By William / www.mcpherson-county-ks.com
INMAN – On paper the 2022 version of the Inman track and field team looks loaded for head coach Lance Sawyer second season as they return 10 individuals that participated at the 2021 state track meet, including seven Teuton boys and three Lady Teutons.
“2022 looks to be an exciting season for both the Teuton boys and Lady Teuton programs,” noted Coach Sawyer in his brief pre-season reflections. “We return a lot of talent that competed extremely well at the state track meet last season. We will have one of the largest teams we have had in a long time at Inman. We are aiming to compete for some more individual and team hardware in Wichita in late May.”
Seven Teuton boys who scored points at the state meet in 2021 will be returning for 2022, including the entire third place 4×100 meter relay and fifth place 4×400 meter relay teams.
Among the top returnees on the Teuton boys team will be led by junior Harrison Brunk who had a spectacular 2021 season the ended with four top-five placings at the state meet. Harrison finished third in the 100 meters, fifth in the 200 meters, and then ran a leg on both the third place 4×100 meter relay team and fifth place 4×400 meter relay quartet.
The remaining three returning Teutons from the state scoring relay teams include seniors Dawson Mannebach and Kendyn Blank along with sophomore Tanner Heckel.
In the 300-meter hurdles, both senior Jace Doerksen and junior Eli Brunk scored team points by finishing eighth and sixth, respectively.
Eli Brunk will also look for state placement in the 100-meter hurdles as well.
Besides running legs on the two relay teams, Tanner Heckel closed out an amazing freshman season in 2021 by placing sixth in the long jump and fifth in the triple jump as well.
Coach Sawyer looks to four other Teutons to bring points to the team this season in the field events as both Doerksen and junior Eli Leck return in the javelin, Eli Brunk just missed qualifying for state last year in the triple jump and junior Dominic Nusse-Rasmussen has shown much promise in the discus.
For the Lady Teutons, they will be young and led by sophomores Madelyn Brunk and Madilyn Heflin who both scored team points at the 2021 state meet as just freshman.
Heflin finished sixth in the 100 hurdles while Brunk placed seventh in the 800 meters and they both ran legs on the 4×400 meter relay team that finished sixth.
Senior Lauren Aden and sophomore Lacie Baxter will be running the 1,600 and 3,200 meters for the Lady Teutons with Aden having qualified for state this past fall in cross country.
Willow Quillen, a senior Lady Teuton, finished fourteenth in the state throwing the shot put and will look for a return to state for the event while looking to make state in the discus as well.
Sophomore Chloe Schmidt just missed qualifying for state from regionals in both the javelin and discus, while junior Kadence Welch will be pushing for a run to state in the same events as she is considered by the coaches as one of the strongest athletes they have.
Another strong athlete looking to make some waves in 2022 is junior Maci Neufeld who will be throwing the shot put and discus while sophomore Brylee Mannebach will look to score points in the long jump and triple jump after missing her freshman season due to injuries.
The Teuton track/field teams will open their 2022 season on Tuesday, April 5 on the road at Fairfield.
(William is a free-lance writer covering McPherson County Activities – he can be reached at crossdovewriter@gmail.com)