New Richmond – The Wyoming East track team hopes that it isn’t a rebuilding year, more of a reloading year.
The Warriors certainly have the athletes on staff to make it a successful campaign.
In the program’s first year under Kerri Lookabill, the goal is to build upon last year’s campaign that saw three different relay teams qualify for the state tournament and an individual, Layla Stover, nearly qualify for the state for 100-meter dash after winning the regional.
Though it’s her first year, Lookabill isn’t new to the track scene.
Her daughter Colleen is a standout cross country runner that ran on all three of last year’s relay teams. She’s dabbled in the sport before, coaching track in the 1990s during a stint in Virginia, making her a fit for the position.
“There was a position to be filled and I was the logical choice to fill it,” Lookabill said. “Since I had a child on the team it was just a good fit and the kids wanted me to take the position as well.”
Through her daughter, Lookabill has become familiar with many of the kids she’s coaching and it has helped build a network to fill out her roster. Many of the names on the roster – Colleen Lookabill, Jackson Danielson, Abby Russell, Cadee Blackburn and Laken Toler – are amongst the multiport athletes that will be competing for the Warriors this year.
Factor in twins Noah and Elijah Cameron and it’s given the coach not just an athletic group to work with, but a cohesive one as well.
“I think the kids, where they play in other sports they form bonds with those kids,” Lookabill said. “When a few decide they want to run track then the others decide they want to run also to still hang out with them and be a part of a group with them and just finish out the year strong with something to do after school.”
With an athletic group that has some experience on the state’s biggest stage, Lookabill is already setting goals for her group.
“We definitely want to take as many kids to state as we can,” Lookabill said. “We feel like we have a really good chance in a lot of the relays and perhaps individuals too. Layla has been as an individual before. We’d love to take a thrower to states as well. Those boys know what they need to throw to make it to states and that’s what their goal is.”
Stover, who finished 13th in the qualifying heat of last year 100-meter championship, fell just short of the championship heat finishing with a time of 13.82, a fraction short of the 13.69 that was good enough for the eight and final spot in the championship heat.
She’s also a key component of the program’s relay teams with Lookabill.
A quick starter, she’s the tone setter for the relay team, opening the first leg which checks out with her accomplishments in the 100. She’s hoping to improve and beat last year’s time.
“I want to just keep winning and doing my best,” Stover said. “Where it was my first time running in states last year I was nervous so I feel like this year if I push myself, I’m trying to be able to qualify.”
Lookabill and Stover will be called upon to establish chemistry as the only returning members of the 100- and 200-meter relay teams.
The duo helped the Warriors to a 13th place finish in the 100 and a 10th place finish in the 200 at the state meet last June, but gone are Daisha Summers and Cecliy Adkins, two of the four runners that comprised the other half of the squad.
“We had to rebuild our team,” Colleen Lookabill said. “There’s only two originals back so we have all new girls pretty much and each relay team is completely different unless you have everyone running the same relay. We just have to trust each other. When we hand off the baton we can’t go too early and if something happens and we mess up we can’t put the blame on each other. We’ve just got to work and have good communication.”
Helping reload the relay team is a challenge Lookabill is embracing and one she’s familiar with.
As a sophomore, she was a key reserve on the Wyoming East girls basketball team that won a state championship in 2021. This past season she stepped into a new role as a starter on a team that was down four starters from last year’s squad to open the season. She found success as a standout defensive player that hustled for loose balls and it paid off as the team returned to the championship game.
Now she’s looking to bring that experience to the relay team which also requires the most amount of teamwork in a sport that largely focuses on individuals.
“It can be a challenge sometimes because some people have different speeds you have to get used to,” Colleen said. “And then we can get confused on which hand because you go from right hand to left (on the exchange) so you do the opposites. If we don’t tell each other the hand we’re in then we can mess up with that. I like the team environment.”
That’s not a challenge lost on her mother either.
Though there are many.
Another for Coach Lookabill, and her assistant and husband Jimmy, is to expand the program to give kids more options. That includes adding more field events as an option despite the lack of a practice spots at the team’s current facility.
“The main challenge is honestly our facilities,” Lookabill said. “Our track is not that great but we make due. We paint the lines on there and we measure. We’re trying to get a sandpit set up for the long jumpers. In the past we have not had a sandpit so we have not had anybody long jump so we hope to have some people in those events this year. Relays we’ve had to fill two or three positions because of graduates or transfers, but we’re very hopeful and excited about the ones we have running in the relays.”
East will open its season on Wednesday April 6 at the Frank Young Invitational at Nicholas County.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94