Triad Track Races At Distance Carnival, Indoor Top Times
By Anthony Jones
Competing at the same two meets, Triad’s girls and boys track and field teams had a big two day stretch of action last week.
Both teams kicked off their outdoor season on March 28, as they hosted the second annual Triad Distance Carnival. Even in the face of strong winds, this proved to be a successful day for the home team.
Looking first on the girls side of the competition, the 600 meter was one of Triad’s most dominant races of the day. The Lady Knights finished in first, second, and fourth place in the one and a half lap race.
Chloe Gough led this charge with a time of 1:47.28, while senior Mattie Noyes wasn’t far behind with a 1:48.75. Freshman Mikayla Niehaus delivered the team’s fourth place finish with a time of 1:55.32
Another big race for the host was the 1500 meter run. Noyes raced into first place with a time of 5:26.58, which was good for first place. Five seconds and one place behind her was fellow senior Ana Keller.
Two more events saw Lady Knights in the runner up position. The first of these two was delivered by Clare Schaft’s time of 12:53.90 in the 3000 meter.
Triad’s other second place finish came in the 4000 distance medley relay, which was split between legs of 1200, 800, 400 and 1600 meters. Representing the hosts in this race was the quartet of Keller, Gough, Edwards and Bagwell.
Other placements high enough to score were earned by Amanda Bagwell in the 3000 meter race and Hannah York in the 1000 meter, both finishing in fourth.
On the boys side of the distance carnival, Triad had several more noteworthy performances.
Highlighting this was the 3000 meter run, where the Knights brought home second, third and fifth place.
Scoring the runner up spot was Drew Pace with a time of 9:57.76. Ben Winslow later finished at 10:21.91 for third and Sam Kuckuck took fifth place after clocking in at 10:59.29.
The only other silver medal finish came in the 4000 distance medley relay. Pace, Venhaus, Twyman and Winslow finished in 14:53.39 in that race.
Drew Twyman would also deliver another top finish later, coming in sixth place in the 1500 meter race. The freshman hit just under 5 minutes in the event and finished at 4:55.97.
Two Knights also finished in seventh place at the meet. The first of these came from Tristan Vanzandt in the 1000 meter and Ethan Schmidt scored the other in the 600 meter run. Also in the 600 meter, Metcalf placed eighth overall.
The following day, Triad was represented in several events at the Illinois Top Times meet. This indoor season finale served as an unofficial indoor state championship meet.
In girls action, Triad was represented by Lily Cawvey and Morgan Noyes.
Competing in the high jump, Cawvey entered ranked in a three way tie for ninth place. She outperformed this ranking and finished in seventh place thanks to a height of 1.52 meters.
Noyes competed for the Lady Knights in the pole vault, but finished with no height.
The top finish of the day for Triad came on the boys side, thanks to a fifth place finish in the 4×200 relay.
This team consisted of Cory Warren, Tristan Darby, Juliano Cigliana and Louis Yohannes clocked in at 1:34.51, only 0.43 seconds from second place. They also outperformed their seed time by four tenths of a second.
The Knight’s other relay team, the 4×400, also had a big day. With a time of 3:39.41, the grouping of Ethan Dudley, Cigliana, Warren and Charlie Gentemann finished in tenth place.
Two individuals also competed for Triad at the meet. In the 60 meter dash, Warren clocked in with a time of 7.44 for a nineteenth place finish. Chase Harmon also ran for the Knights, finishing in twenty first place in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 9.80.
