Eden Prairie track and field competed at the Shakopee Relays on Thursday, April 18. Despite a chilly day with wind gusts of nearly 30 mph, both the boys and girls track teams performed very well and demonstrated teams with depth as they prepare to enter the True Team competition season.
The Shakopee Relays offers a few unique races not typically seen in a regular-season meet, including the shuttle hurdle relays, the short sprint medley relay, the long sprint medley relay, the distance medley relay, and a fun (not scored) throwers 4×100 relay. These relays help show a team’s depth and potential for the remainder of the season.
The boys team took fourth overall with notable performances of Tyler Doolittle in the 1600 (10th overall with a time of 4:51); Tate Bloch in the 300 Hurdles (third overall with a time of 41.93, a season best); Raj Sidhu in the shot put (eighth overall with a throw of 43-04.25); Owen Peterson and Dennis Rahouski in the discus (fourth and fifth, respectively, with throws of 129-07 and 127-11); and Terae Dunn in the long jump (fourth overall with a personal best of 19-10). All three of Eden Prairie’s pole vaulters – Bloch, Ben Hepper and Patrick Kubisa – vaulted 10-0, tying for seventh.
When asked about the day’s performance, boys track and field coach Zach Hanson said he is extremely excited to see how the season unfolds.
“We have a ton of potential this year,” Hanson said. “We have guys that want to work hard and get better every day. We have a culture of improvement, and that is what sets us up for success in the second half of our season.”
On the relay side of things, a speedy 4×100 team of Liam Berndt, Dunn, Luca Ratkovich and Elijah Rumph posted a season-best, third-in-state time of 43.07. They were second in the meet, only 0.09 seconds behind last year’s state team from Minnetonka. The Boys 4×800 (Simeon Donaldson, Elijah Donaldson, Jameson Drieslein, and Jake Heimkes) won the meet with a time of 8:20.31; the 4×200 relay team (Dunn, Berndt, Charles Vanier and Rumph) scored third overall in the meet, as did the distance medley relay (Elijah Magare, Harrison Serk, Jacob Holje and Matthew Berge). In the 4×110 shuttle hurdle relay, Eden Prairie placed second behind Prior Lake with a time of 1:08.18. Members included Bloch, Peyton Merseth, Kade O’Curran and Lucas Meyer.
As a unique meet event, Eden Prairie dominated the thrower’s 4×100 relay with a significant lead over the other teams. Members of the thrower’s 4×100 team included Owen Peterson, Gavin Walden, Mo Saine and Joseph Sohlstrom.
Girls results; coaches’ thoughts
On the girls side, despite a few key missing athletes, the team did very well, taking seventh overall in an extremely competitive field.
Notable performances include Katie Metzger in the 1600 (11th overall with a time of 5:35.89); Brooke Englebrekt in the 300 hurdles (14th overall with a time of 54.01); Aaina Sidhu in the shot put (17th overall with a throw of 27-02.25); Kaleigh Hancock in discus (ninth overall with a throw of 82-10); Kaitlin Kuhry in pole vault (seventh overall with a vault of 7-0); Emma Martin in the long jump (sixth overall with a jump of 15-07.75); and Gabi Lainhart in the triple jump (ninth overall with a jump of 31-06.5).
For the girls relays, the Girls 4×100 shuttle hurdle relay team (Madeline Kaufman, Brooke Engelbrekt, Kaitlin Kuhry, Gabi Lainhart) took first with a time of 1:08.90; the 4×200 team (Ava Sibert, Talia Baune, Libby Schwab, Chloe Boonstra) placed fourth with a time of 1:54.45; and the 4×100 team (Mariana Blanco, Libby Schwab, Amelia Black, Emma Martin) also placed fourth with a time of 51.85.
When discussing the current achievements and future prospects of the track teams, Hanson noted, “We are still going through a bit of a culture shift as both (girls head coach) Paul (Selman), and I just started in our roles as head coaches last year, but we are well on our way to a program that develops athletes to work hard, persevere, and be their absolute best at all times. We both believe in developing competitive athletes, but we are also putting a larger emphasis on developing traits of responsibility and accountability that will help these athletes become wonderful and successful leaders for the rest of their lives.”
Nearly 350 athletes are registered for the EPHS boys and girls track and field teams this season.
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