By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
Coming into this season, it will be John Houwers’ eighth as the head man in charge of the Whitewater High School boys and girls track and field teams. Being the head coach for that many years can familiarize one with the program, and Houwers knows exactly what his teams are about this spring.
“On the girls side, we are definitely a younger team, but not necessarily age-wise,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of freshmen out, but looking at some of the seniors and juniors we have, they’re new to the sport as well. It’s not like we’ve had them in the program for two or three years, it’s a lot of first-year out kind of kids. It’s going to be a bit of a building year, but that’s ok. We have a lot of kids we can develop and be successful.
“On the boys side, we do have a few more returners. We have Logan Rasmussen, who’s off to a great start. We have a few other seniors who will really help us out in Connor Laue and the Mattingly twins. We will certainly be relying on that core group of seniors.”
The Whippet teams began their seasons on March 17 in the Nelson Daniel Classic, held at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. One highlight in the season-opening meet was Miranda Reynolds, as she was the lone event winner, winning the high jump at five-feet, one inch.
Reynolds wasn’t the only girl to successfully jump that high, but she won the tiebreaker by having fewer misses at a lower height. For the boys, Houwers said that even though Rasmussen didn’t win an event, he provided some of the biggest excitement of the night.
“In prelims, he jumped 44 feet, five inches in the triple jump,” said Houwers, of Rasmussen. “That set the meet record. He held it for about 15 minutes, until Marsell Martin of Pewaukee jumped 45 feet, six inches in the finals. Logan answered with a jump of 45 feet, but finished second.
“The other scorers for the Whippets were the boys 4x800m relay, of Connor Laue, Dalton Chenoweth, Daniel Soto and Jacob Korf. All four runners ran excellent legs for their first time out. Dalton equaled his best 800 from last year in his first race and Jacob Korf was just off his best from last year.”
Houwers said he is looking toward the girls 4×200-meter relay of Morgan Radaj, Reynolds, Ali Ketterhagen and Rebekah Schumacher. Those four finished in sixth place, but Houwers said Radaj ran an excellent lead and that the team was in it until Ketterhagen got bumped by an outside runner, nearly forcing her to stop.
Some athletes who didn’t score points, but recorded personal-bests were Robby Liberto in the 55-meter hurdles, Sophia Ellworthy in the shot put, Morgan Wiedenhoeft and Radaj in the 55-meter dash and Brady Meudt in the triple jump. Houwers talked about the youth of his team, and in this meet, nine different girls and four different boys competed for the first time.
“I was happy with how they competed,” Houwers said. “Early on, it’s all about getting kids experience and getting them a place to start and build from. We always go into that meet trying to give kids opportunities and never load kids up with too much, breaking them down. I knew we were younger on the girls side and it’s the start of spring break, so we had a number of people that we were gone.”
With spring break taking place, Houwers said it didn’t affect practice time the first week, but the snowstorm made things more difficult the following weekend. Houwers also said a few of the student-athletes who will have a chance to compete at state at the end of the year, such as Allison Barrett and Rasmussen.
The boys and girls teams are off until April 4 when the Whippets travel to East Troy to compete in their first outdoor meet of the season.
