Thursday, May 4, 2023
ALTOONA-MIDWAY MIDDLE SCHOOL TRACK
OSWEGO – The Altoona-Midway Middle School track squad capped off its 2023 spring season in fine style, accumulating teams points from a total of nine Jet individuals or relays at the Mineral Belt League Track Meet here Monday, May 1.
Overall, Altoona-Midway athletes set a league record in the process, brought home two silver medals and a bronze, a trio of fourth-place finishes – and had a plethora of team members turn in personal best efforts even if they didn’t add to the team totals.
Highlighting those performances was AMMS seventh grader Sandra Morales, who set the MBL track record in the high jump by clearing the bar at 4 feet, 2 inches.
Paeshence Best of Elk Valley later also cleared 4-2 at the MBL meet, so the two athletes now share the league record. Unfortunately for Morales, Best was awarded the gold medal for having fewer misses at prior heights during the league competition.
Thus, Morales brought home a silver medal despite equaling the best MBL jump in history.
Also earning a silver medal at the rugged MBL event was AMMS eighth-grader Taj O’Conner, who took second in the boys’ shot put with a throw of 35-01.5.
Hadlee Pupanek netted a bronze medal for the Jets, finishing third in the girls’ discus with a throw of 71-11.
Altoona-Midway claimed fourth place in three separate events.
Chance Carter placed fourth in the discus with a personal best throw of 91 feet. Peyton Drake tied for fourth in the girls’ high jump, clearing 4-0, and Chance Mustain earned a fourth-place finish in the mile run, crossing the tape in 6:02.
Mustain also earned team points in the 800-meter run, claiming fifth with a time of 2:51.
The Jets also picked up team points in a pair of relay races, as both the boys’ and girls’ combos wound up sixth in their respective 4x200 events.
Making up the boys’ 4x200 unit were Chance Carter, Zach Good, Damien Green, and Caleb Kuhn. The Lady Jets squad was comprised of Bella Douglas, Jasa Pankanskie, Brooklynn Collins, and Peyton Drake.
“It was a tough meet, but overall I felt we did an outstanding job,” said Altoona-Midway head track coach Chary Weilert. “There were about 11 other teams there and our school is definitely one of the smallest. However, the kids set out to get their best times and distances of the season, and almost everyone came home with at least one PR at this meet.”
Indeed, a bevy of Jet tracksters closed out their final meet by recording personal bests, despite not finishing in the top six of their respective events. Those included:
Zach Good, Caden Sicka, Bella Douglas, Hadlee Pupanek, and Emily Burch, who all had a PR in the 100-meter dash. Also, Peyton Drake broke her old PR by nearly two seconds in the 200.
Katherine Tindle set a new PR in the 800-meter run, beating her old time by six seconds. In addition to her record-setting PR in the high jump, Morales set a new PR in the 400 as did Emily Burch. Burch smashed her old PR by 12 seconds.
Pupanek set a new PR in the shot put, as did Mika Parsons. Parsons heaved the shot 27-04 last night, which was an improvement of five feet. Parsons set a PR in the discus as well.
“Coach (David) Batzer and I are extremely proud of this group,” Weilert added. “We are proud of their efforts individually and we are proud of the cohesiveness that they've developed over the season.
“I've never had a team so pumped up about the successes of their team members,” she added. “I've never had a team that encouraged and cheered on their teammates as much as this group. And, before this year, I've never had any track athletes crying on the way home from the league meet, sad that the season was over. But ALL of those things happened this season and it was great to see all of those things unfold.
“Although we're losing some wonderfully talented eighth graders, Coach Batzer and I are already talking about next year and planning the training programs that we want to incorporate. We're excited about the future. We're excited about what we have to look forward to with this year's sixth and seventh graders. We started the season with over 20 kids and only lost a couple along the way, so our goal is to continue to build the middle school track program while helping the eighth graders focus on new goals for next year. We'd love to see these kids continue their track career in high school.”
Overall, Edna won the boys’ team title, narrowly edging out Meadow View. Altoona was seventh of the 11th schools in the boys’ team standings.
On the girls’ side, Oswego ran away with the team championship, while the Lady Jets were eighth among 12 schools overall.
Nolan Nash of Edna and Presley Witty of Altamont were crowned the top individual performers in their respective divisions.