By Reagan Hoverman

After losing some dynamic, explosive runners to graduation last season, the 2022 iteration of the Prescott girls’ track and field team is looking to rebuild the program and establish a new identity for the lady Cardinals.

Last year’s accolades for Prescott are undeniably great and include the following results at the state meet: First place in the 4×100 relay, second place in the 4×200 relay, eighth place in the 200-meter run and 12th place in the 100-meter run.

Prescott girls’ head coach Emily Calabrese spoke about the state of the program, some of the expectations for this season and what the goals are for her roster.

“This year’s girls’ team is looking to rebuild and come back strong across all event areas,” Calabrese said. “We are hoping for our girls to establish a new identity for this team after losing such key runners last year.”

To say that Prescott lost a large group of supremely talented athletes to graduation last season would be an understatement. The Cardinals graduated the entirety of the state championship and state runnerup relay teams, which included Abby Syverson, Tori Benck, Jessie Urman and Grace Carlson, the crew of the 4×100 and 4×200 relay squads.

Despite those losses, Prescott has recruited new athletes to the track and field program which has given the Cardinals one of their biggest girls’ teams in program history. Calabrese spoke about the size of the program.

“We have huge numbers on this side and lots of enthusiastic athletes who are ready to make their mark on the conference, regional, sectional and state levels,” Calabrese said.

New talent is going to be a huge benefit for Prescott, especially with the large group that the girls have. However, the leaders are the returners, who will be able to help guide new additions to the team and establish the identity that Calabrese spoke about. “Our girls’ team is full of very strong upperclassmen leadership,” Calabrese said. “Our captains this year are Breanna Auleciems (sprinter), Madison Matzek (jumper/middle distance), Ella Johnson (jumper/distance), and Addison Huppert (sprinter/hurdler). These ladies are leaders in everything they do inside and outside of track. They are supportive, motivating and passionate individuals who will lead our very young team of girls in the right direction this year.”

Those aforementioned leaders are no strangers to success. Matzek, Johnson and Huppert all had a lot of success in the pole vault and individual running events and collectively scored several points for the team last season. Senior Mallory Boles has also been a competitive thrower for the team for multiple years.

Throughout the first month of the season, which has been primarily indoor meets, Prescott has seen earlier than expected success with some of that new younger talent. The Cardinals will look to continue the success as the season ramps up for playoffs in the next month.

Up next for Prescott is the Ellsworth Invitational on Thursday, April 21, at the Ellsworth high school. That meet is slated to begin at 4 p.m.

P hoto courtesy of Emily Calabrese