Grace Track And Field Finish Their Season At State

The Grizzly track and field team made the trek across the state to Middleton High School where the 1A state meet was held last weekend.  Near perfect weather combined with a fast track made ideal conditions for the Grizzly team.  Several of the fifteen athletes competing for Grace saw new PR’s and even some new school records.  Jonah Wilkerson and Jack Eddins were the only Grizzlies to compete in any field events.  Both young men competed in the triple jump and Wilkerson qualified for the long jump.  The triple jump is where things kicked off for the duo.  Eddins had won the event in districts just a week prior putting him in second place all time in the Grace record books.  A new week and a new meet brought new results, however.  After both athletes had completed preliminary jumps, only Wilkerson moved on to the finals.  Eddins saw his season come to an abrupt end as this was his only event at the meet.  Wilkerson not only would move on but would best Eddins’ jump from the week before, moving him now into second place all time for Grace.  His jump of 41’ and one quarter inch placed him in fifth place at the meet and earned him an individual medal.  Unfortunately for Wilkerson he suffered a minor injury in the competition, making it difficult to get a mark in the long jump where he failed to make finals.

The running events kicked off with the longest race of the meet, the 3200 meters.  Lilly Gilbert competed for the girls in this race while Brock Johnson ran for the boys team.  Neither athlete made the podium, but each finished with respectable times.  Gilbert finished in eleventh place and Johnson in thirteenth.  The next several races would be preliminaries to qualify for finals on Saturday.  Landon Moss competed in the 110m hurdles and just missed out on finals by .02 of a second.  Parker Yost and the injured Wilkerson both competed in the 300m hurdles for the boys team.  Once again both failed to make the top eight qualifying spots for finals.  Wilkerson finished in eleventh and Yost in fifteenth.  The girls had better luck in the 300m hurdles.  Tayler Yost and Kallie Stoddard both made the finals, with Yost placing fifth and Stoddard coming in seventh.  The boys teams had three more athletes participate in prelims on day one.  Braden Kimball and Trevor Mathews ran the 100 meter sprint with both athletes setting new PR’s in the event.  Despite their new blistering times in the meet’s fastest race, neither athlete made the finals.  Kimball, however, got another shot as he competed in the 200 meter sprint.  This time Kimball made the finals.  The last member of the boys team to compete in a prelim was Adrian Mejia.  Mejia ran in the 400 meter race and he as well did qualified to run the next day in the final.  The final event of the first day was the sprint medley relay.  The girls team of Jeanaelie Shaffer, Kallie Stoddard, Tayler Yost and Brooklyn Porter finished the relay in under two minutes but placed seventh just off of the podium.

Day two of the state meet was a busy one for several of the Grizzlies.  The day kicked off with a parade of athletes where each school entered the stadium as a team, akin to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.  After all of the pomp and circumstance, the Grizzlies first race of the day was the boys 4x200 meter relay.  The team members Landon Moss, Trevor Mathews, Braden Kimball, and Carson Welch had their struggles with handoffs in the race but still finished in fourth place collecting medals on the podium.  Mathews, Kimball, and Welch were joined by Bryant Jensen later in the day to run the 4x100 meter relay.  The handoffs would be much cleaner, but the competition was very tough.  The relay team would set a new school record in the race but finish in just seventh place among the very fast field of teams.  Kimball was the only relay member to have an individual race in the finals.  Kimball’s luck did not improve as he once again finished in seventh place just outside of a podium spot.  Mejia would have the most success for the Grizzly boys team.  Mejia placed sixth in both the 400 and 800 meter races earning medals in both and setting a PR in the 800.  Mejia also placed seventh in the 1600 meter race with another PR. In individual finals races for the girls, Yost and Stoddard finished fourth and seventh in the 300m hurdles.  Yost earned a medal and set a PR in her final hurdle race of her high school career.  Freshman Brooklyn Porter shined once again in the 800 and 1600 meter races.  Though she only finished in ninth place in the 800 and fifth in the 1600 meters, she set new school records in both races and collected a medal in the later one.  The final event of the meet was the 4x400.  The girls team of Shaffer, Stoddard, Porter and Yost finished in fifth place in the race, collecting medals and setting yet another school record.  

Even with a limited amount of hardware coming home for the Grizzlies, the season was still a successful one with lots of kids ending on a high note.  With just three total seniors on the combined boys and girls teams the Grizzlies should bounce back to state again next season with multiple athletes in tow.