Wealth of experience returns for Bobcat girls’ track squad
By ROSS THEDE, TIMES-REPUBLICAN
POSTED: March 27, 2008
When the Marshalltown girls’ track and field team opens up the season today at the Boone Invitational, the Bobcats will have as many as seven runners, jumpers or throwers already boasting state meet experience.
Still, third-year head coach Chad Pietig says his Bobcats are a young team.
It’s a conundrum that bodes well for the future of the Marshalltown track team, all while allowing Pietig to maintain his usual expectations for this season.
“Overall we’re a really really young team,” Pietig said. “We have veterans we’ve relied on and then a really strong base of freshmen and sophomores.
“We always think big picture, and I think they bought into that last year after the district meet we had. We’re not just trying to qualify for state now, we want to score points.”
The Bobcats will look to a trio of senior distance runners to lead them this season, just as they’ve done in the past. Jill Lageschulte, Alycia Preston and Elli Mathis have been the stalwarts for Pietig’s team.
Lageschulte is a three-time qualifier in both the 1,500-meter run and the 3,000, finishing fourth in the latter in last year’s Class 4A state meet in Des Moines. Alycia Preston placed 24th in the 1,500 a year ago, and Mathis is a state cross country qualifier who provides Marshalltown with a steady distance runner to round out a lineup card.
Junior Jaleesa Vopava placed fourth in the long jump and ran a sprint leg on one of Marshalltown’s two state-qualifying relays. Junior thrower Chelsea Feldman ended up 18th in the discus. Senior Ashley Ewalt has already popped a personal-best throw in the shot put this spring.
In fact, the only member of last year’s state contingent not returning is sprinter Megan Stanton, who plays basketball at Marshalltown Community College.
With those senior leaders comes a group of youngsters who have already seen the state competition and are ready for a return. Sophomores Emily Hunt, Maira Schaumburg and Yessi Chavez were members of the Bobcats’ state relays, and Pietig adds other underclassmen to his list of those he’s expecting big things out of this season.
“Emily and Maira gained a lot of experience last year and they’ve already proven to be key girls for us,” Pietig said. “(Freshman) Lydia (Martin) is not a surprise after what she did in cross country this year, and Emily has already made her mark in terms of what she can do.”
“I’m really excited about the future,” Pietig added.
He added Kalika Jaekel, Samantha Horn, Jordyn Boland and Madison Wynes to his list of sophomores he foresees making an immediate impact on the varsity scoreboard.
Junior Tammy Jackson and senior Molly Pollpeter will play vital roles as part of Bobcat relay teams.
“They’ll be leaned on as far as leadership and experience as well,” Pietig said. “They’ll be more role players than big guns but we’ve got to have that as well.”
Pietig said that Horn worked hard in the offseason and the results should show it. Boland “raised a few eyebrows” at the Central Indoor meet, Pietig said, and Hunt has shown a great deal of versatility as far as number of events are concerned.
The loss of junior distance runner Courtney Watts to ankle surgery will be costly for the Bobcats this season, Pietig said, but the team will have to move on regardless.
“Last year the team voted her the most improved distance runner and we were really excited about her future,” Pietig said.
Watts will not be able to resume running until October, the coach said.
But the future is now for those Bobcats on the track and in the field.
“We always say we want to be a top-10 team (at state), and we want to,” Pietig said. “Will we be demolished if it doesn’t happen? No, but we want people to recognize Marshalltown and respect our track program.”
