The ADM track teams competed in the Hugh Norman Coed Relays Tuesday on their home track in Adel, and it’s safe to say… things went well.
The ADM girls took home first place out of five competing varsity teams by racking up 189 total points, and while head coach Bart Mueller says he’s pleased with how his girls performed, he seems plenty of room for improvement.
“It is always exciting to get a team win and we won in pretty easy fashion. It wasn’t the toughest competition that we’ll see this season, but we’re happy. We scored 189 points, Carlisle was second with 145 and then Winterset with 94. But we left at least 20 points on the table–had a DQ in our sprint medley relay that we would have won, and then our shuttle hurdle team was leading but we had a girl hit the hurdle really hard which kind of ended that race, so we even lost some points (there).”
Coach Mueller says he does take one big thing away from Tuesday’s meet–his girls have the ability to more than just handle back-to-back meets… they can perform even when there isn’t a full lineup.
“I’ve been very happy. A lot of the girls did not run both days so that helped some. I had a lot of the varsity girls just run one event Monday night, so that is another way we compensated for the (back-to-back). But I think the girls that did go both nights held up, gave it their best and really performed well.”
The ADM girls team is faced with yet another back-to-back beginning tonight. The Tigers are in Waukee tonight and at Ballard tomorrow. Mueller says he’ll be expecting continued improvement and great performances.
As for the ADM boys track team, head coach Mike Whisner’s squad reeled in a second place finish at Tuesday’s Hugh Norman Coed Relays, with the host Tigers trailing only Norwalk in the meet standings. ADM had 95 points to Norwalk’s 98, and while that isn’t a win, Whisner says it was to be part of a compelling competition.
“(You) always want to win, but… I set it up to just see a lot of different kids run and that is just sometimes how it works out–you’re in the meet and you hadn’t even planned on trying to win it, you were just trying to see kids run. So, it is interesting to see how that is, and you know now of course, the kids are going,’ ohh, if I had just done a little better here and there’, and that is what you want. We’ll improve next time.”
While he knows he can get more out of his guys, Whisner says he’s encouraged by how his athletes are performing. Thus, he gives his overall assessment of Tuesday’s meet.
“There weren’t any PRs, but for the first meet outdoors if you look back and compare times, times are ahead of where they were last year, so that is something we look at. This time of the year I think out times are fairly positive.”
And the ADM boys hope to build on that positivity tonight, when Coach Whisner’s bunch competes in Nevada.
To see full results from the Hugh Norman Coed Relays for the ADM boys and girls, visit the sports tab on our website at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.