By Jack Vater

Ian Koss, Charlie Vater, and Jenson Rice of the Iola-Scandinavia High School track team competed at the Wisconsin State Indoor Track & Field Championships, held Saturday, April 8th, 2023, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Results

Jensen Rice, a freshman, competed in the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries and finished with a time of 8.95 seconds, a personal record (PR).  With this time he advanced to the semi-finals where he ran a time of 8.68 seconds, again setting a new PR.  Rice did not advance to the finals.  “I ran at Oshkosh, and one at Stevens Point, so I had a little bit of experience.” said Rice about competing indoors. “I hit prelims in Oshkosh my first meet at 8.96… 8.68, that’s a huge PR.”  Coach Tessa Thurs said, “Jensen ran a great couple of races today, he is improving, had a great PR, and I’m excited to see where the rest of the season goes.”

Senior Ian Koss competed in both the long and triple jump. Koss finished in 28th place with a long jump of nineteen feet seven and a half inches.  He finished in 10th place with a triple jump of forty-one feet seven and a quarter inches. “The experience was a great way to get a base down and to kind of get a feel for what I need to work on,” said Koss.  “I was only about a quarter inch away from qualifying for the finals in the triple jump.”  Coach Pete Bowen was pleased with their showing.  “We showed that we belonged here.  We just missed out on the finals in the jumps and triple jumps.  We weren’t too far [off] in the long jump.  It’s good to compete with the best.”

Charlie Vater, a junior, ran both the 1600- and 800-meter races. Vater took the runner-up position in the 1600 with a time of 4:20.63, a PR.  Vater struggled for position on the indoor track and ran much of the race in the second lane. “The environment at indoor state is very competitive. My goal was to win, but I can’t complain with the result.” said Vater.  “I had a lot of fun racing people I don’t normally compete against.”  Vater finished 9th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:02.91, also a PR. 

When asked about the distance events Coach Hoffman said, “This meet is a great opportunity to have Charlie compete against the best in the state, across all three divisions, and he definitely held his own and shows that he can compete with anyone on this level.  I am really proud of how he ran and excited to see where the rest of the season takes him.”