The first weekend in December means the Chadron State College track and field teams will be giving a preview of coming attractions at the Yellow Jackets Holiday Open Meet at Black Hills State in Spearfish on Saturday.
The meet also will feature multi events competition on Friday. Two CSC men, senior Harley Rhoades and sophomore Kaden Dower, will be involved.
The meet will be unusual experience for the Eagles’ new head coach, Seth Mischke. He took over the CSC program last August after serving as the head mentor at Black Hills State the previous 11 years. He said about 45 Eagles will compete this weekend.
“I know they are looking forward to getting after it following that long fall semester of training,” Mischke said.
This year’s rosters are believed to be the largest in CSC annuals. There are 38 women and 58 men on them. Freshmen make up about half of the women’s list and one-third of the men’s total.
The CSC men, in particular, are coming off an excellent season. They scored 111 points while finishing third in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships. Sixteen Eagles who scored points at that meet are on the team again.
Most of last year’s female team members also are back, led by senior sprinter Carlie Collier, who recovered from a health problem that forced her to miss the 2021 season and demonstrated the promise she’d shown early in her career.
The sprints, jumps and throws have been the Eagles’ strongest areas in recent years. That was true again last season, even though two of the all-time outstanding sprinters, Brodie Roden and Morgan Fawver, were almost never at full speed because of injuries. Mischke said both appear to be well on their way to recovering.
“We are hoping they will be there when it really counts,” the coach noted.
Youngsters such as Quincy Efeturi, Creighton Trembly and Emory Yoosook helped take up the slack in the short sprints and veterans such as twins Osvaldo and Osiel Cano and Logan Moravec and sophomore Greg Logsdon earned points in the middle distances and relays.
After he went 24-4 ½ indoors and 24-3 outdoors last season, having Fawver available again in the long jump will be crucial in that event. None of Eagles’ three main triple jumpers from last year are on the team again, so there will likely be a void in that event.
All three CSC men—Joe Dumsa. Alec Penfield and Hector Ortega–who placed in the RMAC high jump a year ago have returned. So has Jourdaine Cerenil, who qualified for nationals in the women’s event both indoors and outdoors last season.
The throws could be the Eagles’ strongest area again since both Daniel Reynolds and Shane Collins have two years of eligibility remaining after they combined to win the hammer throw at five meets last spring and both exceeded the RMAC record at the conference meet.
Reynolds and Collins are also capable shot put and weight throwers, but are likely to have to share some of the spotlight this year with transfer Kyla Sawvell. During the past three years while attending Black Hills State, Sawvell had won 10 RMAC championships in the throws. Her return to Spearfish on Saturday is expected to draw considerable attention.