As the spring sports season begins, Lewis Cass Boys’ Track athletes are putting their all into practices, preparing for the upcoming season. Last year, the team had an outstanding season and won the Cass County meet. With new faces replacing the old, will this team be able to perform a repeat of last year’s success? Let us dive into the mind of the boys’ head track coach, Matt Benner, as he shared his input on the performance and goals of this year’s team.
So far, the boys have had an interesting start to the season. Coach Benner explained, “We had a lot of high expectations for this season, but injuries and other complications have caused a few bumps in the road. Almost half of this team was not on the varsity team last year, so we have a lot of new faces, but they have a lot of talent to work with, so we will get better as we go throughout the season. The beginning of this season may be filled with a lot of learning lessons, but they should be able to finish the season strong.” Their goal is to keep improving and become better than they were at the start of the season. Additionally, Coach Benner hopes to be county champs once again, especially since no boys team at Lewis Cass has won the county meet three consecutive years. Coach Benner also mentioned, “We would like to finish in the top 5 at both the conference and sectional meets.”
When asked who some standout athletes are in events and performances so far, Coach Benner responded, “Colton Copeland has been strong as anchor for both the 3200 Relay and the 1600 Relay and keeps inching closer and closer to the school record in the 300 hurdles. Jaden Figueredo has been leading the way in the short sprints, while Jayden Ramer has been strong in the 400. Copeland’s cross country teammates and fellow cross country regional qualifiers, Ben Jay, Kaiden Hughes, and Sam Vandeburg, have had some success in the distance races. Julian Levine has been nursing an injury, but once he gets to full strength, I expect that he will be dominant in the jumps.”
Julian Levine, a senior runner and jumper at Lewis Cass, has recently pulled his hamstring, preventing him from performing his best in both running and field events. When asked how the injury affected his performance, Julian said, “It affected my performance in many ways, but I haven’t jumped as high in high jump because of not being able to sprint, which leads into not being able to run or long jump.” A big challenge this season for Julian is recovering from his injury, as he is looking forward to Big Orange and hopes to be fully recovered to perform well.
Kaiden Hughes, a senior at Lewis Cass, holds an important role as the fastest distance runner on the boys’ team and continuously earns points in distance events. With great success so far, Kaiden expects to get through the season injury-free, have a good time, and enjoy his last year. Facing plenty of competition in his events, Kaiden specifically hopes to not lose to a Logansport runner, who also happens to play soccer, in the 3200. In addition to working on himself, Kaiden mentioned, “I would also like to help Sam Vandeburg run faster times in the 1600 and 3200, so he can go on and get faster for his three years to come, as well as prepare him for his upcoming cross country season.”
Being a senior involved with the boys’ track team throughout his whole high school career, Kaiden was asked what his favorite track memory was; in which, he responded, “My favorite track memory has to be freshman year because we had a lot of great athletes on the team, and we were just super well-rounded. I really enjoyed running distance that year because it seemed like there wasn’t any pressure on me to do super well since we had a lot of seniors who were faster than me. I really enjoyed the conference that year in West Lafayette before we switched.” As a senior runner myself, I also enjoyed running in the conference before we switched and hope to complete this season with a well-rounded team. Among all the memories he made, Kaiden pointed out, “One memory in particular was freshman year at practice. Coach had sent us out on an easy, longer run, and we had all decided to go to the Freeze in the middle of the run. So we all had our ice cream while we were running, and I wasn’t paying attention. I tripped, fell, and dropped my ice cream, which skinned up my knee. However, in general, I would say my favorite memory is not so much the memory but the people that were around at the time, such as Felix, Braxton, Enoch, Nunez, and Kale.”
The Lewis Cass Boys’ Track team has a difficult road ahead, but continues to work hard in practices and meets for another outstanding season. Go support them, as well as the girls’ track team, at their next meet this Saturday at the Big Orange Invitational. Field events start at 10:00 A.M., and running events start shortly after. Good luck!
