By Reagan Hoverman

At the Osceola Invitational on Tuesday, April

26, the River Falls boys’ and girls’ track and field teams both finished in the top

four of total team scores at the event with third and fourth place finishes respectively.

The boys’ third

place finish trailed only Hud

son and Osceola, whereas the girls’ fourth

place result trailed Hayward, Osceola and Hudson in the overall standings. Despite not winning the meet on either side, River Falls posted several top

five finishes and won multiple events.

Some of the standout performances from the meet include freshman Quin Andrews’ win in the boys’ 3,200

meter run, Dustin Sheely’s sec

ond

place finish in the 1,600 meter run, as well as the boys’ win in the 4×100 meter relay, which included juniors Jordan Karras, Wyatt Bell and Jacob Gilbertson, as well as senior Alexander Fosler.

The great performances on the boys’ side didn’t end there. The aforementioned Gilbert son, as well as seniors Samuel Rixmann and Nathan Weick finished second, third and fifth respectively in the boys’ 100 meter dash.

In addition to a win in the 4×100, River Falls also won the 4×200 meter relay with the group of Rixmann, Weick, sophomore Robert Ander son and Gilbertson. It was an impressive slate of relays and short distance running for River Falls. Head coach Max Haskins spoke about his team’s performance.

“We’ve been very happy with what we’ve seen from our team, despite limited competition opportunities,” Haskins said. “Our short sprint

ers of Gilbertson, Rixmann, Karras, and Weick have turned in some good performances in the relays. We’ve also had some strong perform ances in the longer races, highlighted by Quin Andrews in the 3,200 meter run.”

While the boys’ roster had a lot of success in the relays and short distance running at Osceola, so did the River Falls girls’ roster. Juniors Re

becca Randleman and Brooklyn Silloway fin

ished second and third respectively in the

200

meter dash.

Junior Ella Peters and senior Morgan Prigge finished third and fourth respectively in the 400

meter dash and sophomore Lilly Jensen finished third in the 3,200

meter run. The relays also had a strong showing for the girls.

The River Falls 4×100 relay group of seniors Elise Frisbie, Josephine Johnson and juniors Sil

loway and Randleman earned a first

place fin

ish, edging out Hudson by just over one second.

The River Falls 4×200 relay group of Frisbie, Silloway, Randleman and junior Abi Banitt also earned a first

place finish for the Wildcats. Haskins spoke about the overall results between the boys and girls.

See RF

. TRACK, Page B-5

Jonah Severson of the River Falls track and field team makes his jump in the long jump dur

ing a meet earlier this season. At the Osceola Invitational on Tuesday, April 26, Severson fin

ished 14th in the 110

meter hurdles event. Photo by Reagan Hoverman RF TRACK

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.