~by Dustin Teays for the Scranton Journal
The start of the spring sports season is underway, which means track and field events, and for one Paton-Churdan Rocket, their season has started with a bang.
Paton-Churdan traveled to the IATC Indoor Championship track meet March 10 at the University of Northern Iowa and had participants in a few events. Sophomore Trevon Keely participated in the long and high jumps with phenomenal results.
Keely broke a Paton-Churdan school record by clearing 6’7” during the meet; the previous school record was 6’6”. Not only did he make school history, he took first place at the meet and was comfortably in first place, winning by six inches. Keely also qualified for the Drake Relays with his performance.
Qualifying for the Drake Relays is no easy task as the bar to get in, or the Blue Standard as it is called, is set quite high. The standard for the high jump is set right at the 6’7” line, and to have Keely clear that so early is an outstanding accomplishment.
Keely also managed an 18’-11” in the long jump, which earned him an eighth place finish out of 28 athletes.
The Paton-Churdan boys’ track team will have some time off now to continue to practice and get in shape before they get their season underway again with the Audubon Invitational meet on April 1 at Audubon High School.
After their first meet in Audubon, the sprint will be on as they will have a bevy of meets during the season, but the early results are encouraging for what this team might accomplish this year. As for Keely, he will get to take part in the Drake Relays for the high jump which will take place April 25 and 26 in Des Moines as it will be the 115th iteration of the Relays.
