CARTERVILLE – The Lions kicked off their 2022 track and field season on Monday, March 28th. Carterville hosted a coed open meet in which a total of 9 schools participated. 

The Lions hosted a variety of schools across the area including Johnston City, Hamilton County, Massac County, Vienna, Murphysboro, Anna-Jonesboro, Metropolis, and McLeansboro.

Carterville had athletes excel both on the track and in the field events. In the discus, junior Ayden Brown registered a throw of 118’0, and sophomore Megan Fleege threw 67’3”. Junior Jordan Cordes posted his best attempt in the long jump of 18’10”. For the girl’s triple jump, senior Rachel Brunner was the only one to participate in this event, reaching a distance of 26’10”.

Alongside the field events, Carterville athletes logged some impressive times on the track. With the use of teamwork and skills, the boys had two groups run the 4x400m with times of 3:51.3 and 4:04.6. The Lions also had 2 groups of girls compete in the 4x800m relay. These groups completed their runs in 2:04.73 and 2:05.66. Additionally, sophomore Ava Vasicek took part in the 100m hurdles which resulted in an end time of 19.3 seconds.

Senior Sean Taylor surpassed the other competitors in the boys’ 3200m with a time of 10:53.4. Taylor also did well in the 1600m, clocking in at 5:14.4. For the girls’ 3200m, freshman Molly Robertson completed her two-mile run with a time of just over 13 minutes. 

With this being the opening meet of the season, and being a very cold one too, Fleege reflected on her thoughts of the meet. 

“As a team, we tried our hardest and pushed each other to go faster by cheering each other on. We also did well facing the weather conditions. The only improvement would maybe be handoffs in relays, but as the season goes on, we will work out the kinks!” said Fleege.

Senior Haleigh Burford also put her input in on what could’ve been accomplished better. Burford said, “Despite the cold weather, I believe our entire team gave it their all. Improvement-wise, I believe that the team as a whole could be more supportive and talk people up when their event comes around.”

The Lions next track and field event is a coed home meet on Monday, April 4th, at 3:45 pm. If you wish to keep up with the spring seasons, check out our Instagram and Twitter page @CartervilleAth.