Sprint relays pace Highland track team in impressive show at Greenville College
Mother nature has kept the Highland boys track team from competing much in recent weeks but when the Bulldogs have competed, good things have happened.
Such was the case last Saturday when Highland trekked to the the Greenville Invitational at Greenville High School.
Highland placed fifth overall in the meet with 60 points behind first-place Freeburg (85) second-place Rochester (80), third-place Jerseyville (69), and fourth-place Olney-Richland County (67).
Bulldogs coach Joe Shannon was pleased with the team’s strong showing in the 20-team event.
“Yeah, the kids did very well and they competed hard and we came out with some medals, so I was really proud of the boys for competing,” Shannon said. “We still need to put some things together as far as cleaning up the (relay) handoffs a little bit and getting our steps down but I like where we’re sitting at right now.”
Highland had an impressive day in the middle-distance events. Dallas Mancinas placed second in the 800-meter run (2:02.92) followed by Christin Knobloch and Adin Roach tsking first (4:39.42) and third place (4:43.45) in the 1,600-meter run.
Donnie Miller and Avery Brock capped off the Bulldogs’ distance blitz by placing first (10:31.91) and third (10:32.60) respectively on the 3,200-meter run.
“Distance cleaned up pretty well as Dallas got second in the 800 with a 2:02.92 and he competed well with the first-place finishers and Dallas was in three events and picked up medals in all three,” Shannon said. “He had a really good day and distance had a really good day.”
Highland also fared well in the relay races as their 4x800 team of Mancinas, Walker Nehrt, Roach, and Zach Smith won first place with a time of 8:41.07.
The Bulldogs collected a seventh-place finish in the 4x100 relay, and a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 4 x200 and 4x400 relays.
Shannon was especially pleased with the performance of Rome Wallace, Dylan Beadle, Hunter Fridley, and Nick Judge in the 4x200 with their time of 1:37.16.
“The 4x200 I would say was the best sprint relay we had of the day,” Shannon said. “We got fourth and that’s a pretty good time, so I like the start of the season there.”
In the field events, Cam Ward turned in solid day with a 10th-place finish in the long jump with s leap of 5.91 meters.
“That was solid and they had some good jumpers there and for a small school meet to have to jump six meters just to get a medal, that’s pretty impressive,” Shannon said. “So, he came out and had s good day at the pit.”
Shannon likes the way the club has started the season and believes that more depth in areas such as the sprints and middle-distance give the Bulldogs to be more competitive this spring.
“I like it,” Shannon said. “I like that our sprint crew is a lot deeper this year and we’ve got Dylan Beadle coming back this year and that is pretty big. Some of our guys who were freshmen and sophomores the last few years have stepped up in the varsity roles this year in the sprint side, so this year i the first year I’ve had more options as to what to do. I don’t have to double and triple up people as I had to last year, which is fun.”
