by Gunnar Davis

With the district meet looming in the near future, the PCM boys’ track team knew they needed to get some work done at their meets at BGM, Brooklyn on April 19 and CMB, Baxter on April 21. The Mustangs ended up doing well at both meets, setting personal bests and earning many top three finishes.
At BGM, the Mustangs placed fifth out of eight teams with 70 points and posted eight top-three finishes, including two gold medals. Senior Austin Sneller won the 110 meter high hurdles with a time of 16.14 seconds, and junior Chris Ellens won the 3200-meter run in 10:30.14. Ellens also placed second in the 1600, running a 4:56.62. Junior Noah Clark rounded out the individual medal winners, placing third in the discus with a throw of 144 feet, 11 inches.
PCM placed third in four different relays: The 4×200, 4×400, 4×800 and the distance medley. The 4×200 team, consisting of senior Tyler Dredge, junior Luke Greiner and freshmen Brayton Van Dyke and Preston Van Wyk, ran a time of 1:38.44. The 4×400 team of Dredge, Van Dyke, Van Wyk and freshman Wes Cummings ran a 3:50.50. The 4×800 team of junior Noah Henkenius, sophomore Blake Lee, North and Cummings ran a 9:10.33, and the distance medley team of Dredge, North, Van Dyke and junior Noah Henkenius ran a 4:01.62.
At CMB, the Mustangs placed third out of four teams and again recorded a plethora of personal bests and top-three finishes. Ellens again won the 3200 with a time of 10:39.10, and he also was a part of a distance medley relay team that took home gold with a time of 3:58.06. Senior Gunnar Davis was the only other first-place finish. Davis threw a personal best 45-3 in the shot put.
Junior Leevi Telfer placed third in the shot put with his personal best throw of 43-10, and Clark placed second in the discus with a 137-6. Greiner rounded out the field events, placing second in the long jump with a leap of 19-0 1/2.
Sneller placed second in the 110 highs, running a personal best 16.04. Senior Davis Herndon placed third in the 100-meter dash, running a 12.39.
Dredge, Herndon, Greiner and Van Wyk were all a part of two second-place finishes in the 4×100 and 4×200. The 4×100 team ran a 46.58, and the 4×200 team ran a 1:37.73. The 4×400 team of Dredge, Cummings, Van Dyke and Van Wyk placed second as well with their time of 3:51.62.
“There have been major improvements since the start of the season,” Sneller said. “We improver our times in almost every meet. Our team’s goals are to hopefully send three or four events to State.”
The Mustangs’ next meet as of press time is their home meet today, April 28. Field events start at 4:30 p.m, and running events start at 5 p.m.