Search
Otter Tail Central Track and Field Team is gearing up for the upcoming season, which kicked off at the NDSU Indoor Thundering Herd Classic on Saturday April 1st. Head Coaches Brian Hovland and Brady Speicher will be assisted by Eric Olson, Naomi Horn, and Joe DeMars. This year's roster has 46 athletes 9-12 and 35 athletes in 7th and 8th grade making it the biggest team in recent memory.
The Bulldogs are coming off a successful year in which they saw Grace VanErp, who now competes at NDSU, win the Class A triple jump. Ally Hart (High Jump, Hurdles, 4x200 Relay), a senior on this year's team, qualified for the state meet. OTC had 9 section podium finishers, 5 conference champions, 15 all-conference performances and 3 school records broken in the 2022 season. The girls took second in the Park Region conference and the boys were 6th last year.
Erika Heibel (200, Long Jump, 4x200 Relay), Belle Bormann (200, Hurdles, Long Jump, Triple Jump), Kinley Bormann (Triple Jump, 400,4x200 Relay), Bella Olson (200, Hurdles), Norah Froslee (3200, 1600), Clara Mark (Sprints, 4x200 Relay), Cadence Call (Sprints, Triple Jump), Myeiesha Antoni (Long Jump, High Jump, 400) and Allie George (Sprints) will join Hart to form a solid roster for the girls.
The boys’ will be led by Jonas Hagemeister (800, 1600, Pole Vault, 4x400 Relay), Kale Rich (Shot Put, Discus), Peter Newark (1600, 3200, 4x400 Relay), Declan Nelson (Sprints, Long Jump), Caden Meek (200, 400, 4x200 Relay), Max Mekalson (4x200 Relay, Long Jump), William Schwartz (200, 400, 4x200, Long Jump), Emil Herrling (Sprints, Long Jump), Aidan Heggem (Triple Jump, 4x400 Relay, 800) and Brock Resch (High Jump, 4x200 Relay). Other Throwers include Victor Johnson, Gibson Fleischauer and Nate Russ. Cayden Dittberner will participate in the pole vault, Matt Brandborg in the Triple Jump and Quinn Condiff and Gabe Lindstrom in the High Jump.
The team’s success this year will hinge on the contributions of both returning veterans and promising newcomers. “We have over 50 kids who are in either their first or second year of being in track and field, and as coaches we expect to see a lot of growth happening this year.” Coach Speicher commented, “We are going to rely on our upperclassmen to show these newcomers the ropes on what it takes to be successful. I expect both teams to compete at the top of our conference and bring home some hardware at the conference, section and state levels.”