The Bluejays boys jumped into a different level of competition last Tuesday when they faced the assembled Valley in the indoor conference meet.
They were unable to crack the top spot in any event, but worked several top finishes.
“We had great performances along with improvements as a team,” MHS coach Kurt VandenHeuvel said. “Guys performed hard and there is no doubt all was left on the track. With that said we did find weaknesses and we need to make corrections on the small things, like handoffs, finishing jumps, better form out of blocks.
“If we take care of the little things, it will put this team in a position to see greater strides than (Tuesday) night showed.”
SPASH won the meet going away with 199 points, while D.C. Everest and Marshfield tied for second (108.5). Wausau West (82) tipped Merrill (72) for fourth, and Wis. Rapids (31) and Wausau East (16) brought up the rear.
Kriss Philipp tied his indoor 55M record with a runner-up :06.65 after posting the best qualifying time of :06.68. He was edged out of the win by 3/100ths of a second.
Philipp anchored the 2nd-place 800M team with Lucas Lee, Tyler Butle and Jake Anderson (1:38.55).
The 1600M squad of Dalton Wilding, Lee, James Nohr and Bryce Litschauer also ran second, in 3:41.33.
Eric Ball tied an indoor personal best with a 12′ 6″ pole vault to rank 3rd. Philipp ran 3rd in the 200M in :23.54, just .21 out of 2nd.
In the 800M, Litschauer (4th, 2:06.96) was edged out of 2nd by a half-second.
The 3200M team of Theorin, Michael Seaman, Jacob Jensen and Wilding ranked 4th in 8:52.93.
In the triple jump, Brandon Bartz (38′ 8.5″/40′ 1.5″), Anderson (38′ 10.5″/39′ 2.5″) and Jake Nohr (37′ 6″/38′ 1″) pulled 5th, 7th and 8th placings.
Ethan Schneider rated 5th in the 200 hurdles (:27.55) and 7th in both the prelims and finals (:08.69/:08.64) in the 55M HH. Dan Blakeslee ended up 5th in the high jump (5′ 10″). In the shot put, Tyler Schmidt qualified 3rd and placed 6th (46′ 11″), while Cole Rajek was ninth in both (41′ 3″/42′ 9.5″). In the long jump, Anderson (18′ 10.5″) and Nick Peterson (18′ 8.75″) scored 7th-8th.
Other high finishes included: Butler (9th, 55M, :06.97); Andrew Seaman (10th, 1600M, 5:04.68); and Paul Theorin (800, 12th, 2:14.38).