By Charlie Walsh ‘23

“It’s my favorite indoor track meet all year,” said sophomore Gavin O’Connor.

On Sunday, the entire track and field team traveled to Lewis University to compete at ICOPS invitational. It is the first real meet of the year with good competition from all catholic schools. You have the chance to prove to yourself, teammates and coaches that you can be relied upon for future meets like Catholic League or sectionals.

It was a good outing; we finished 5th out of 22 schools, but that’s not where we want to be.  It is still really early in the season so we have time to figure things out.

Some good performances came from Donovan Moody, Rickey Taylor, Jack Morrison, and James Worthington placing second in the 4x200m relay. Marcus Kennedy placed third in the triple jump along with Rickey Taylor, once again, placing third in the long jump.

Also taking third in the pole vault was senior Joe Heilmann. “It was a good opportunity to compete against some really good athletes and use Lewis’ great facilities,” said Joe.

It is very rare for everything to go according to plan at any track meet. You have to deal with injuries, delayed times and false starts. The smallest mistakes can lead to a downfall of the entire day.

That is why we aren’t worried about not doing our best on Sunday. We have time to critique every little mistake and be prepared for all that comes our way for the future.

I believe if everything went right for us, we could have finished in the top two, possibly winning it all.

I think why ICOPS is so many people’s favorite indoor meet is because it is against all Catholic schools. Our competition is two weeks from now.

It really gives us a good idea of where we stand and what strategy to use for next time. Our eyes have been set on the CCL championship since it ended last year; whether it’s individually or as a team, we are ready to give it our all.