The Penn Kingsmen Boys Track team traveled to Steele Stadium, home of the Mishawaka cavemen, to compete in the 2019 NIC championship meet. The boys fought hard and came out victorious in this meet winning with a score of 142. Mishawaka came in a close second scoring 127. This is the most amount of points scored in the NIC meet for the Kingsmen since at least 2012.

There were many impressive results from the meet achieved by our amazing track team. Freshman Alec Hardric broke his own freshman record with a time of 23 seconds flat. Christian Marshall blew his old record out of the water in the 800 beating it by 7 seconds running a 2:00.89. Caden Paquette beat his own school record by throwing a new PR(personal record) of 170’2.5″ and taking 1st place. Vishal Turna also set a new PR of 151’8.5″ placing him in 4th place. Colin Mott also set another PR in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 40.15 becoming the NIC champion of the event. Going along with the theme of outstanding performances, Mariano Retzloff had an impressive run in the 3200 meter run putting him on the all time freshman leader board for the event. He ran a time of 9:55.16, beating the freshman record he set earlier in the season and took first in this event. Avery Richardson, Nick Sergeant, Christian Marshall and Seth Jankowski took 2nd in the 4×800, running their best times of the year by more than 7 seconds.

“It was a great atmosphere, the team came out here to compete and the results showed” said Kevin Krustch, a member of the team, right after taking 2nd place in the 100 meter dash.

Following right behind Krustch, Alec Hardric took 7th place in the 100 meter dash. Later on in the meet, Ben Boardly took 5th and Dillon Pottschmidt took 7th in the 1600 meter run. Tiegan Bothun, Alec Hardrict, Patrick Maclin and Kevin Krutsch all took 3rd in the 4×100. Following two outstanding performances, Tristan Manis took 1st in the 400 and David Obert took 4th. Congratulations to the head coach of the Penn Boys Track Team, Jon Carroll on winning NIC coach of the year. Good job to the boys track team for smashing records and taking places this year.

By Kevin McNulty

Kevin McNulty teaches English and Mass Media Studies at Penn High School. He advises the Penn News Network and manages the PNN Studio and news room. For more information, navigate your browser to www.massmediastudies.net.