Lilly Cast of Centennial looks for the sand in the triple jump April 9 at Milford.
Centennial's Cooper Gierhan finished second in the pole vault at the Milford Invitational April 9.
The Milford Invitational was a great day for the Centennial track teams. The Bronco girls finished at the top of the team standings April 9, and the boys finished third.
Coach Rob Johansen said the girls’ team depth was key for Centennial. Four different girls won events in the meet.
Savannah Zimmer won the discus with throw of 108-5, a personal best.
“Super proud of Savannah coming back this year after having surgery on both shoulders in the last year. It’s been a long road for her to be able to compete again and even better to win the meet with a new PR,” Johansen said.
Brooklyn Gierhan won the high jump at 5-1, also a personal best, and just missed gold in the 300-meter hurdles.
“That is the best I have seen her run in the 300 hurdles,” Johansen said.
Kate Hirschfeld won her first-ever 200-meter dash in 28.42 seconds.
“The 200 is something she has been asking me to try, and it worked out today really well for us,” the coach said.
The 4x100-meter relay also brought home gold with a time of 54.15 seconds. Johansen said the members still need to clean up their hand-offs in order to turn in spectacular times.
“That relay has a great opportunity to set some fast times if they all can connect in the same race,” Johansen said. “We had has so many kids gone from practice and missing meets that the continuity is just not there yet. We will keep working on making that relay better.”
While the boys finished third in the team standings, Johansen said he sees a lot of potential.
“Like the girls, when kids are gone and miss meets, the conditioning goes down,” he said. “We had several that ran well in one race, but are not in good enough shape to run more than one. You cannot simulate race conditions in practices, so having a meet was crucial for our team in order to improve. We just need kids at meets to get better.”
Chris Medow had a good day, finishing fifth in the 800 with a time of 2:09.61. He also ran good splits on the 4x400- and 4x800-meter relays.
“He has a lot of confidence right now from the hard work he has put in and it’s showing up in his times,” Johansen said.
Jake Bargen saw a big improvement in the high jump where he jumped 6-0 and finished second.
The Broncos were to host their home invitational April 16 and then are off until Tuesday, April 23, at the Heartland Quad.
