From Page B-

“It was a really good finish for us as we were missing a few of our more experienced kids with non COVID related ill nesses,” Haskins said. “We were still spreading a lot of kids around to try to see how they fit, not necessarily trying to score the most points possible. We’re a little behind experience wise from missing a few early outdoor meets, so we’re still trying to build some of that.”

Like so many other sports, track and field has been negatively impacted by the unusual weather this spring. Not only practices but several meets have been canceled which has impacted how Haskins looks at the times that his athletes have produced.

“Because we’ve had a few meets canceled in the past few weeks, it’s been a challenge to get accurate times on kids with limited entries in meets,” Haskins said. “We usually have a few more opportunities to see what kids can do at this point in the season, so these next few meets will be big for us to see what we can do as the weather gets nicer and our training starts tapering down.”

While the weather continues to slowly get warmer, Haskins and the coaching staff are excited to see what their athletes can do. Times typically begin to drop as the weather gets warmer and he is optimistic that the same will be true for his group this sea son.

“I think we can and will see some huge drops in times on the track as the weather gets nicer,” Haskins said. “It’s extremely hard to drop fast times in the cost and I think our fitness is there, our times just don’t quite reflect that yet. I think we can be more consistent in our field events and the improved weather in the forecast should help us with that. Overall, I’m excited with what I’ve seen so far and I’m very optimistic going forward.”

Up next for the River Falls track team is a meet at New Rich mond on Friday, May 6. That meet is expected to begin at 4 p.m.