Wildcat track and field opens their regular season

Jackson Kelley, Staff Writer

The Wayne State College Wildcats started their outdoor track and field season by hosting the Wildcat Classic Friday, March 24 and Saturday, March 25. 

The Wildcat classic had many teams from all around.  

“The meet was a great success,” Head Coach Marlon Brink said. “We had 15 teams and 600 athletes, which I believe is the largest we have ever hosted in WSC history.” 

For starters the Wildcat men’s track and field team, Logan Moeller started outdoor season well by placing first in the long jump with a mark of 24’ 7”.  

“Logan Moeller had a great jump in the long jump – 24’ 7”, which he currently ranks 2nd in NCAA DII,” Brink said. “He was also named the NSIC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week for that performance.”  

Behind Moeller with marks of 22’ 11 ¾” and 22’ 2 ½” were Mason Lee and Cody Rogers. Brandon Johnson came in fifth with a mark of 22’ 1 ¾”. 

“They [the athletes] did a great job transitioning to outdoors, with the Nebraska weather the way it has been we haven’t spent as much time outside leading up to this first meet,” Assistant Coach Carly Fehringer said. “They stepped up and got the job done for week one. We have about six more weeks before Conference Championships and I believe we haven’t seen the best of them yet.” 

The WSC women’s track and field team won three events hammer throw, long jump and triple jump. 

For the hammer throw, the Wildcats had four top eight finishers with Brooklyn Chipps taking first with a mark of 58.63m. Not far behind her taking second was McKenzie Schiel with a mark of 58.45m, both NCAA provisional marks. Behind them was Kendra Paasch in fifth place with a mark of 46.71m and Hailey Baker in eighth place with a mark of 47.54m. 

 In the long jump and triple jump, Emily Smollen and Keyla Sambo both recorded first place finishes. Smollen won the long jump with a mark of 17’ 8 ¼” and came in second in the triple jump with a mark of 35’ 6”. Sambo recorded a mark of 35’ 11 ½” to win the triple jump and a mark of 16’ 10 ¾” to place third in the long jump.  

In other news, Reilly Young threw discuss Saturday and got an NCAA provision mark of 161’ 10 ¼” to take second.  

“Reilly Young hit a lifetime best mark in the discus and is currently raked 3rd in the nation in that event,” Brink said. 

The Wildcats travel to Kearney this weekend to compete in the Central Nebraska Invite on Saturday, April 1.