(Avoca) AHSTW is closing in on their first track and field competition of the season.
The Vikings will start the year at Audubon on March 28th. “That will be a good one to see if we can get some good times down. We are going to try and do some things with some relays and tweak the first 2-3 meets and see where our best relay is at that time or where our best events are individually. That Audubon meet will be big for that and then Griswold two days later will be big as well on the 30th. Those are going to be some really good ones for u to see where we are at and what we need to work on.”
Coach Jackson Renberg has 17 athletes on the team. He says they have good group of 3-4 seniors, 4-5 juniors leading the way and some younger talented runners. “Nick Denning is going to help us out with the shuttle hurdle. He’s really looking good. Looking stronger, looking faster. We got his feet wet in hurdles last year and that was good. Now we are looking to him for leadership as well. Gavin Newcomb was a really good hurdler for us last year and we are looking at him to help out our shuttle hurdle. Seth Pope is another junior on the sprinting side that will also help out the hurdles.”
Coach Renberg previews the distance group. “We have Caleb Hatch. He’s going to help us out. He can kind of run just about everything. His favorite race is probably the 800. We’ll probably look at him in the 800 open and maybe the distance medley. He really had a good, breakout year last year and we are looking forward to what he can do his junior year. We also have Caden Geraghty. He had a really good sophomore season in cross country before an injury bug got him. Colin Harder is a freshman. He’s also a pretty good one for us. He’s a very tough, hard worker. We are looking at seeing what his race is right now and we think he’ll be beneficial to us.”
Luke Sternberg is a welcome addition. “He didn’t go out last year, but he decided to go out this year. He’s a really good athlete. He’s going to help us out in sprints and maybe some hurdles and long jump.”
They also have some quality throwers. “Jett Peterson almost made it to state last year. He’s a sophomore that threw about 44′ in the shot put last year at districts and then Ethen Gubbels. He didn’t get to throw last year because of an injury, but he’s healthy and he’s looking a lot better. He’s a senior. I’m really excited about this team. I think we have a lot of good kids. They are working hard and the morale is up. I’m really enjoying them as a group and we’ll see what we can do.”
AHSTW coach Jackson Renberg:
