Jefferson track aims for lofty heights this spring

State thrower David Schiller returns with solid contributors back in distance, sprints and jumps

The boys and girls track and field programs at Jefferson each placed third at the tough Metro West Conference Championships and return with a number of point winners across the lineup.

Head coach Jon Leverenz begins his 18th season leading the program with longtime distance coach Brian Melendez guiding the endurance runners. Gordon MacComber begins his second season on the coaching staff and veteran coach Don Verdegan is back on the staff after a brief retirement to guide the sprints, relays and horizontal jumps.

With three state entrants last June, only senior thrower David Schiller is back and searching for a higher finish than 15th in the discus (128 feet, 10 inches) after setting a personal-best 154-1 to place second at the Section 2AAA meet to qualify for state.

Schiller placed second in the shot put at the Metro West Conference Championships with a 47-8 3/4 and placed sixth at the section meet with a distance of 46-6.

First time out this winter, he placed third in the shot put at the Icebreaker at the University of Minnesota on Feb. 24 going 45-5 on his fourth of six throws.

The distance squad graduated two of the program’s all-time greats in Megan Lee and Adam Lueth who closed out their prep careers in the 3,200-meter run at state last June. Lee, who is running for Wisconsin placed ninth while Lueth, who is running for St. Thomas, placed seventh in the event.

The Jaguars opened the season with a pair of meets last week, hosting St. Louis Park on Tuesday in Bloomington before heading to the Armstrong Invitational in Robbinsdale on Friday.

The Jefferson boys won the dual against Park 90-40 while the Park girls topped the Jags 70-61.

Boys

Captains for this spring include Forrest Noeske, Ian Klein, Sam Farah, Schiller and Ethan Ishaug.

Noeske is a distance specialist who placed third in the 800-meter run at sections. Klein was second to Lueth in the 3,200 at the conference championships before running a personal-best of 9:55.34 (by 21 seconds) to place ninth at the section meet.

Ishaug is the Swiss Army knife for the Jags as he placed fifth in the 300 hurdles (41.76 in the prelims, 41.97 in the final) and seventh in the pole vault (11-4) at the section meet. He also competed in the 110 hurdles and triple jump.

Junior sprinter Evan Feller will look to build on a fourth place finish in the 100 at the conference championships in 11.81 after posting an 11.62 personal record in the season-opening meet at the Armstrong Invite last April 14. Feller was third in the 200 dash at the conference championships in 23.42 and was 11th at the Section 2AAA finals in 23.18. He turned in a personal record of 23.07 to place second at the Lakeville North Mega Meet on April 29. Feller and classmate Jackson Ocel were half of the Jaguars’ third-place 4x100 relay team at the conference championships in 45 seconds.

Feller anchored Jefferson’s 4x200 relay while Ocel ran the second leg at the section championships which placed eighth in 1:37.23.

At the conference championships, Ocel was 10th in the 100 in 12.09 and 13th in the 200 in 24.26.

Junior Miles Bassett was third at the 3,200 at the conference championship in 10:28.10 after running a personal record of 10:17.79 one week earlier at the Section 3AAA True Team meet where he placed ninth.

Bassett also turned in a personal record in the 1,600 run by more than 9 seconds, finishing eighth at the section meet in 4:40.41.

He also ran the second leg of the 4x800 relay which placed third at the Section 3AAA True Team meet in 8:44.48.

The boys added seniors Danny King and Brandt Schultz to the roster this spring. King is also a standout baseball player but signed to play football at Nebraska.

During Tuesday’s home meet against Park, Schiller swept the two throwing events going 153-3 with the discus and hit a new personal-best in the shot put of 50-5 1/2.

Three Jefferson relays won including the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 to show the depth of the program.

Ishaug won the pole vault going 12-6 while Anders Westanmo was second clearing 10-6.

Junior Thomas Rowland cleared 5-6 to win the high jump.

Ishaug also swept both hurdle events winning the 110 hurdles in 16.88 and 300 hurdles in 43.97.

Eighth grader Jaemon McDonald won the 1,600 run in 5:12.71 and sophomore Thomas Coate won the 800 in 2:37.65.

Junior Evan Feller won the 200 in 23.02 while in the 100m dash sophomore Eli Anderson Jr. and junior Abraham Hughley placed second and third respectively in 12.05 and 12.25.

Girls

A few of the highlights from the season-opener included sophomore Sarah Draxler winning the 400 dash in 1:08.74 while classmates Brooke Paetzel and Payton Lewis won the hurdle events. Paetzel won the 100 hurdles in 17.67 while Lewis won the 300 hurdles in 51.62.

Jefferson swept the top two spots in the 4x100 relays with the group of Alyssa Atkins, Kseniya Medvedovski, Giada Requejo and Alorah Czeskleba edged their teammates Lewis, Serrah Ssemukutu, Campbell Lewis and Kaylynn Barns in 54.10 to 56.12.

The Jags also swept the throwing events with senior Leah Spencer winning the shot put with a 25-4 ahead of teammate Annika Shermak’s runner-up throw of 24-7. In the discus, junior Charlotte Bellmont launched a winning throw of 88-3 while Shermak was runner-up going 73-00 and Spencer was third at 67-3.

Armstrong Invite

Jefferson headed into its first multi-team invite on Friday at Armstrong with the boys garnering third place with 51 points, five points clear of Chanhassen. Osseo was runner-up with 67 points. The Jaguar girls placed eighth with 23 points, finishing three points ahead of Park.

Schiller swept the throws setting a new personal record in the discus of 161-07 while winning the shot put with a throw of 47-8.

Westanmo won the pole vault going 10-6 and King was fourth in the long jump going 19-1.

Feller was second in the 200 dash in 22.64 and senior Ismail Ali was fourth in the 400m dash in 54.22.

Noeske was second in the 800 run in 2:02.52 and junior Miles Bassett was third in the 3,200 run in 9:59.55.

The Jaguar girls earned a first place finish in the 4x800 relay with Athena Award winner Maren Myers running the lead leg before Jamie Drewitz, Vivian Krhin and Megan Schrooten put in a time of 10:31.17.

Schrooten was third in the 400 in 1:02.98.