The Mount Si Boys track team battled thunder, lightening, torrential rain and seven other teams this past week at the Kingco Track Championships.
After 12 hours of competition, a total of four delays for lightning and being repeatedly soaked by the frequent downpours, seven boys qualified for the district meet. The team capped off a great season with a second-place finish in the league meet. Only an excellent Newport squad was able to outscore the Wildcat tracksters.
The star of the meet was Adam Rothgeb. He pulled off an astounding feat by winning four events – the 100 meter, the 110-meter hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles and anchoring the 4×100-meter relay. All of this was done in a 90-minute period of time. His performance rates with the best all-time performances in Wildcat track history and clearly made him the best 3A male athlete at the meet.
Rothgeb ran the 100 meter in a time of 11.61 seconds, the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 15.14 seconds and the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 40.36 seconds. The 4×100 relay team that Rothgeb anchored, along with Brady Barry, Sean Bothell and Frank McLaughlin, ran the course in a time of 45 seconds flat for their first-place finish.
Barry, despite battling a nagging knee injury, managed to qualify for district in two individual events as well finishing fifth in both the 100 and 200 meters. He ran a time of 11.80 in the 100 and 24.01 in the 200. McLaughlin continues to show tremendous promise as he finished fourth in the 200 with a time of 23.93 seconds to also qualify for the district tournament in the event. He established himself as the top freshman sprinter in the league this year.
The throwers held up well in the tough competition. Alex Grazda won the javelin with a throw of 167 feet, 3 inches to qualify for the district tournament in the event and he took a sixth-place finish in the discus to just miss qualifying. Grazda also finished second in the high jump, clearing 6 feet, 2 inches to continue his outstanding season. Erik Tierney shined as he finished third in both the shot put and the discus. In the shot, he set a personal record with a throw of 43 feet, 10 inches and also had a personal best in the discus with a throw of 134 feet, 5 inches. Both qualify him for the district meet.
In addition, Kyle Meyers threw a personal best in the shot to finish sixth and just missed the district tournament field. Thomas Goble continued his steady improvement by running a personal best of 2:02 in the 800 meter to finish fourth and qualify for the district tournament. Joe Taklo ran his fastest time ever in the 800 meter with a time of 2:03 but just missed qualifying.
Finally, Dan Floyd picked up sixth place in the triple jump while Zach Sumner cleared 11 feet, 6 inches for a season best to finish eighth in the pole vault.
