It was a night filled with bronze for both the girls and boys track teams.

Both teams placed third yesterday in their North Shore Conference meets at Wisconsin Lutheran College, the boys behind Milwaukee Lutheran and Whitefish Bay and the girls behind Germantown and Whitefish Bay. The girls team amassed a total of 106.5 points and the boys team earned a total of 104 points. The boys remained in the same place in the conference as last year but gained five points, whereas the girls team fell from second to third and lost 33.5 points.

For the boys, strong performances came from Evan Routhier, junior, who took first in the 1600 meter run with a time of 4:26.66 and second in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:58.73. Thomas Miller, sophomore, took third in the 3200 meter run with a time of 9:55.93 and John Marita, senior, took first in the shot put and second in the discus. The 4×200 meter relay of Serafino LaGalbo, Joe Wasserman and Patrick Minkin, juniors, as well as Patrick Curran, senior, took third with a time of 1:34.90, less than a second behind Cedarburg’s second-place team.

The team seems to feel the meet didn’t go according to their hopes or expectations.

“I think it could have gone better for us,” Gonzalo Morales, sophomore, said. “Our sprinters could have scored more points.”

Miller agreed.

“I think we had a solid team effort that put us in third, but we could have had a second place showing if the whole team had competed well,” he said.

The girls saw success in the 400 meter dash with Mary Kate Simon, junior, as she took second in the event with a time of 1:01.86. Katie Wegmann, sophomore, took second in the 1600 meter run with a time of 5:17.33 and Allie Levin, sophomore, took third in the 3200 meter with a time of 12:08.31. Multiple Homestead relays saw strong finishes that evening, as the 4×200, 4×400 and 4×800 meter teams finished second out of eight, seven, and six competitors, respectively. Also notable was Jessie Zupke, sophomore, who finished second in the discus for the Highlanders.

The girls, on the other hand, didn’t see much to improve about their performance that evening.

“I think the team gave it their all,”  Grace Karegeannes, sophomore, said. “It was one of our best meets as a whole because everyone worked so hard.”

Sarah Hilby, senior, echoed her words. “I didn’t really go into it with any expectations of how it would or wouldn’t go for us, but I think we did well,” she said.

However, the night was about more than just results for many athletes; for some of the seniors, it will be the last meet in which they will compete, at least at the high school level.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet that it was my last conference meet,” Nia Feaster, senior, said. “So I wouldn’t really call it bittersweet.”

However, Hilby thought the meet did mark the end of an era even through she will compete in several events next week.

“It was a little bittersweet,” she said. “I’ll miss seeing a lot of great people, and I’m gonna miss watching everyone grow their talents and improve.”