On Tuesday, March 15, the Atlantic Trojan Boys’ traveled to an invitational meet at Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. Although no team totals were tallied, Coach Alan Jenkins was pleased with his team’s competitiveness.

The Trojans had 12 athletes attend the meet and 11 of those competed in at least two events. The first race that the Trojans were in was the 60-meter dash. Brendan Holmes placed 52nd and David Thomsen placed 63rd out of 140 runners.

Jaxson Eden competed in the 1600 meter run and got 29th of 117 and ran an 4:55, 15 seconds better than his last year time at an indoor meet to start out the year. Phoenix Shadden also placed top 25 in the 3200 and running a time of 10:41.18. Ryan Hawkins placed 27th in the 96-man field.

The 4×100 relay tried to put together a team to qualify for Drake in the first indoor meet, comprised of Gratt Reed, David Thomsen, Drake Roller and Brendan Holmes. They ran a 45.92, good enough for 19th place, and possibly a trip to the blue oval.  

To end the night the Trojans ran statistically what might be their strongest relay event of the year, the 4×400.  Thomsen, Reed, Holmes and freshman Chase Mullenix ran a time of 3:38.91 placing 14th. Thomsen and Mullenix were newcomers to this relay.

Jenkins thought the boys ran very well and said he was impressed with how they ran for the the first indoor meet of the year. “We performed quite well and were mostly beaten by 4A teams.  Once we get in better shape, our times and distances should improve drastically.”

The next indoor meet will be Friday, March 18, at Central College in Pella, Iowa.