The Homer High School Track and Field teams finished strong during the Borough Championships this past Saturday, placing third overall.  

“We concentrated on everybody’s better events or events they needed to get a qualifying regional time in,” said Head Coach Bill Steyer.  “They all ran terrific. It’s exciting across the board.”  

Although Steyer is pleased with all the athletes’ performances as of late, he is especially excited about the boys’ team performances.  

“Our boys’ team is significantly better than it ever has been,” said Steyer. “We have a greater number of boys coming out for the team that are also really committed and working hard.”  

The commitment showed last weekend, with several of the boys running personal bests and dropping a significant amount of time from previous events.  

Jake Richter won the 100-meter dash with a best time of 11.85a.  John Shank also did well in this event, placing fourth with a time of 12.07a, with Teddy Croft and Jarrett Richburg placing sixth and seventh, respectively, out of 25 athletes.  

During the 1600-meter run, Denver Waclawski had a personal best time of 4:55.50.  Jacob Davis also showed well during this event, dropping ten seconds from his previous best time with a run in 5:08.26.  

The triple jump also turned out to be a good event for the Homer team, with John Shank and Teddy Croft jumping personal bests at 38-09.50 and 38-00.25 respectively.  

The girls’ team had several wins during the day, including placing first in the 4X200 meter relay, and Lauren Evarts winning the 300-meter hurdles event with a time of 50.60a.  

Other notable achievements from the girls’ team include Aurora Waclawski, Crystal Crane, Sarah Wolf and Ziza Shemet Pitcher all placing in the top eight during the 400-meter event.  

Audrey Rosencranz ran a personal best in the 3200-meter with a time of 12:16.06a.  Alex Mosley came close behind her with a personal best time in the same event of 12:45.10a.  

With regionals coming up this weekend, Steyer is optimistic about both teams’ prospects.  

“Oh, I think we will easily have 25-30 athletes that will go to regionals — either in one or more individual events, or relays,” says Steyer.  Regionals will be Friday and Saturday in Kenai.  

During regionals, athletes will compete for spots in the state championships.  

“I’m hoping we can get 15-20 people to go to state — equal numbers on the boys and girls, but they will have to have their best performances ever to make it happen,”  said Steyer. 

State Championships will be held May 29-30 at Dimond High School in Anchorage.  

Aryn Young is a freelance writer for the Homer News.