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Courtesy photo of the Alpena High School track and field team.<\/p>\n
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ALPENA \u2013 Alpena High School\u2019s track and field program wrapped up a breakout season under Head Coach Spencer Kraft. The year was marked by explosive growth, three shattered school records dating back decades, and a historic qualification to the Division 1 state finals this weekend.<\/p>\n
Kraft described the season as a \u201cmassive success from many angles.\u201d Participation jumped about 40 percent, with a peak roster of roughly 105 athletes across the boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 teams. The program also boasts a very young, highly motivated group that stayed deeply engaged all year.<\/p>\n
The biggest highlights came from the boys\u2019 relay teams, which rewrote the Alpena record book. The 4\u00d7100-meter relay team of Andrew Szymoniak, Joe Lacross, Braeden Mathis and Thorin Rogers clocked 44.24 seconds to break a mark that stood since 1973. The same quartet then smashed the 4\u00d7200-meter record with a time of 1:32.11, eclipsing another mark set in 1978.<\/p>\n
The 4\u00d7400-meter relay delivered the most dramatic moments. It was first broken by Lacross, Austin Lasagna, Carson Heath and Mathis at 3:26.20. The record fell again at the regional meet when Szymoniak replaced Lasagna in the lineup, with the quartet of Lacross, Szymoniak, Heath, and Mathis running the same 3:26.20 time. That performance secured third place in the region and a berth in the Division 1 state finals this Saturday in Rockford.<\/p>\n
The success came despite unexpected challenges. Between spring break and the ice storm, the team lost approximately three weeks of training, and two early season meets were cancelled.<\/p>\n
Even so, the Wildcats far exceeded preseason expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey outperformed themselves massively and set Alpena up to be a force in Division 1 next year,\u201d Kraft said.<\/p>\n
The program will lose two standout seniors. Braeden Mathis anchored every record-breaking relay this season, while Thorin Rogers was one of the team\u2019s fastest athletes and contributed to two of the historic marks.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Kraft\u2019s off-season focus is simple:<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep up the momentum and let Alpena know that we are competing against truly the best athletes in the state and winning more and more every year,\u201d Kraft said.<\/p>\n
With a young core returning and fresh records already on the books, Alpena track and field appears poised for continued success in the years ahead.<\/p>\n
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Courtesy photo of the Alpena High School track and field team.
ALPENA \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[292303,292302,4,450,451,668,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-669585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-alpena-track-and-field-caps-record-breaking-season-with-state-qualifier","tag-alpena-track-and-field-caps-record-breaking-season-with-state-qualifiersports","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-local-sports","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}