BENTONVILLE — One thing track and field coaches have in their favor is they can take what their teams did during the indoor season and use it toward the outdoor campaign.
“We learned a lot during the indoor season,” Bentonville boys coach Mike Power said. “We’re able to learn a lot about the athletes and how training went, and we picked up great feedback. It’s defi - nitely a springboard to the outdoor season.”
Bentonville’s girls will head into the outdoor season with some momentum on their side after winning the state Class 5A-7A Indoor Meet last weekend in Fayetteville. Lady Tigers coach Randy Ramaker realizes teams aren’t full strength during indoor meets.
“It’s not a true indicator because you have kids doing different things,” Ramaker said. “What I look for during indoor meets is seeing athletes do some diff erent events, and I saw some good things.
“What it confirmed was that we can be strong in the middle distanceevents and the jumps. We also have some decent athletes in other events, and we have the chance to be a decent all-around team.”
Junior Kelsey Wheelhouse, the defending 800-meter champion, heads Bentonville’s healthy group of middle distance runners. Madison Morton won the 400 in the state indoor meet, while Ramaker can also choose from the likes of Taylor Estrade, Morgan Morton, Lauren Addison, Lauren Cowgur in the 400 to 1,600 range.
“The good thing about this group is that they can train both ways,” Ramaker said. “That’s going to help us fill a lot of events, and it’s in this range where we will get the meat our points.”
Madison Morton won the 400 in the state indoor meet and can be joined in that event by Asia Patterson and Morgan Spychalski. Brittani Reagan will help the Lady Tigers in jumps, where she fi nished second in two events last weekend, while Michelle Biittner is expected to produce in the throws.
On the boys side, Bentonville fields a young team this season, and some of those younger athletes are expected to assume leadership roles on the team.
“We will have a young, developing team,” Power said. “We have a lot of juniors on this year’s teamthat are taking over for last year’s seniors. We will have more developing to do during the outdoor season.”
DeMarcus Murphy and Desmond Smith will be some of Bentonville’s strong points in the jumps and sprints, respectively. Power is also impressed with a group of distance runners led by defending state 3,200 champion Will Aenchbacher, Travis Diepenbrockand Michael Haynie.
“DeMarcus and Desmond are great leaders on the team, and we have a great group of guys in our distance runners,” Power said. “But there are other areas we need to work on. We just need the right kids in those spots and train well.”
The most glaring of those weaknesses is in the throws, but senior Marcus Danenhauer is trying to fill that void. Danenhauer has the strength, but needs to work on his technique.
News, Pages 8 on 02/27/2011