For the first time in two years, Mingus Union High School played host to a track meet on April 1 with the Marauder Early Qualifier. The Mingus team came away happy with how things went — both in terms of how the meet was carried out and how the Marauders did.
As a team, the Mingus boys finished fourth while the girls were fifth. That left Marauders coach Molly Westcott upbeat.
“I thought our team did well,” Westcott said. “We really shined in the field events at our home meet and the running events gave us a better idea of the puzzle pieces we need to move around for the next few weeks.”
Westcott cited a number of strong performances from younger athletes. These included sophomores Makai Arnaudo and Brasen Durkalec. Arnaudo was fifth in the 100-meter dash [12.16], third in the 200 [25.52] and third in the long jump [19-02]. Durkalec, meanwhile, was just behind Arnaudo in the 100 [12.36] and long jump [18.09] and was just ahead of him in the 200 [25.00].
On the girls side, the 4×800 relay team was dominant. The Marauders’ time [10.54.65] was more than 36 seconds better than Chino Valley [11.31.97], which finished second. One member of the Mingus 4×800 team — sophomore Makena Bliss — won the individual 3200 in dominant fashion. Her time [12.14.83] was nearly 50 full seconds better than the runner-up [13:04.54].
Westcott has also been impressed by the team’s younger runners and how well they’ve pushed each other to improve.
“Most importantly, we have a group of underclassmen boys who are finding their place as each meet goes on and are proving to be tough competition for each other and for their opponents,” she said.
There were strong upperclassmen performers, as well. Senior Shelby Link was fourth in the shotput [29-01] and fifth in the discus [75-11]. Fellow senior, Sadie Backus, meanwhile, placed in the long jump [13-09] as well as the 800 [2:55.77] and 1600 [6:15.59] meter runs.
Westcott acknowledged that the early part of the season has created some challenges. There was essentially no track season in 2020 and much of the school year at Mingus has been spent virtually. But despite those issues, she’s been encouraged by the progress that the team has shown.
“With the cancellation of last season, kids spending most of the last year at home doing online school, and an overall strange school year — to say the least — I think we are still adjusting to being full-time in school and full-time in sports,” Westcott said. “Each week we are getting better mentally and physically, and that is all I can ask for right now.”
The younger athletes on the Marauders team will be in action on Wednesday, April 14, at the BEARS Underclassmen event at Bradshaw Mountain — a meet held exclusively for freshmen and sophomores.
The full Mingus team will be in action on Friday, April 16, for another home meet — the Mingus Invitational. Two weeks after that, the Marauders will have another home meet, the Marauder Late Qualifier, on Friday, April 30. All of those meets will begin at 3:30 p.m.
