Vikings bring some nice hardware back from the State track meet
OMAHA — The season was just like many others for the Wausa track and field teams of the past, leaving a mark at another state finals.
At the Class D meet last week, the Vikings boys and girls finished 10th and 11th scoring 22 and 19 points respectively to wrap up another strong campaign.
“This group of kids, both boys and girls, have found ways to score and have become very strong competitors as the season moved along,” Wausa head coach Greg Conn said. “At the District meet, it was no different, we had a couple of hiccups but were able to overcome them and finish the meet with more personal records. This has been a great group of kids to work with all season long and they have endured cold weather, hot weather, and having to do all this without having a season last year.”
The team brought home 13 total medals and two new school records on the boys side.
“We competed very well in an atmosphere that can sometimes be cruel,” Conn said.
Sophomore Addison Smith set a new school record in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:38.36 erasing the old record of 4:39.4 set by Dave Enquist in 1975. Tyler Baue set a new school record of 41.66 in the 300-meter hurdles, breaking the old school record of 41.7 set by Travis Hageman in 1996 and Jeff Seagren in 2003.
The girls brought home medals through Darla Nelson’s third-place 3,200-meter run and PR of 12:23.21.
The 4x400-meter relay also took third behind Abrielle Nelson, Leah Bloomquist, Brooke Kumm and Christina Martinson as they ran a 4:17.57 in the preliminaries, a PR by eight seconds.
Martinson placed sixth in the 800-meter run with a PR of 2:29.83 while Nelson scored a sixth place in the 300 -meter hurdles (48.95) and eighth in the 100-meter hurdles (17.08).
Smith took second in the 1,600 and fifth in the 3,200 (10:20.32) while Baue got third in the 300 IH and fifth in the 110 HH (16.03).
“What a way to finish up a great season and a great state track meet for both our teams,” Conn said.
It was a year where everything ultimately began to fall into place at the right time.
“I wasn’t exactly sure where all the pieces of the puzzle would fit, but in the end, it all came together and as a coaching staff, we have no regrets as to how we put things together,” Conn said. “These kids did a remarkable job with not being able to compete last year. I felt each week out these kids kept improving on how they managed themselves and getting back into the routine of track and field and I couldn’t be more pleased with how they finished the season. I know that we have a few things to tweak next year but that is always the fun part for me to look at some notes that I have put down as we talk as a staff and then begin to put things together in December and January and gear up again for next season.”
The team will lose only two senior girls – Brooke Kumm and Morgan Kleinschmit and senior boy Steel Claussen and the future appears to be bright for the Vikings as a whole.
“We have a great group of kids coming back but we will lose two seniors, Brooke and Morgan, who have provided us with great leadership this season and have been a great influence on our program and next year we will have to fill that void,” Conn said. “I’m excited to see what happens down at the state meet and I believe this will be a great springboard for our program moving forward along with the strong line up we have coming back.
“For the boys, we will lose Steel and what a great leader he has been for us in terms of leading by example with his work ethic and his encouragement to a team that had only 10 boys on the roster. We will have to have someone step up by individual or by committee and keep this program moving in the right direction and we have these kids that can do that.”
Kumm was pleased about her final day in prep sports and how Wausa continued to keep its high level of performance in track and field.
“We can work individually better than we do as a team sometimes,” she said. “We are successful in speech too and that’s an individual and team things like track too. We’re all kind of individual people that can work as a team but work better on our own. We are individual people who play team sports and track exposes how each one steps up to their own events better.”
Kumm lost both last year due to COVID-19 and the sophomore campaign was ruined due to injury so she is able to still look back and see the light that was her career.
“I tried new things, I let how I worked and practiced reflect in meets,” Kumm said. “You don’t want people to carry you. Looking back, my memories are of hanging out with the kids in the tent and goofing out with my teammates while also putting in the work. Also, training my body to do the workouts so I can handle them in the future, because that is important to me.
“I had that control my senior year over my whole knee situation and have my body react to a sports event or practice.”
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