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Last weekend, members of the NS track team qualified for and competed in the State competition, with multiple students taking first in their competitions.
Jackson Wilkey placed first in the high jump and became the state champion in that event. The 4×4 relay team consisting of Abrianna Benson, Journey Toomey, Hallie Henrie, and Mari Briggs became the state champions for their event as well.
“I am proud of how we performed,” Briggs said.
Besides the two state champion groups, NS saw several other track members place highly.
The medley relay for the girls, consisting of Abrianna Benson, Hallie Henrie, Mari Briggs, Savanna Christensen. Mari Briggs ended up taking second place. Briggs also took second place in the 400-yard sprint.
Abrianna Benson took seventh in the 100-yard sprint, and Journey Toomey took sixth place in the 100 yard hurdles and fifth place in the 300 yard hurdles races.
“Pretty much everyone who qualified for state did what they were supposed to do at state,” track coach Scott Butler said.
Butler has been coaching at NS for 30 years, and he is very proud of the team this year. They were supposed to make it to the finals and place in the finals, and while not many qualified for state, they all performed well.
“We begin with the end in mind, and the end was state,” Butler said.
Everyone who made it to state champions and runner ups this year were seniors. With state being the last thing, they’ll do sport-wise in their senior year, they are happy with the results.
“It makes me feel really good,” Briggs said. “I was really wanting to have a strong senior season and I feel like I accomplished that.”
The 4×4 was especially important to the team. They’ve been training for this state race since the beginning of the year.
“They were great – they were focused on what they needed to do,” Butler said
Last year, the 4×4 team ended up being the runner up at state. The girls winning this year was incredibly important to them this year, and it was the highlight to their senior track year.
“It was the last event of the entire state competition, so we ended on such a high note of taking first,” Benson said.
With all sports over now, it leaves the team to look back on the year and how things went. Not many people on the team had regrets about the season and how it went, nor how state went for the people who qualified.
“Yeah, that was a really good way to end that,” Wilkey said.
