Penguins performed well in first meet

The Whitewater track team welcomes a couple of new faces in the 2019 season and those faces are a welcome addition to a small but talented group.

In all, there will be five Penguin athletes this season, and while they may be small in number, the team made a splash at the Scottie Invitational last week.

The Lady Penguins consisting of sophomores Kia Wasson and Kelsee Cummings, freshman Hannah Hanley, and senior Petya Rosalinova took sixth place in the women's meet in Glasgow last Saturday.

Wasson, who was a state performer last season won the 1600 with a time of 6:04.42. Wasson also took third place in the 3200 with a time of 13:33.05.

"She improved a lot last year," Whitewater Head Coach Charlene Wasson said. "She had run the mile a few years in a row and she ran the two-mile last year."

Last season Wasson took seventh place in both the 1600 and 3200 at the 2018 State C Track Meet. She posted a personal best of 5:45.76 in the 1600 at state and a season-best of 12:51.23 in the 3200 at the Jean Dreikosen Memorial Track Meet. Wasson had three first-place finishes in the 3200 out of nine races that she entered in 2018, which included an Eastern C Divisional title. She won one 1600 and took second five times in nine races last season.

Cummings' 2019 season started well, as the 2018 state performer took second place in the Scottie Invitational shot put event with a throw of 32-8.25. Her personal best of 35-6 was recorded at the 2018 Eastern C Divisional. She took seventh place at state last season in shot put, just missing out on taking a trip to the podium.

"I feel like we had the seventh place curse last year," Coach Wasson said. "Kia placed seventh in both of her events last season."

Cummings had a personal best of 83-3 in discus at the 3C meet, but she was unable to qualify for the discus event at last year's state event.

Freshman Hannah Hanley is a welcome addition to the group, having already medaled in the 2019 season at the Scottie meet. Hanley took third place in the 200-meter dash and 100-meter hurdle race with times of 28.93 and 18.65.

"She is very talented when it comes to track, she is the real deal," Coach Wasson said. "We are going to see where she sits in the 200 and the 300 hurdles and kind of pursue which one would be better competitively for her and she also wants to do the long jump."

Hanley was previously the 3C Champion in the 100 Meter hurdles, 200 hurdles and 200 Meter dash in junior high last year.

Rosalinova, a foreign exchange student from Spain, will start with throwing events, but eventually, Coach Wasson will try Rosalinova at different events.

"She will try the shot put and discus and we will probably add a few things later in the season," Coach Wasson said. "Maybe we will throw a running event in there or two. She is kind of wide open to try whatever."

Coach Wasson went on to say that Rosalinova is naturally strong and has picked up things pretty fast as she did with the North Country Mavericks basketball team last winter.

The team's lone Penguin is sophomore Beau Simonson, who missed the 2018 season with an injury.

Simonson had a throw of 36-9.50 in shot put and 88-7 in discus at the Scottie Invitational. Simonson was the 3C Shot Put Champion in the 3C Junior High Meet in 2017, and Coach Wasson believes that Simonson can do well despite missing time last season.

"He is a lot stronger and a lot quicker than he was as an eighth-grader," Coach Wasson said. "He is going to start at a throwing event. He doesn't want to but I am trying to encourage him to do some type of running event."

Coach Wasson went on to say that she believes Simonson has the potential to perform well in running events and that those events would also help him in football.

The Penguins will host the Whitewater Invitational on Thursday, May 2.