Medomak Valley High School girls’ track numbers are down a little bit from last year. “We had 26 at the start of the workouts. I think they were a little more rugged than they wanted,” veteran coach George Gould said.
With just eight short weeks to the season, athletes need to get in shape fast and stay healthy. “There are not many social athletes, they are all groomed to working. We have 19, but they are solid. I think we’ll be competitive across the board,” Gould added.
“The kids have to be productive. They have to attack their workouts in a short amount of time. They’re all on board. They’re pretty good kids,” Gould said.
Rain and snow the first week of practice set a gloomy mood. “The sunshine this week brought their moods back up a little,” Gould added.
The 2011 girls’ roster includes seniors Gwen Moiles, Megan Wyllie, Ashley Rackliff, Carla White, and Jen Brown; juniors Julie Ennamorati, Heidi Harris, Jordan Hopkins, and Jocelyn Thames; sophomores Desiree Leary, Jessica Prescott, Abbie Vail, Jessica Prescott, Brianna Gross, and Elise Wallace; and freshmen Amanda Young, Shannon Staples, Ellen Tuttle and Courtney McDonald.
Moiles, who missed much of last season with an injury, placed 6th in the KVAC 1600 and 7th in the State B 1600 last season. She and Wyllie ran a leg of the Lady Panthers’ second place 4×800 team at the KVAC’s. Harris and Leach ran a leg of the Panthers 4th place 4×400 team.
On the boys’ side, coach Jacob Newcomb has a solid 35 athletes out for his team, including a good mix of jumpers, sprinters and middle and long distance runners.
Team members include seniors Devin Dever, Michael Gilman, Joe Murphy, and Dan Winchenbach; juniors Deering Genthner, Brandon Holloway, Evan Matthews, Stefen Nicholls, Brendon O’Donnell, Lance Parker, Yannick Price-Prevot, Ian Rixon, Ian Thorpe, Nelson Tolman, Quinton Vannah and Russell Wood; sophomores Nick Anderson, Paul Brown, Kyle Derby, Justin Gilman, TJ Harriman, Jon Hendrickson-Belloguet, Ivan Johnson, Dylan Look, Boone Olson, Taylor Packard, Devon Sproul, Vinny Vannah and Tyler Wilson; and freshmen Arrin Bowman, Michael Canfield, Alexander Casas, Morgan Matthews, Mike Prescott, and Kenneth Scheimreif.
The Panthers return Sproul from their 4th place State B 4×400 team, and three from the KVAC 6th place 4×800 team, including, Joe Murphy, Brendon O’Donnell and Taylor Packard.
