It appears as if for the second consecutive season, the Osceola Chieftains track and field team will be the class of the Middle Border Conference.

Osceola won both the boys’ and girls’ University of Wisconsin-River Falls Invitational titles with scores of 159.5 and 152 points respectively. Prescott’s boys finished runner-up with 90 points and the Lady Cardinals secured third with 105, just behind Amery’s 118.

Although it’s still early in the season, Prescott coaches Emily and Carl Calabrese acknowledged that the results of the UWRF Invitational on April 4 indicated that Osceola is likely on the path to winning another Middle Border Conference championship this season.

“I think it went as most Middle Border coaches imagined it would,” Emily Calabrese said. “The boys’ side was dominated by Osceola, same with the girls. The thing that we noticed was the distinct break-off after our team. It was top three for girls and then top two for boys that separated from the pack.”

The break-off between the teams in the top echelon was distinct on both sides, but more so for the girls. After Osceola, Amery and Prescott in the top three, the next-best team was Baldwin-Woodville with 47 points, nearly 60 behind third place.

For the boys’ programs, Prescott’s 90 points yielded a runner-up finish that was 18 clear of third-placed Somerset. That gap will likely grow because several of Prescott’s top athletes are shelved due to injury.

“One of the exciting things on our boys’ side is that we still performed that well with four of our top boys not competing at full capacity,” Carl Calabrese said. “Shane Butler did one event and then we pulled him from his next two because he wasn’t feeling good. Will Packard was ill, so he went home after the high jump. Kyle Cogan and Josh Peterson have also been limited.”

Prescott’s athletes and coaching staff want everyone to be healthy year-round, but in those notable absences, young athletes stepped up and relished in their first opportunity to compete against strictly Middle Border Conference foes this season.

Perhaps no young athlete performed better in a pinch than freshman Kobe Russell, who has quickly developed into one of Prescott’s blossoming young stars.

Russell finished fourth in the 200 and 400-meter dashes and also took fifth in the long jump. He also replaced one of the injured starters in the 4x400-meter relay and helped lead Prescott to a third-place finish in the event.

In total, Russell earned 15 of Prescott’s 90 points by himself, the highest of any athlete on the team. Emily Calabrese spoke about Russell’s unique ability to accept and implement coaching on a moment’s notice, which has helped him develop so quickly.

“Kobe is learning a lot and he’s able to take advice at a meet and adjust mid-competition,” Emily Calabrese said. “I told him to make a change in his long jump approach and he did. He trusts his coaches to make those adjustments that are helping him have so much success already. He’s just so coachable.”

Prescott had four winners at the UWRF Invitational on Tuesday afternoon. Senior Shane Butler won the 60-meter dash, junior Breckin Schommer took first in the 1,600-meter run, senior Tyler Loucks claimed the 3,200-meter run and Evalyn Sieben won the 3,200-meter on the girls’ side.

All of the individual champions performed well at the Invitational, but Sieben was on another level in her conquest of the 3,200-meter event. Sieben posted a time of 12:31.34, which was nearly 20 seconds faster than what she ran at Stout earlier this year.

“Evalyn is incredible,” Emily Calabrese said. “She cut 20 seconds off of the time that she ran at Stout compared to what she ran at River Falls. To go sub-13 by that much for the first time was incredible. This is her first year out, so we haven’t seen the top end of Evalyn yet. As she learns and develops, she’s going to make huge gains.”

While Prescott had winners scattered throughout events on Tuesday afternoon, the Cardinals’ strongest showing as a team was in the girls’ 400-meter dash. Prescott occupied three of the top-five times in the finals.

Junior Ava Budworth finished second behind Ellsworth’s Kayla Kressin while seniors Katrina Budworth and Ella Johnson took third and fifth respectively. Emily Calabrese spoke about her team’s depth in the 400-meter dash moving forward.

“They’re a dynamic group together,” Emily Calabrese said. “It’s a really fun problem to have with so many girls who can mix in there. I think they’re pushing each other too, because there is a little bit of healthy intra-team competition for those 4x400 spots right now, and we’re seeing really good things coming out of it.”

Prescott will be back in action at a non-conference meet in Elk Mound on Thursday, April 13. Events are slated to begin at 4 p.m. at the high school.