DASH High School Track 2022 Milwaukee Lutheran Meet Report

April 23, 2022 in Track

Hello DASH families,

The 2022 DASH high school team finally got a chance to compete last Thursday at Milwaukee Lutheran High School. The cold, rainy spring weather has forced many meets to be cancelled this season, but Thursday turned out to be the ideal day to race this week. The team took advantage of it and even rewrote the DASH record books a little before they were done.

Field events started at 4:00 PM. In discus, Grace Caspers had a personal best 64′ throw to lead our girls and place 6th. Emily Janes also had a pr. Noble Holmes place 3rd with his usual 98′ effort. Andy Forget and Alex Taylor both went past the 70′ mark. Very nice. In shot put, Gianna Bennedict led our girls with a 17’10.75 effort. In long jump, Natalie Radtke went past the 12′ mark. Isabel McDevitt made it to 11’8″, and Elise Husz was marked at 10’9.5″. Noble Holmes took 2nd with his impressive 18’11.5 leap, Jack Murray had a big pr of 17’6″ to claim 5th, and Luke Buck also pr’d with a 15’11”. And that was into a strong headwind. In triple jump, Julianna Caspers was 7th with a 24’8″. Micah Chan took 6th with a pr of 34’10”, and Nathanael Krug took top honors with his 37’7″ in just his first effort at triple jump. Not only did Nathanael win the meet, but he also broke the DASH record. So good.

The running events started at 5 PM with the 4×800. Josephine Wichgers, Angela Walters, Emily Janes, and Grace Caspers were in a battle with the home team and settled for 2nd with a 13:11. Our very strong boys team won by won by over 30 seconds with a 9:37. Good job Micah Chan, Luke Buck, Leif Kostrzewa, and Alexander Taylor. Elise Husz held up well in the 100 hurdles to take 7th. Noble Holmes was pushed and knocked the last hurdle down, but recovered well and came through with a big win. His 16.90 lowered his own DASH record. Nathanael Krug claimed 3rd with a pr of 18.01, and Andy Forget gave us three of the top six with his 20.17. Don’t miss these guys in the meets ahead. In the 100 meters, Isabel McDevitt impressed with her 14.63. Natalie Radtke also broke 15 seconds. Ben Bojar and Jack Murray went 1-2 in the final 100 heat. And they did it twice because of a timing issue. Ben’s 12.2 and Jack’s 12.7 are really good early season times. Tim Abt clocked in at 13.5. Our girl distance runners went 1-2-3 in the 1600. Terez Wycklendt got the win with a 5:58. Julianna Caspers got a pr of 6:17, and Marbella Mendez did a 6:57 after falling and scraping both knees. Ouch. Our boys went 2-3-4. Matthew Schaber got a pr of 5:12, and Abiah Radtke edged Nathanael Chu at the line with a 5:27. Our girls 4×200 team held on for 2nd in a close battle. Kudos to Elise Husz, Grace Caspers, Natalie Radtke, and Isabel McDevitt. Our boys, Isaac Johnson, Tilo Cavaiani, Nathanael Krug, and Ben Bojar, held on for 4th with a nice 1:47 time. In the 400, Mary McDevitt got the DASH fans excited with her 2nd place 1:11. Josephine Wichgers took 6th with a 1:16, and Gianna Bennedict placed 12th with a 1:44. For the boys, Nathan Bourne took 12th with a 1:11, Caleb Bunke was 9th with a 1:05, and Aizak Schoeder did a 56 flat without being pushed to give us another win. Our girls 4×100 team posted the 5th fastest time in DASH history with a 58.3. Elise Husz, Natalie Radtke, Isabel McDevitt, and Terez Wycklendt got the baton around the track very fast. Our boys 4×100 team of Tim Abt, Noble Holmes, Jack Murray, and Ben Bojar lowered the DASH record to 48.00. I was hoping they would do that. In the 300 hurdles, Nathanael Krug got a big pr of 48.3 to place 4th. Andy Forget ran in the heat before Nathanael and won it easily. Later the announcer called out Andy’s name for 2nd place. Then after the meet we found out Andy’s 48.0 was a DASH record! And it was literally his first time at the event. He has only practiced 110 hurdles. Amazing! Our girls distance runners went 1-2-3 again in the 800. Julianna Caspers got another pr with a 2:47. Angela Walters shadowed Julianna and lowered her pr by 14 seconds with a 2:53, and Grace Caspers moved up to 3rd late to post a 3:03. Leif Kostrzewa and Micah Chan went to the front early and battled each other the rest of the way. Leif was first to cross with a fast 2:15. Micah followed with a 2:18 for 2nd, and Alex Taylor placed 5th with a 2:24. In the 200, Mary McDevitt claimed 7th with a nice 31.7. Elise Husz was 10th with a 33.2. Tilo Cavaiani showed us some speed with a 26.9 to place 10th. Isaac Johnson was 12th with a 27.8, and Caleb Bunke finished in 28.7. Our girls went 1-2-3 again in the 3200. Terez Wycklendt kept up with the boys for a while, but then coasted to a 13:39 win. Marbella Mendez did a nice 14:40 for 2nd, and Emily Janes did 19:00 for 3rd. Matthew Schaber came through with a win and a pr of 11:36, and Abiah Radtke took 3rd with an 11:57. It was after 9 PM when the 4×400 finally started. Josephine Wichgers, Mary McDevitt, Angela Walters, and Julianna Caspers placed a close 2nd with a 5:04. Micah Chan, Nathan Bourne, Nathanael Chu, and Aizak Schoeder did a mile in 4:09 for 3rd. The long day of racing was complete. In the team scores the boys were the big winners. Our girls were 2nd by just 4 points. A very memorable day indeed.

There was a lot of work going on behind the scenes. We had long jump duties. Thanks to Coach Beck for taking on that job. He had help from Mrs. Beck, Mrs. Mendez, Mr. and Mrs. Radtke, and some of the middle schoolers. Thank you all. Thanks to Milwaukee Lutheran for inviting us again this year. Thanks to all the DASH fans for coming and cheering on this exciting team. And thanks to Jenna Walters for taking the photos. Unfortunately the camera only made it through the 4×200 because of battery issues so much was missed. We will try to get more next week at Kettle Moraine Lutheran. I hope to see you there.

Take care,
Jim Caspers