Through two meets this season, Cardinal’s field events have emerged as a strength of the team.
Junior Jordyn Schultz has won both meets in the discus and claimed one first place finish in the shot put.
She opened the season with a 94-foot, 8-inch throw to win the discus against Newbury last Wednesday then came back on Saturday with a throw of 93-3 to win the Don Faix Invitational at Crestwood. Schultz finished first in the shot put against Newbury and sixth at Crestwood.
“Jordyn Schultz had a huge day,” said Cardinal track coach Greg Cicero. “She won disc and that's a pretty big meet. Half the schools are Division I or Division II and she was really able to step up to the competition and do well. She did her best ever in the disc, which was great. She finished sixth in the shot. She wasn't thrilled with her results there but she had a good day and scored a lot of points.”
Freshman Kaylee Klepper finished fifth in the shot put at Crestwood and sophomore Anna Avalon was fifth in the discus.
“The nice thing is they're all younger girls,” Cicero said. “We've got a junior, a sophomore and a freshman throwing for us. They're scoring points in big meets already so that should be a good thing as we go on.”
Cardinal defeated Newbury, 85-51, in the boys’ meet on Wednesday and 104-28 in the girls’ competition. The Huskies’ girls finished in eight place at Crestwood while the boys were 10th.
“We're so young,” Cicero said. “We have so many inexperienced people who have never run track before so getting through meets without getting disqualifications and getting our handoffs down, we've gotten through two meets that way already.”
Despite the youth, Cardinal runners fared well at Crestwood.
Juniors Trisha Cesar and Erin Ross were among Cardinal’s top finishers in several different events.
Cesar was fifth in the long jump (13-9 ½) and also ran in the 4×200-meter relay. Ross was fifth in the 100-meter hurdles (17.58) and also ran a leg in the 4×400-meter relay. The Huskies finished sixth in that race.
“Trish has been a lot more dedicated this year,” Cicero said. “She started showing up to conditioning in the winter and actually competed in an indoor meet at Kent State. Erin was the same way. They've been working hard since December and it started paying off for them already. Erin got that taste of regionals last year and she wants to make it to at least there this year. Trish is continuously improving.”
Kyle Simms turned in a strong performance at Crestwood.
He finished eighth in the 110-meter hurdles (18.54) and ran legs in the 4×100 and 4×200 meter relays. He teamed up with freshman Trey Shirkey and sophomores Jacob Revak and Ben Lobdell to finish fourth in the 4×2 and seniors Sam Ellis and Craig Shanower and Lobdell to finish eighth in the 4×1.
Simms also ran the 300-meter hurdles.
“Kyle Simms had a pretty good day,” Cicero said. “He did make it to the finals in the hurdles. He ran a really nice prelim race in the 110 and in his final race we're trying to get him to three-step, he's three-stepping over the first few and then got out of rhythm. That caused him to get real close to some hurdles. It's early in the season for him to see some success, so he had a pretty solid day.”
Cicero was very pleased to see his 4×2 team do so well.
“This is a good group,” he said. “It's a real young group. A few years ago we were pretty successful in the 4×2 and we're trying to recapture some of that. We've got these four guys plus Tyson Sinclair, who was at a speech competition. We're going to use some mix of those four guys in the 4×2 all year. They click and work hard in the handoffs in practice. They looked good on Wednesday too running around on the cinders. They should place pretty high in all the meets we go to.”
The Huskies are scheduled to travel to Harvey on Tuesday.
