Track: Red Wing starts season strong

The Red Wing track and field team had numerous top finishes at the first meet of the year with Zumbrota-Mazeppa Thursday in Red Wing.

Junior Kelsee Anderson and senior Christian Leitner started off the meet with wins in both the boys and girls 1,600-meter runs for the Wingers. Anderson also finished first in the 400-meter dash and Leitner secured first place in the 800-meter race in 2 minutes, 8 seconds.

Red Wing girls track head coach Jesse Nelson said the meet went as expected with the experienced athletes staying on pace from last year.

“The nice thing was a lot of them started out right where they finished last year,” Nelson said. “Now, we can build upon that.”

Sophomore Emily Stegora was the top finisher in the 100-meter hurdles and sophomore Tyler Rea crossed the finish line in 18.81 seconds to win the boys 110 hurdles. Stegora also won the 100-meter dash in 14.29 seconds and the triple jump. Rea ran the 300 hurdles in 45.11 for the victory.

Senior Andy Gehn completed the 400-meter dash in 55.11 seconds for first place and senior Abbey Schnaith won the 800-meter race in 2:49.51. Sophomore Meta Buck finished second in both the 100 and 200-meter races and Nelson came away impressed with her performance.

“It shows she stepped up and she’ll be one of our major contributors in the sprints,” Nelson said.

The Wingers secured the top spot in both the girls and boys 200 sprints as Shayna Ramstad won the girls race in 29.87 and Andre Page won the boys race in 24.71.

The girls high jump went to ninth-grader Adrienne Hicks at 4-feet-6-inches and senior Ryan Parr won the boys high jump at 5-feet-8-inches. Parr also tied for the lead in the long jump at 19 feet. Senior Jonny Banks won the boys triple jump at 39 feet.

Junior Macy Kelly tallied a win in the girls discus throw while senior Maggie Jonas took the top spot in the shot put. Nelson said he was happy that Kelly and Jonas started the season where they ended a year ago.

“You don’t have to spend most of the year getting back to where they were,” he said.

Junior Jordan Shull and senior Tanner Kramp alternated first and second place in the discus and the shot put, respectively.

Red Wing competes again Thursday at the Plainview-Elgin-Millville invitational.

Tags: red wing, sports, prep, track