COLUMN: Local future Redhawks should inspire first-time track athletes

Saxony Lutheran graduating senior Jonathan Hartmann won the Class 2 state championship in the high jump and joined Southeast Missouri State as a preferred walk-on.

Cape Central’s graduating senior Jackson Witvoet leaves the Tigers’ track program with two school records and state qualifications in the javelin and 4x200-meter relay. He recently signed up to run at SEMO.

What do these two future Redhawks have in common?

They tried track and field for the first time.

Hartmann and Witvoet spent years, even before entering high school, building their bodies and shaping their athletic development for big team sports such as football, basketball, and baseball.

When their final spring came around, they were at the peak of their athletic prowess. Isolate your best talents and you have a whole new avenue to compete and succeed in.

Hartmann spent his entire prep career playing basketball for the Crusaders. After four seasons and 63 wins later all he had left to offer was his hops.

“Coach [Max] Wieser has been harping on me for a few years and I just decided a couple of months ago to come out and give it a shot,” Hartmann said earlier in the season. “Turned out to be good for me.”

He set a personal record during practice after winning his first district title and took that new mark to Jefferson City.

Witvoet played baseball throughout his adolescent life but saw the ceiling as a senior. He was fast enough to run sprints and could translate his pitching background into throwing javelin.

Two meets in and he realized his newfound potential after setting a new school record in the 100-meter dash.

“That's when I was really like this is bigger than I thought it was gonna be,” Witvoet said earlier in the season.

So for those student-athletes who have just completed their junior year and are working so hard this summer to make their senior seasons monumentally memorable, let Hartmann and Witvoet be proof that you can quickly reinvent yourself on the track and find a future in college that way.

There's a running back right now who could be an all-state sprinter and doesn't know it yet. There's a spot-up shooter taking non-stop jump shots on the court right now who has the long or high jump in their back pocket. That same player might have built up the endurance to give running a competitive mile a try. An offensive lineman and heavyweight wrestler surely has the power to send a shot put flying.

SEMO has demonstrated to open the track and field program as a home for local athletes who can compete in the Ohio Valley Conference. It will be interesting to see next year who enters the track for the first time and leaves with a letter of intent.