Granton trying track and field again after few-year hiatus
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, Granton was prepared to field its own track team for the first time in several years. Now a year after everything was delayed and shut down, the team is still planning its start at Granton with fresh faces and a lot to learn.
Cody Roggenbauer is the head coach of this year’s team, which consists of eight girls. Though he hasn’t coached track before, Roggenbauer said he and Katie Reider — his assistant coach — both have some working knowledge of the different events, and will be passing that knowledge on to the team.
“The biggest things is I’m not a track person, I have been to track meets, and I have a friend who was an Olympic gold medalist,” he said. “I’m good at engaging, it’s about finding experts who can show the kids what to do.”
This year’s team comes in with a steep learning curve to overcome, Roggenbauer said. Out of the eight girls, he said, only one has any high school experience with the sport. The rest, he said, either have secondhand knowledge, or participated in track in middle school, which was co-oped with Neillsville. Add that to a year hiatus from sports, and information can get fuzzy.
“Most of then have never tried any of this before, everyone except Ashlee (Piskow),” he said. “She is our only senior and has experience. The rest of them are trying to figure out what they want to do in the next couple years and what they would be good at.”
To familiarize the girls with the different events, Roggenbauer said they have been spending some time each day going over every event and letting them all practice to see where their skills lie.
“It’s tough for them, so we try to focus on specific things,” he said. “Everyone has to try hurdles, or long jump. We practice handoffs for relays.”
While the team has been practicing events to find out what they would be good at, Roggenbauer said there are a few events that he knows the team won’t be able to do this year due to the lack of certain equipment and places to practice specific events. Those events may be added again in future years, he said, but for now, they need to master the basics.
“We didn’t know what would happen this year,” he said. “We are having the kids try stuff out, find out what they are interested in and what they can do. We are trying to find out if we can do relays or are we going to have to focus on individual events. High jump may be a no this year, we won’t be able to do 100 high hurdles, we don’t have any flat spots with blacktop.”
As for the season, Roggenbauer said the schedule is a bit odd with everything starting so late. Their first meets will be held just a little over a week after they started practice, which will allow the team to get some experience on a real track, but will also make their first meets more of a testing ground to help the athletes figure out how to do the sport.
“There’s one and a half weeks then we have our first meet,” he said. “It’s not a good way to get started. The biggest thing is that we have four meets in quick succession then a 10-day break. When they get into competition for the first time, we will be asking them how they feel. For the first four meets, they will be figuring things out. They have no comparison.”
Ashlee Piskow is the team’s only senior and will lead the team along with the team’s only junior, Dolorosa Thomas. There are four sophomores in Lizzy Reinart, Alexis Pongratz, Olivia Piskow and Abby Woller. The girls also have two freshmen, Faustina Thomas and Maya McConkey.
The Granton track team will participate in its first meet at Auburndale on April 29. They will compete again on May 3 at Stratford and on May 6 in Neillsville.
CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO
