CM Track & Field entering 2024 with strong numbers and determination

By Bees O’Brien

MILL HALL- There’s plenty of reasons to be excited if you’re Central Mountain Track & Field coach Ellie Sikorskas. 80 of them to be exact. That’s the total number of athletes on this year’s varsity roster. Throw in a roster of 60 participants at the middle school level and you can see that coach Sikorskas and her staff have their hands full.

Scott Bair and Clayton Courter make up the remainder of the varsity coaching staff. Junior High head coach Tom Zettle and assistant Christina Onuskanich also will have a full plate this season.

Central Mountain is banking on girl’s jumps, girl’s sprints, girl’s distance, boy’s throws, and boy’s sprints to be their stronger events.

“I feel a lot of our events will show improvements this season. We have a lot of new athletes and this always helps to motivate and make the kids work harder.” said Sikorskas in regards to the events.

The Wildcats return a good number of top performers from a season ago

Lily Hendricks, Macy Plowman, Logan Dawes, Jordan Donahay, Johnathan Hughes and Grace Keohane were just some of the many talented athletes to watch this season.

Central Mountain will be blessed with plenty of newcomers that coach Sikorskas believes have the potential to place in events if they are willing to put in the work.

The 2024 schedule will be challenging for the Wildcats. Their first meet is schedule for a home battle with Shikellamy on April 2 at 4pm.

Other opponents include Selinsgrove, Milton, Jersey Shore and Williamsport.

“I think all of the teams on our schedule will be challenging.” said Sikorskas “Every team has different competitions for each kid. When you have a good coaching staff and athletes there will always be challenges.”