WAUSA — It’s been 36 years of Greg Conn being in charge of the Wausa track and field program and the hope is No. 37 could be just assuccessful as all of the others before.
Conn is coming off a 2023 campaign during which he saw his athletes progress throughout the spring and both the boys and girls were able to compete despite low roster numbers.
The boys return senior Cade Wakeley (third place at state, two-mile relay), who continually placed in the two-mile run at all invitationals. Senior Cashe Carlson came out for the team for the first time last year and began to excel in throws and just missed out on qualifying for the discus at thedistrict meet.
Senior Jyler Petersen (relays), junior Colton Baue (jumps and relays and this year the pole vault), sophomore Gaven Nipp (hurdles) and sophomore Braydon Hoesing (member of the two-mile relay, 800 meters) are competing, and sophomores Preston Schlote and Tate Stolpe will be a part of the throwing unit and both had strong wraps to the 2023 season.
“I feel like we’re going to compete pretty good this year,” Wakeley said. “We have a lot of freshmen that are coming in that have potential to be very great at their running events, so that would be fun to see. We will be good in our field events. We haven’t timed everything so we don’t know where we’ll be out there (on the track). I think we have the potential to be very good at both.”
Wakeley said the Vikings are continually competitive because of the training and the coaching staff’s ability to get the most out of the athletes.
“They have great workout plans for us every single day,” he said. “I think that’s something that really helps our program.”
The Lady Vikings will also have plenty of top athletes back as senior Kate Lundberg could move up the ranks in shot put after barely missing a state berth. Sophomores Tierney Alexander (shot put, discus), Taylor Dawson (onemile, 800-yard runs), Avery Stevens (300-meter hurdles), Mackenzie Suhr (state high jump qualifier, consistent 100/300 high hurdles medalist) and Lexi Wright (sprints, 200-yard dash state qualifier) are all talented young ladies who should continue to keep Wausa among the top teams in its class.
“It’s going to be a good season for the girls — everybody’s good in their own events,” Lundberg said. “Definitely our field events right now are ahead since we haven’t done any relays or anything like that. We have athletes and we work hard.”
The bevy of talent also means Conn might be able to stack a thicker deck of athletes on the roster.
“We have a host of newcomers on both squads and it’s early to really put down where their strengths will be more so because we haven’t had a lot of practice time to get a real read on things yet,” Conn said. “But what I can tell you is that it looks like we will have a tremendous amount of depth on both squads and could not only fill all 17 events, but could fill these events with more than one athlete, which puts you in a position to be in contention for a trophy at the end of the day.”
Conn expects his athletes to get better and compete every day as long as they give good effort.
“Not every day will you throw your best or jump your furthest or run your fastest times,” Conn said. “What I need from all of our athletes is that they show up and do the work, and if we are consistent in our work ethic, this could be an exciting year for both (the) boys and girls squads.”
Wausa is set to open the 2024 season at 3 p.m. March 21 at the Neligh- Oakdale Warrior Relays in Neligh.
