ShawneeDispatch.com

The Shawnee Mission Northwest boys were almost unbeatable on the track Friday at the Topeka Seaman Invitational.

The Northwest boys used speed and endurance to rack up 84 points on the heels of their running shoes. That total earned the team third place out of 18 schools at the meet and appears to show the Northwest runners peaking at just the right time.

"It's almost always very competitive," Northwest head coach Mike Cooper said of the Seaman meet. "There were 18 good teams. It was 35-40 mile-an-hour wind gusts from the north and it was freezing. Yet when the sun went down, the wind stopped and I thought that helped our performance along the way."

The Cougars leaders included Alex Reynolds, with a first place in the 400 (49.86), Kyle Schlicht, first in the 3,200 (9:49.28), and the 1,600 relay team of Nick Kolega, Jared Ellsworth, Alex Reed, and Reynolds, first with a 3:28.9 mark. Junior Evan Mesh placed second in the high hurdles with a time of 14.81.

Unfortunately, the Cougars earned no points in the field events, keeping them from an even higher finish.

The Cougar girls finished fifth out of 18 behind the superlative performance of sophomore discus thrower Erica Brand who, again, broke her school record in the discus with a mark of 134 feet, 9 inches. In addition, senior pole vaulter Kristen Botteron continued her strong season with a second-place finish. Distance runners Lisa Imgrund and Christine Nelson each earned third-place medals with their performances in the 1,600 and 800, respectively.

The Cougars have one regular-season meet left. They will travel to Shawnee Mission North for the North Relays beginning at 3 p.m. Friday.

The always eagerly anticipated event marks a significant point in the season for Cooper and his coaches the time to start tapering down and saving their runners' legs for league, regionals, and state in early to mid-May.

"We're still in a three meets a week mode," Cooper said, "but last week was the peak as far as the volume of work. This week will be the beginning of 'the less.'"

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