BROOKINGS — The Brookings track & field teams are off and running already this season as the Bobcats have participated in two indoor meets and one outdoor meet.

Both of the indoor meets were at the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex and their first outdoor meet was in Huron this past Friday.

The Brookings’ boys have seen success in the distance events so far this season as the Bobcats have four runners that have times that rank in the top 10 in their respective events.

Cole Hockett is ranked seventh in the state in the 400 meter run. Jonathan Kahler is ranked second in the 800. Trevin Lounsbury is ranked first in the 1600 and second in the 3200. Ernest Ting is ranked seventh in the 800.

“Our distance crew is really good,” said Brookings head coach Jason Sebern. “Those are just a few of our distance kids, but we have a lot of depth in our distance program and we’re pretty excited about that. Hockett, Kahler, Lounsbury and Ting set the school indoor record in the 4x400 [earlier this season] and if it was an outdoor time it would have been the fastest in the state,” Sebern said.

In the field events Alex Wainman is ranked eighth in the javelin and seventh in the high jump. He set the Brookings indoor high jump record at six feet and two inches. 

On the girls’ side Logan Smidt is a two-time place winner at State in the javelin and this season she is ranked fifth so far. Kendis Sackreiter is ranked second in the shot put. Kennedy Ronning set the indoor school indoor record in the pole vault with a jump of 11 feet, which would also be the outdoor record, and is ranked second in the state. She also set the school indoor record in the 100 meter dash. 

“We’re going to be pretty strong in the field events,” Sebern said. “We have some standout performers. [Sackreiter] has made a really big jump in her sophomore year. She set the record for the indoor shot put and she’s thrown it about the same distance outdoors. We have some standout field athletes on the girls’ side. But we’re also improving in the sprints and distance events. We’re hoping to continue to do that and I think we can be competitive in our sprint relays and hopefully we can put together some good performances in the distance races too.”

Sebern said it was nice to post some of these results in the two indoor meets and first outdoor meet but he knows that the Bobcats will need to continue to improve if they want to see strong performances at the meets that matter the most in May.

“We’re building and trying to take it day by day and have good workouts,” Sebern said. “The workouts early in the season are going to set you up for success in May. We’re just trying to be smart about our workouts, and those prepare the kids and build confidence. We’ve had some good performances so far, but we have a lot of work to do. 

“We have to continue to trust the process and then we’ll get to May and we want to put our kids in the best position to do their best when it really counts. We just need to continue to build and improve and put ourselves in a position to do well at the Howard Wood Relays, the ESD Conference Meet and the State Meet in May. Those are really the only meets that count.”