Several track and field school records were broken on Saturday, April 25, at the Carleton Sitz invite at Wisconsin Lutheran.
The first record that was broken was the boys 100 Meter dash record by Senior Jonathan Lopez with a time of 10.79.
“I was shocked when I saw the time, but once it set it I was happy and felt a sense of accomplishment because I’ve been working for that for years,” he said. “I always knew I had the chance to, but I knew I was going to have to work hard to do it. I always had faith, especially after sophomore year. Though that confidence kind of lapsed after a bad junior year, I gained my confidence back over the offseason and by the start of this year I knew I could.”
Coach Owen Jarrette was proud of him. “Jon Lopez made sprinting a priority in his life. He showed up everyday, worked hard, and listened to his coaches. He’s not done! Jon is setting the bar high. Can’t wait to see what he does in the WIAA tournament series!”
The second record that was broken was the girls 800 meter run. That was broken by senior Addison Patneaude with a time of 2:21.67.
“I was very excited considering it was by 4 seconds, so it felt like a big accomplishment. I’ve been training all throughout the winter, not just since the beginning of the track season so I feel like that gave me a leg up,” she said. “I am satisfied with my time but there is always room for improvement, I am hoping to go under 2:20 before the season ends.”
The third record broken was the boy’s 4×100 relay. The first leg was senior Lucas Riechert, second leg was senior Sean Libal, third was sophomore Eli Paul, and the final leg was Lopez.
“It was definitely very exciting as it was only our second outdoor meet of the season and second 4X1 relay. It’s also exciting knowing that we still have stuff to clean up yet we still ran fast,” Riechert said. “I think we can definitely break the record again and hopefully keep our position as a top 8 4X1 relay in the state. The goal is definitely to podium at State and hopefully we can bring our 4X2 relay up to a state level as well.”
Coach Jarrete believes that Riechert had a big impact on breaking the record.
“The 4×100 relay had 3 strong pieces from last year coming back. We knew Jon Lopez, Sean Libal, and Eli Paul would be lights out, but we needed a 4th. Lucas Riechert rose to the occasion! He had battled injuries the last 2 years in the off season and we rarely got to see him compete,” he said. “This year, he focused on his sprinting mechanics, worked on the little things, and never gave up. His performances in the sprints are amazing right now and were exactly what the relay team needed to break the school record. We are early in the outdoor season, so we expect with consistent hard work in training and with handoff practice, the record should be broken every time they step on the track.“
