The Homestead Highlanders boys track team competed in their first meet of the season yesterday, facing off against several out-of-conference teams. While the meet was “open,” meaning the athletes weren’t competing for a specific place or to get ahead within their conference, it gave the Highlanders valuable insight into what they’ll need to do to be competitors for the rest of their season and what they’ll need to work on to beat their conference rivals.

Overall, the team viewed the meet as more of learning experience than anything else. “I felt like the whole meet was a learning experience for the new guys and a refresher for the more experienced runners,” Drew Steger, senior, said.

Many Homestead athletes did see success yesterday in the field house. To start things off, Matthew Winters, junior, placed third in the first heat of the 55-meter dash, and in the second heat senior Brad Novak took second. Gonzalo Morales took fourth in the third heat, and Dominic Enea took second in the following heat with a time of 7.35 seconds. In the fifth heat, Alex Kocab took fourth in the fifth heat with a time of 7.42 seconds.

In the intermediate hurdles, Charles Mortenson, sophomore, took second with a time of 10.36 seconds. Jake Brunner took first in the heat that followed with a time of 8.59 seconds and Zion Bullock took fifth in the third with a time of 9.61 seconds. Homestead saw success in the mile, with Doug Kellner, junior, placing second and Ben Burke placing third. Homestead runners Henry Desmond, senior, and Matt Klimkosky, sophomore, also took fifth and sixth, respectively. Messi Elgin took first in the second heat of the event for the Highlanders with a time of 5 minutes and 22 seconds.

“The meet went better than I expected and my teammates ran really well,” Desmond said.

Homestead’s relay team also saw success on Wednesday night, placing first in the second heat against Menomonee Falls and Sussex-Hamilton with a time of 1 minute, 24 seconds, edging out Falls by 43 hundredths of a second.

Looking forward, the team anticipates their first conference match-up next week against Cedarburg, Germantown, Milwaukee Lutheran, Whitefish Bay, Grafton, Nicolet and Port Washington.

“I feel the meet went really well for the team, and we are looking forward to the next chance to prove ourselves,” Steger said.