The Aim Is Upward For WHS Girls Track
SYRACUSE – Trending upward is the hope for the Wawasee girls track program.
After a rough 2013 spring season and returning just one senior for the 2014 campaign, head coach Scott Lancaster is hoping his team can find some identity as it grows through the final two months of the school year.
“We’ve got great numbers, but not a lot of top level talent,” Lancaster said. “There are a lot of blue collar, lunch pail kids. We’re hoping to build for the future with a lot of our roster.”
Lancaster is low on returning experience but higher on numbers than in recent years. The lone senior, Ruby Minnick, does bring track experience from past years including work in hurdles and field events. Of his 34 athletes on the mid-March roster, just 19 of the 34 are not freshmen. Several of those 19, however, do return with at least one year of track experience.
The junior class brings a lot of potential. Sprinter Catherine Yankosky already has made an impression with a set of competitive runs at the Culver Academy Indoor meet in early March and was the primary sprinter for Wawasee last spring. Shelby Swartz had her sophomore season end of a sour note after breaking her wrist in the NLC triangular with Warsaw and Northridge, but returns as another top option on the track.
Courtney Linnemeier brings a host of previous experience on the track and cross country circuits into her junior season. The All-NLC performer in cross country should help the Wawasee distance events as the elder statesman of a large contingent of cross kids taking aim at the oval this season.
Hannah Winters should lead a very talented group of throwers. Winters is returning for her third season of discus, and should mentor a group that includes potential stars in sophomores Katlyn Kennedy and Savannah Schwartz.
“It’s really hard to make up four or five places in the Northern Lakes Conference, it just is. There is too much talent,” Lancaster said. “The conference is just so deep. It’s not that our kids can’t do it, but it will be difficult. For our veteran kids, they have to make the attempt. The biggest opponent in track and field is yourself. Some of our girls have physical disadvantages, but most are mental. That is one of our biggest opponents.”
Lancaster is also assessing a very raw group of sophomores and freshman which encompass over half the total roster. Of that group, several have stood out in various disciplines. Among the many to create early impressions are sophomores Brooke-Lynn Whetten, Tia Long and Sarah Lancaster as well as freshmen Seaquinn Bright, Skylar Janda and Alexis Manges.
The weather, of course, has and will be an issue with the spring sports and track has been the first affected. Using the hallways, corners of the gyms, weight rooms and parking lots whenever possible, along with the opportunities of the indoor meets, the Wawasee team – along with just about everyone else in the area – are making due with the difficult circumstances.
“We’ve done what we can with the space that is given,” Lancaster. “We understand there isn’t a lot we can do about it. We just have to make due with the space, and the sun, and focus on getting ready for the conference season.”