The Wildcats Varsity track and field team took a trip to Columbus for their first outdoor track meet of the year. On March 28, 2024, the Wildcats men’s track team took on seven other schools to compete for gold. The boys team finished second in the meet only behind Kearney.
To finish the indoor season for the men’s varsity track team Millard West traveled to Doane. The Wildcats took bronze in the indoor meet, behind Papio South and Omaha Westside.
To start off the throwing, the shot put was started with junior Daniel Greenlee from Millard West throwing 44’ 06.75, placing 9th. The Wildcats continued their Shot Put with freshman Matt Erickson placing right behind Greenlee finishing 10th out of 22 participants. After the Shot Put ended, the meet continued with discus, where Millard West had three participants. Greenlee and Erickson also participated in discus and placed 8th and 19th, but senior Tyler Thaden also participated in the discus throw placing first out of 22 participants, with a throw of 166’ 4.
“This was our first outdoor track meet all year and I was very excited to see how all of my offseason work had paid off,” Thaden said. “I threw my outside personal best in discus, and was very proud of myself and the work that I put in this offseason.”
The long distance started off with the 3200 meters where the Wildcats had two top five finishers. Junior Michael Jones finished in 4th place with a two mile time of 10:00.52, as well as senior Porter Bickley finishing in 2nd place with a time of 9:36.64. The meet continued with the 1600 meters where the Wildcats had junior Henry Hansen place 8th, but also filled the top two spots with the second place finisher being Bickley again with a time of 4:30.38, and in first place senior Jack Witte finished with a time of 4:14.38.
“I finished in second place twice in our first track meet which is a very big achievement,” Bickley said. “I look forward to improving in practice to finish first in future meets.
The start of the last few races was kicked off by the 4×800, run by Bradyn Johnson, Lucas Johnson, Henry Hansen, Jack Witte with the Wildcats finishing in first place with a team record of 8:07.37. The relays continued with the 4×400 run by Bobby Joseph, Bradyn Johnson, Jace Ingebretson, Jack Witte, who also ran a team record of 3:28.99, which earned them second place.
“Our team got together and practiced a lot during the offseason so that we can hit the ground running in our season,” senior Bobby Joseph said. “We also practiced a lot on our own to improve individual skills as well.”
Millard West Finished in 2nd place in their first meet with a score of 90.33, finishing behind Kearney with a score of 120. Millard West starts the year on a positive note, and looks forward to taking on the Westside Invitational on March 30.
