Granton track and field athletes looking to be more competitive

About half of the Granton track and field team is making a return this season as the school’s program continues to grow in its second year of revival. With more athletes participating this year, the team is hoping to expand the amount of events it can cover and give their newest members more experience.

Eight athletes made up the team last season, now the number has doubled to 15 girls and one boy on Granton’s team this year. Of that number, seven are coming back for another round, giving the team a solid base of experience.

“There are 15 girls this year, seven are returning and eight are new,” said coach Cody Roggenbauer. “I think they did pretty well last year and we hope to do it again this year.”

The mix of having most of their team from last year returning and new members, Roggenbauer said, gives the team the opportunity to try more events than they were able to in the past and experiment with their athletes to see what would be the best event for them. To that end, the team has purchased some new equipment to help them train.

“We got some new stuff this year, new starting blocks, and we purchased hurdles so we can actually practice a full 400 at the fire station,” he said. “I want us to be able to try some more relays and be competitive in the conference. Seven or eight more people on the team will make us more competitive in more events.”

Right now, Roggenbauer said the team is in the process of finding where the new athletes will work best. Unlike last year, he said time is on their side in that regard because the season length is back to normal this year. That means the team has plenty of time to try different events and still be able to work on technique and speed when they have found their place.

“It’s being figured out,” he said. “We had two indoor meets and there is another two weeks before we do any outdoor meets. A couple kids want to try as many events as possible. We have a lot of time to get ready for the outdoor season. It was a quick season last year, we had started April 18 due to COVID. This year, we are first going to be competing outdoors around that time. It gives us a lot of prep time to get everybody comfortable.”

Although there are many who have not chosen their events, Roggenbauer said there are a few members of the girls team from last year who will be building off of their previous work. Those athletes, he said, are ones he expects will have the best initial start and may see some success as the late season rolls around.

“I think we have a lot of hard workers. They wanted to be here,” he said. “I am expecting Dolorosa (Thomas) at long jump and hurdles and Faustina (Thomas) at 400m and hurdles. (Olivia) Piskow at shot put and discus to all do well. I hope that we will also be able to get a relay team to get all-conference, but we need to find five girls who can do the same event. I hope that we will get a couple individuals to win at conference, too, and it would be nice to get half the team to sectionals. If we can get some to state that is even better.”

The Bulldogs have two seniors on the team in Dolorosa Thomas and Jasmine Carlsen. The team also has one junior boy in Alex Gardner and four girl juniors: Olivia Piskow, Lizzy Reinart, Abby Woller and Alexis Pongratz. Sophomores for Granton are Maya McConkey, Anna Kayhart, Laura Vine and Faustina Thomas and freshmen on the team are Emma Woller, Ashley Hensial, Tori Seif, Jordan Berg and Ella Piskow.

CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO