The River Falls Wildcats’ track and field season has gotten off to a fast start, with the indoor portion already at an end and the first outdoor meet of the year under their belts.

The season kicked off with the Griak Meet at University of Minnesota with their varsity team earlier this month.

The top performers at that event were Quinlan Andrews, who took first place in the 800-meter event with a time of 1:56:52. Taurus Eastgate also took first in the long jump event with a distance of 21 feet, 3.5 inches. Blake Schneider rounded out the top three finishers, taking second place in the pole vault event with a height of 12 feet, 6 inches.

The boys led the way in this one, and it showed in the final results with the Wildcats’ men’s team placing third out of 17 teams from both Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Head Coach Kady Bauschelt says they are feeling great about where they are at early in the season.

“Many of our returning athletes are performing at or better than their finishing stats from last season,” Bauschelt said. “We are very much looking forward to seeing what the incoming freshmen will bring to our team. They are a very talented group with a great work ethic.” 

Their final event before moving outside was held at Hunt Arena in River Falls last Saturday.

“As we finished our indoor season at UWRF, we had some standout performances by the men’s 4x800 team of freshman Owen Koepke, junior Jonah Majerus, junior Ty Bauschelt, and junior Quinlan Andrews broke our indoor school record with a time of 8:21.80,” Bauschelt said.

At that same event, Ty Bauschelt also broke the indoor 400-meter school record with a time of 0:51.75. Other highlights included the men’s high jump sweeping the competition with Ty Bauschelt taking first with a jump height of 6'2, Charlie Burke taking second for his 6'0 jump and Jacob Hutchins taking third at 5'10.

Coach Bauschelt says their aspirations for the team this season are consistent from year to year.

“We always set a few of the same goals at the beginning of each season. Number one, work towards winning conference as a team; number two, get as many athletes through to state as we possibly can and number three, give each athlete what they need to be successful during the season,” Bauschelt said. “We have over 100 athletes combined this year. Our coaching staff is amazing, and since we have a few years together, this season feels like it is off to a very smooth start.”

With the first outdoor meets happening this past week, the real competition begins.

“Friday was a true team meet, which means we could enter six athletes in every event besides relays, and every athlete would get points for each event,” Bauschelt said. “We had some great showings from new athletes and a lot of returners competing at the level they ended with last season. We were very happy about that.”

Coach Bauschelt says they are happy with their finishes for their indoor season, and their goal is to continue to improve until they reach the only true competition on their docket, the conference championship.

“We are really trying to have athletes try different events so we have stats to make the best decision on where they will be able to help our team at conference, and then to see where we will be able to advance the most athletes to the state meet after that,” Bauschelt said.

Notable finishes and improving scores for the boys from the indoor season include Eastgate’s personal records in both the long jump and triple jump; he took first in both. Ty Bauschelt took first in the high jump, and he and Jack Karnau both had PR's in the 400-meter. Andrews ran a 2:00.21 800-meter for a season personal record and took first place.

Koepke has been standing out with his performances in the distance races. Finnley Halverson had a personal record in the 110 hurdles event, and new to hurdles this year is Jonah Powers, who took second on Friday. Eli Johnson had a PR and took third in the shot put, and finally, Blake Schneider took second in the pole vault.

On the girls’ portion of the competitions, Isabelle Russell and Jayla Johnson set personal records in the 200-meter, Afton Gillis PR’d in the 800-meter and the 1600-meter and Olive Halverson set hers in the 1600-meter. Elly Smith took first in the 100-meter hurdles, and Bailee Bishop set a season record in the 300 hurdles. Octavia Heuschele and Anika Hovland placed in the pole vault, and Kennedi Berg took third in the triple jump.

With the indoor season at an end, the athletes are excited to get back to competing outside the confines of a gymnasium and an indoor track. This is where the Wildcats’ coaching staff will really get a look at what their 2024 team can do.

“The indoor and outdoor seasons are very different, so it is fun to see what the kids can really do when they get outside. Most of the upperclassmen would say they prefer outdoor because of the tight turns inside for running events,” Bauschelt said. “We are excited to see what the freshmen class is going to bring to the team too. They are a very talented group.”

The outdoor season continues for the Wildcats this week when they host the River Falls Invitational at Wildcat Field on Friday at 3:30 p.m.