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GIRLS

The Wildcat girls track team finished second to St. Louis Park at the Robbinsdale Cooper Quadrangular last Tuesday, April 14 at Cooper, highlighted by a sweep of the top four places in the 400 meter dash. They followed it up with an eighth-place finish at the eleven-team St. Francis Invitational last Saturday, April 18 at St. Francis. Running in the 800 at St. Francis, junior Chelsea Johnson nearly set a school record.

At Cooper, freshman Whitney Tinjum led the way in the 400 meter dash with a time of 1:06.36. Finishing second through fourth, all within 1 ½ seconds of Tinjum, were freshman Cassandra Schultz, eighth grader Kaylee Ryan and senior Makayla Grote. And for good measure, eighth grader Rebekah Meyer finished in sixth place to give the Wildcats five of the top six spots. "That was pretty exciting," said Wildcat head coach Ken Orwoll. "We nearly swept all five spots as Meyer was passed for fifth in the last ten meters of the race. We've got some pretty good young kids."

Kristina Miller had a very good day in field events. She won the discus with a toss of 96'7" and came in second in the shot put with a throw of 29'1". Junior Brianna Claeson came in second in the pole vault after losing a tiebreaker. Since Claeson and her opponent both topped out at exactly seven feet and had the same number of misses, they lowered the bar 3 inches and had a jump-off. Claeson lost the jump-off, but, said Orwoll "It was a good day for her and she was very excited."

Two seniors finished second in their top events: Sam Genung long-jumped 14'10" and Lindsay Fowler-Wacholz had a triple jump of 33'4". "We're counting on our seniors to get back into form," said Orwoll. "This meet showed that St. Louis Park is one of the teams to beat in the conference this season."

Though the Wildcats finished a somewhat disappointing eighth at St. Francis, they had some good individual performances that bode well for the future. Junior Chelsea Johnson's third-place time in the 800, 2:25.29, was less than one second off the school record. Senior Sam Genung had a very good performance in the long jump. Her jump of 16'3.25" was a nearly a foot-and-a-half longer than her jump at the Cooper meet. And junior Kristina Miller finished fifth in the discus with a personal best throw of 103'3". The 4 by 800 team, consisting of eight-grader Kaylee Ryan, freshmen Mary Cross and Kelsey Sorenson and Johnson, finished fourth.

"It was certainly a nice day for a track meet," said Orwoll. "Our big concern right now is getting healthy. Some of our top athletes have not yet been healthy enough to compete, including Lauren Althaus, Camille Uher and Simone Raedeke. And while Danielle Vitali has been able to compete for us, she's been slowed by injuries, as well."

BOYS

The Wildcat boys' track team finished a disappointing fourth at the Cooper Quadrangular, getting edged out for third by perennial North Suburban Conference doormat Columbia Heights. Fumbled handoffs in both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays contributed to knocking the Wildcats out of third place. They had a much better performance at the eleven-team St. Francis Invitational and wound up finishing ninth out of 11 teams.

At Cooper, senior Brad Reiniccius won the pole vault and sophomore Alex Vitalis finished third, both with vaults of 10'6". Reiniccius also did well in the high jump, finishing third with a jump of 5'8". Senior Craig Close's triple jump of 38'9" was good for second place and was nearly two feet longer than his previous personal best. Junior Dominic Novak had a decent day, finishing fourth in the 1600 meter run and turning in good splits in the 4 by 400 and 4 by 800 relays. Senor Eric Helps picked up where he left off last year. His throw of 118'6" was good for third in the discus.

At St. Francis, Helps flung the discus an amazing 11 feet farther than he did at Cooper. Helps' throw of 129'3" was a personal best, good for third place. Wildcat head coach Ken Orwoll gives some of the credit to high school Special Services teach Jason Thompson. Orwoll said "Mr. Thompson, who normally works with throwers at Centennial, came out on his own to work with Helps, Kristina Miller and others on throwing. He helped them make some minor adjustments that have made a difference."

Continuing the Wildcat success at St. Francis, Craig Close won the triple jump with a personal best leap of 40'6". The jump was nearly two feet farther than the personal best jump he'd had earlier in the week at Cooper. His jump of 40'6" was nearly two feet farther than his

Brad Reiniccius had another good day in the pole vault, finishing fifth, and Alex Vitalis was right on his heels again, finishing sixth. Versatile junior Riley Myers had an outstanding day, running a personal best in the 300 meter hurdles. Myers also won his way into the 4 by 100 relay in a sprint-off at practice and helped that relay team to a fourth place finish. He also finished seventh in the high jump with a leap of 5'8". And Dominic Novak had another excellent day. "His splits in the relays were some of the best he ever had," said Orwoll. Novak also placed seventh in the mile.

"After the relay debacles at Cooper," said Orwoll, "our guys took the handoffs pretty seriously at St. Francis. We got some decent points from or relay teams, all of which placed. There was a lot of improvement overall between the Cooper meet and the St. Francis meet. Even some of the kids who didn't place had really nice efforts."

The Wildcats finally get to try out the brand new track and brand new timing system this week. They were scheduled to host Spring Lake Park and Fridley in a triangular at Chisago Lakes Tuesday, April 21. This Friday, April 24, they'll head to Cambridge to run in the Cambridge-Isanti Invitational, with a scheduled start time of 3:30 p.m.

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