffle our lineup to put different guys at different events, and we’ll try to find the best combination for our relay events. 

“Some guys will be good quarter-milers, some guys will be good 200 runners and some guys will be good milers. It will depend on what order we can put them in during meets,” Lentz said.