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On Monday we had our (rescheduled) Conference meet. It was held at Lussier Stadium located at Lafollette high school in Madison, WI. The weather was good considering rain was forecasted, and our boys and girls performed admirably!
In the girls long jump Jada Schuh took 4th place and Ashley O'Connell took 5th. The three girls ahead of them could ALL podium at state this year (and competed there in 2017) so I was extremely happy with their performances!
In the girls triple jump Jada Schuh took 4th place and Kasy Walker-Daniels took 5th. Again, the three ahead of them are amazing jumpers that could podium this year, and all were at state as jumpers last year. For these two girls to jump like they did (both in the 35's) at a BIG time meet like conference was GREAT!
In the boys long jump Kadon Kauppinen took 2nd, Antonio Bliss-Perdue took 3rd, and Orlando Fenderson too 5th. I sincerely believe there is no deeper of a men's long jump team than in Sun Prairie. There are teams out there that have one (possibly two) big jumpers, but we have 4-5. I was EXTREMELY proud of them!
In the triple jump Tyler Precia won the event, and Evan Holman came in 8th. I wasn't surprised by either jumper's accomplishments, but Evan Holman gave me some extreme motivation looking forward to next year. He tripled ONCE as a freshman and injured himself. As a sophomore he wanted to try it again, and scored points at the biggest meet (so far) of the year! He, and a few others around his same age, are going to be HUGE contributors in the next couple of years. Tyler graduates this year, but we will reload quickly!
In all we had an extremely productive night at the pits. The jumps themselves weren't as good as some of my jumpers would have liked, but the placing speaks for itself.
Some tracks simply aren't good "jumping tracks"; and when this happens athletes can get very down on themselves. This was the case Monday night, and many of the jumps were far shorter than they were seeded/expected. This didn't happen to ALL jumps, but simply the majority. We as coaches need to understand environmental factors and reflect with our athletes after meets with poor "jumping tracks" (one of many other "issues" your jumpers may encounter) to help them understand that no matter the conditions they affect everyone equally. There is no making excuses, but it's important for athletes to understand the realities of the situation and keep calm/confident for the next chance(s) to jump.
As a team our girls won the meet and our boys program took 2nd. This is the girls' 8th team title in my ten years of coaching, and the highest the boys program has scored since we took the program over 5 (I think) years ago. What an amazing year!!!
Up next:
JV meet tomorrow (5/15) and Regionals at home on 5/21!