South Haven News

By Carley Russell

The South Sumner Junior High track team went to Caldwell on May 1 to compete in their track meet. Three South Haven athletes placed especially well, including Landon Goeckel, who placed first in the 800 meter run, Carlee Heater, who placed first in the 3200 meter run, and Natalie Betzen, who placed first in triple jump. The seventh grade boys also placed first at the meet with a team score of 113 points.

Some other stand-out performances from South Haven include Will Nixon, who placed third in 800 meter run and long jump, Makenzie Trillo, who placed third in 3200 meter run, Xava Wiens, who placed third in the 75 meter hurdles, Carson Goeckel, who placed second in triple jump, Jett Bohannon, who also placed second in triple jump, and Brodie Kelly, who placed third in discus.

The seventh grade girls in the 4×400 meter relay (Natalie Bezten, Elise Hollis, Maddy Reed, Josie Turek) placed third. The eighth grade girls in the 4×400 meter relay (Xava Wiens, Rory Strecansky, Carlee Heater, Mackenzie Trillo) placed second, and this same group of girls placed third in the 4×200 meter relay. The seventh grade boys in the 4×200 meter relay (Jude Zavala, Ty Stevenson, Carson Lucas, Jace Freimyer) placed third. Another group of seventh grade boys (Carson Goeckel, Will Nixon, Tyler Addis, Connor Nettrouer) placed second in the 4×400 meter dash. The eighth grade boys in the 4×400 meter relay (Landon Geockel, Jett Bohannon, Raidon Doty, Gabe Crampton) placed third.

During this meet, one of the kids on the team broke a meet record, by running the 3200 meter run in a time of 11 minutes and 51 seconds. This kid is Tyler Addis, a seventh grader from Caldwell middle school. “Seeing Tyler’s face light up when he ran that and they announced his time over the speaker was definitely a highlight of the meet,” assistant coach Jonathan Pettyjohn said.

“The teams did really well. We had some stand-out performances, and some awesome PRs, but I think there’s just something about having a home meet that lets everyone have fun,” Pettyjohn said. “High school got to help out and cheer on the junior high kids, and the junior high kids got to have a great meet. Overall, I don’t think you can ask for a better meet.”

“There was a group of middle school kids wrestling each other, and a kid started throwing hands,” said Makenzie Callison. “While walking back to the junior high camp, I saw a group of middle school boys laughing coming out of the bathroom. Later I found out there was doo doo on the floor. The Caldwell kids, helping with the track meet, have to shut the bathroom down for the rest of the meet.”