By RYAN WALKER
The Bluffton boys’ track team is looking for another dominant campaign in the conference and beyond.
After another Allen County Athletic Conference title, the boys’ team is looking to repeat and even go further, placing better than fifth in the sectional and getting more athletes on the state level. In the regular season, the Tigers were undefeated in the conference and are looking to do so again this year.
Head coach Brent Kunkel is now entering his 12th season, serving both the boys and the girls. He knows a thing or two about success, especially in recent memory, and holds his team to the highest standard. This season is no different.
“Our goals as a program are the same each year,” he said. “We base everything around competing at our best at the conference meet. Our goal is always to finish in the top three of our conference, and then as we approach the sectional, it is to get as many kids into the regional as possible. We feel like if we keep preparing like we have to this point that we will set ourselves up for a great end of the season.”
The team will replace a handful of talent due to graduation last year. In the 4×400 relay team that competed at regionals, the Tigers lost Carter McConnell and Markis Crosbie. Jon San Juan was a regional participant in sprints, and Gus Martinez was first in a pair of hurdling events and competed at the state meet.
The biggest returner on the roster is the 2022 shot put sectional champion Johnny Cruz. Cruz also plays football, where coach Kunkel is the head coach.
Cruz earned the top spot in the sectional, throwing a 48 feet, 5-inch shot put, which was about three feet more than second place. After a 12th-place finish in the regional, Cruz is looking to improve that and go further, potentially even a shot at going to the state meet at Indiana University.
Kunkel, though, is the most optimistic with his distance runners, and rightfully so. Tyler Godwin, Sam and Jude Baumgartner, and Levi Johns helped the Tigers win the ACAC and sectional championship in cross country this past fall. All four came in first through fourth in the individual conference race one by one.
The four were together part of the 4×800 relay race that took second in the sectional, only falling to Oak Hill’s team.
Another goal for the distance runners is to break the school record, which would be the most likely event to do so.
Kunkel said that he feels good about where his team stands this season but is hoping the sprinting events and hurdles can improve throughout the year for some crucial team points in meets.
“How successful we are as a team this year will depend on how well our sprint/hurdle crew can mature as we head into the conference meet,” he said.
In the conference meet last year, Bluffton scored a total of 158 points. Only Heritage challenged that number, putting up 134, while Woodlan was third with 96.
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