Sports

Braves eclipse Stars in numbers for 2013

By Tyler Ohmann

04/09/2013

It is unusual start to the track season for the Bottineau Braves and Stars this spring—and in more ways than one.

First, as is often an occurrence in North Dakota, the weather has been uncooperative, which has left the runners, throwers and leapers indoors to start the season.

Second, for the first time in several years the Braves have better numbers than the Stars.
Winter weather continues

With practice areas adrift with snow, the Bottineau track and field team has had to focus their training efforts for the 2013 season on mostly indoor activities.

“For the most part we’ve been inside, just recently we’ve tried to get outside to do a little bit of running work,” said Bottineau head coach David Hoff. “Our parking lot and a few of the streets have dried off and they’re not crusty with ice anymore, so we’re trying to get these kids 20, 30 minute workouts outside.”

Hoff thinks that the biggest hit for Bottineau will come from lack of quality practice.

“I don’t know that our meets are going to start any later, because it’s hit or miss whether you get the meets in anyway,” Hoff said. “But where we’re going to get hurt is our practice days, because there is two feet of snow on our practice area.”

“We could be the end of April and we’ll only have a couple of quality practices, and I think that’s going to be the biggest thing is finding ways to get some practice in,” Hoff added.

Senior Trevor Wettlaufer doesn’t believe that it will be much of a hindrance.

“Everybody has to deal with this crappy weather outside, and we just have to work around that,” Wettlaufer said. “We’ve all been dealing with the same stuff around here, so everybody should be on a fairly even playing field.”

Junior Rachael Fix has been pining for better weather for weeks now. Every time the sun comes out she gets excited.

“It’s so hard because you look out and think, ‘oh, maybe,’ but our throwing field is covered in snow, so we’re just hoping that the snow melts soon,” Fix said. “But then you grab your towel and throw and then go and dig for it in the mud.”

For now though Fix and the rest of Bottineau’s throwers have to do what limited things they can inside.

“We’ve been throwing in the gym with the indoor discs, but javelin is impossible, and we’ve been doing footwork a lot,” Fix said. “We haven’t really gotten to throw a lot yet.”

Hoff said that the biggest thing to practicing indoors is to refrain from practices getting stagnant.

“We’ve tried to mix it up, because when you have an idea that you’re going to get stuck inside longer than you’d like to I don’t think you can beat your head against the wall,” Hoff said. “You have to be a little bit creative and have a little fun, and we’re trying to mix that in as we go, because we could still be inside for a long time yet.”

Braves boys eye better finishes at state

Another unusual occurrence in Bottineau track this spring is the jump in numbers for the male competitors. In fact, the boys outnumber the girls, something that hasn’t happened in many years.

“There are definitely a lot more, we only had 10 boys runners last year,” Wettlaufer said of the Braves’ numbers. “For the first year in however many years we have more guys than girls, so that’s a big improvement.”

Hoff thinks that the added depth will only help the Braves succeed this year.

“On the boys side the numbers are really good, the quality is good and we’ve got a lot of boys back,” Hoff said. “It seems like on the boys side we just keep getting deeper and deeper.”

The Braves return all three of their state-qualifying relay teams—the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400, who all narrowly missed the podium at last season’s state meet in Bismarck. They also return two-time pole vault champion in junior Harrison Aide.

“We really like that, and we bring those guys back and we have some other guys that are really going to add some depth as well,” Hoff said. “You’ve gotten Harrison (Aide) who’s a state champion and Trevor Wettlaufer, who placed sixth in the 400 and we had relay teams that finished ninth, 10th and 11th, so we just look to take that a step further.”

Wettlaufer hopes not only to further his individual performances, but the relay teams’ as well. He think that they should have a good shot at first qualifying and then doing well at state.

“We’re expecting big things,” Wettlaufer said. “We’re expecting the same things as last year, but we want to get better. We should be top two in the region and we just have to work hard.”

Members on the relay teams include: Aide, Wetllaufer, fellow senior Alberto Moncera and juniors Cody Beaver and Ethan Kerslake.

Senior Owen Furby also joins as a thrower with experience after he moved to Bottineau from Nebraska.

Stars’ numbers down

After a strong and numerous senior class graduated last spring, the Bottineau Stars will have to compete with little depth in 2013.

“On the girls side we have real good quality, we just don’t have the depth like we normally have,” Hoff said.

Bottineau lost several seniors including Whitney Page, who finished second in long jump at state in 2013, as well as seventh in pole vault and was a pivotal member of all three relay teams.

The relay teams also lose anchor Ashleigh Aufforth.

However, it is the throwers that lose the most from last years seniors as they lost three senior girls in Trista Bjerk, Heidi Artz and Laura Tonneson from their squad.

“Losing the senior class of girls, and not having them there is still an empty gap that we need to fill with some of the younger girls coming up,” Fix said. “It’s way different, but I’m sure it can still be an awesome year.”

Fix said that the returners are working on their forms and hope to be a force this season.

“We lost a lot of seniors last year, so it’s going to be working to get our forms down,” Fix said. “I think it will go well.”

Hoff believes that too, and he really has faith in the relay teams.

“Yeah, we lose some girls, but I think our relays will still be solid, and there is good quality there, but just not the depth that we’ve been accustomed to,” Hoff said.

Whatever the case may be for both squads, one thing is for certain. They won’t be practicing outside much for awhile.