On Track for Greatness
Photo By Bill Schiess
We’re coming up on the end of winter, and that means high school track season is upon us. At Madison High School, the coaches and parents have become accustomed to having an exceptional team, and it seems like this year will be an interesting one.
Quite a lot of talent left the Bobcats over the offseason, mainly in the form of seniors graduating. The mid-distance crew was hit pretty hard, losing Clay Wasden, Jacob Watkins, Zach Jensen, and Peyton Johnson. These boys were the leaders of the 400-meter crew, and they were an integral part of the 4×400 meter relay team last year. The long-distance team lost several guys from their crew as well. Stephen Stutz, Brandon Lemon, Everett Slagle, Matt Fluckiger, and Hunter Manner all left the team for ‘better things’, and their absence will impact the Madison 4×800 meter relay, team. The Bobcats have long held the dominant position in the district for that event, but the absence of these key seniors could slow the times down drastically. The short-distance group, on the other hand, stayed remarkably stable. They didn’t lose any seniors from their star relay teams. This will allow them to pick up where they left off and work up from there.
Several juniors from last year are returning and working to improve. From the long-distance team, we have a pretty close-knit bunch who have been running together since seventh and eighth grade. The group includes Patrick Averill, Tyler Cochran, Aaron Saunders, and Solomon Cluff. Despite moving into the school district last year, Josh Clark has quickly become good friends with these athletes. They all challenge each other to become better, but they also have a good mix of fun while running hard.
The core of the sprinting team from last year is all still at the school. Blake Moseley, Austin Burrell, and Zeke Madson are all going to return. Blake and Austin are members of the phenomenal varsity 4×100 team last year, and Moseley contributes to the 4×200 team as well. Zeke Madson didn’t have his greatest season last year, but if he keeps himself healthy he should make some drastic improvements in his events.
The short distance races consist of the 100m dash, the 110m hurdles, and the 200m dash. For the short distance runners, Blake Moseley is the number one man. He went to state last year for the 100-meter dash, and he is coming back bigger and stronger to close out the final year of his high school running career. The 200-meter dash is lead by an upcoming junior, Malachi Valora. He is closely followed by Cooper Poll a junior.
The 110m hurdles number one seat was close last year because Hunter Madsen barely held the spot from Jacob Moore. Hunter only had a personal record of less than a second faster than Moore’s personal record, but Jacob Moore moved to Utah after last year’s season. This year Madsen won’t have the same competition as last year because Moore is gone and no one on the team can compete with Madsen. Madsen went to state last year and finished in eighth place.
The mid-distance races consist of the 300m hurdles and the 400-meter dash. Not many athletes participate in the 300m hurdles, but we have one returning runner in that position, Jeremy Jacobson. They actually had the two fastest times last year, and we can only expect improvement since then. Nathan Fullmer, the fastest 400m runner from last year is back for more. He was a first-year runner last year, but he’s sure to have improved before entering his senior year. The next person down the list is Jonathan Hunt. He’s a junior this year, and he stayed right on the tail of the seniors of last year. I spoke to him about the upcoming season, and he has expressed the desire to work his way into top condition.
A race is considered long-distance if it’s any of the following three: the 800m, the mile, and the two-mile. Many of the sophomores are near the top of the list when it comes to performance, but the fastest runner on the long-distance team is Spencer Stutz. He performs very well in all three of the distance races, and he can be counted on to push himself harder than anyone else. Some sophomores just below Stutz are Michael Brugger and Chance Sleight. They both have excellent times in the mile, while Chance prefers the two-mile to the 800, and Michael is the opposite. Tyler Cochran and Patrick Averill are up with this group as well, and they push themselves to try and keep up with their competition. The three other seniors are quite a bit slower, but they’re sure to train themselves into a form to compete. When asked about his performance last year, Josh Clark said, “I did all right, but I regret not running the 3200.” He’s going to swap the 800 out for the longer distance. The only question for this year’s distance team is if they can put together a 4x800m relay team that can compete at a high level.
The Madison Bobcats have some very impressively fast freshman joining the distance team this season as well. One of them is Landen Garner he ran a fast 800 meter and an incredible 1600 meter race last year as an eighth-grader. Garner has a faster 1600 meter time than most of the boys on the team (with a 5:06), and he was only an eighth-grader. Garner definitely has great potential to be on the varsity team, because he is just as fast or faster than most of the upperclassmen. As of last year, Morgan Crawford was very close to Garner in the 1600 meter race. He was just a few seconds behind Garner, but last year he had Garner beat by two seconds in the 800 meter. He has the same potential as Garner to be on varsity and upset the upperclassmen.
If a few of the boys can work themselves into top form, then they might be able to win the district championship this year. If nothing else, this year will be an important building block for the juniors and sophomores who will be back next year to compete at a higher level.
