The boys and girls track and field teams had their second meet of the outdoor season on Friday, April 26 at the Dan Benson Invitational in Wauwatosa.  The meet is named after the father of Homestead physical education teacher Dan Benson who was a teacher and the first head Track coach at Wauwatosa West and passed away earlier this year.  During the meet there was a short ceremony to honor the late Benson in which his son spoke to the crowd.

Coach Dan Benson of Homestead described his father’s values saying, “first was faith… second was family, and a very close third was Tosa West.”

Following the ceremony, both the boys and girls teams had a strong performance, with the girls placing second of 10 teams and the boys third of 10 teams.  

In the field, the boys were lead by Mason Resch, senior, who placed first in the shot put with a throw of 49 feet 7 inches, and Jared Schneider, senior, who placed 2nd in long jump with a jump of 22 feet 1.5 inches. On the track, Declan Ciurlik, junior,  and Dylan Brown, sophomore, placed third and fourth respectively in the 400-meter dash, Kai Newman, senior, placed thirdin the mile, and Grayson Jennings, junior, placed fourth in the 110 meter hurdles.  In total, the boys earned 94 points. 

The girls had many first place finishes, as well as many second and third place which all contributed to their overall point total of 126.  The first place finishes included Grace Mueller, junior, in the 400-meter dash with a time of 64.32 seconds, Natalie Yang, junior, in the mile with a time of 5 minutes 23 seconds, Leané Willemse, sophomore, in the two mile with a time of 11 minutes 37 seconds, and Ally Rilling, senior, in the high jump with a height of 5 feet 2 inches.  

“The meet went well.  I did the best that I could with the wind and temperature, and made the most of my jumps,” Rilling said.

Willemse, who broke the school record for the two mile last week, found that her one mile race earlier in the meet did not go as planned, but that the two mile went better.

“(In the mile), I didn’t run the time I wanted; however, I was able to stay positive and come back to run a good two mile,” Willemse said.  

Head coach of the girls team John Krueger told the girls, who missed out on a first place win by just 2 points, “I know it’s heartbreaking to see that we got second, but getting 126 points in a big varsity invite is something to be proud of.”