WP Track Team Keeps Up

MILTON-FREEWATER -- The Waitsburg-Prescott track and field team traveled to Milton-Freewater, Ore., last Friday to compete in the Carnival of Speed, the team's fourth meet of the season.

Despite team members beating personal records and three competitors, two from the boys and one from the girls, taking multiple firsts, the teams were unable to place first in the meet. As a team, men's varsity took second with a score of 85 and women's varsity took tenth with a score of 29.

Head coach Jeff Bartlow said the season has been going well and he felt good about his team's performance at the meet. Despite the timing of the meet, landing on the Friday of spring break, just about half of the team was able to turn out for the meet.

On the boy's side, six firsts boosted the team's overall score.

"James [Thompkins] had three firsts, his 400 time was 51.8," Bartlow said. "He got 30 points just on his own. That's a big deal for the team to get that many possible points out of one kid."

Thompkins, a junior, led the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races with 11.50, 23.93 and 51.88, respectively.

Along with Thompkins, junior Seth Deal helped the team's score with firsts in the 1500- and 3000-meter races with 4:25.36 and 9:34.29 respectively.

"Seth got two firsts, his 3000-meter today was fantastic," Bartlow said. " one of his best times of the year."

Senior Eshom Estes also brought in a first in the shot put and a second place in the discus throw. Estes' shot put throw of 49-05.00 was a new personal best for the athlete. His discus throw was 121-05.

The boys 4x100 relay placed second after a disqualification bumped them up from third place with a time of 46.96.

The girl's team only had 12 girls able to attend the meet because of the timing of the meet with spring break.

Senior Kristin Potter scored two firsts, one second and one tenth place in the meet. Her two first place times in the 200 and 400 meter races were 27.87 and 1:04.01, respectively. Potter took second in the 200 meter race with a time of 13.61 and tenth in the long jump with a distance of 12'11.00.

Junior Hannah Helms beat her personal best in the shot put throw by one foot with a score of 28, landing her in eighth place. Helms also took 13th in the javelin throw with a distance of 73'05.

"Hannah Helms threw a 28 today in the shot put that was impressive," Bartlow said. "She does feel good about that."

Helms said the weather was a challenge for the team, but she and her teammates were all glad for the lack of snow. She said beating her personal record in the shot put was an exciting moment.

"My ultimate goal is to go to districts and state, but I just want to keep progressing," Helms said. " keep getting better and better."

The team's next meet will be Wednesday in Walla Walla.