As the spring sports season comes to a close, the GCL championships wrap up conference play and lead the Panthers to district tournaments. With that in mind there are a couple athletes on the track and field team seeking school records in their respective events.

Senior track and field captains Luke Mastruserio and Charles Sanders are both making a late run to capture Elder school records. Both athletes will compete this Wednesday at the GCL Prelims and should qualify for GCL finals on Friday.

Luke Mastruserio, a 4-year thrower for Elder and a 2-year Varsity throws captain is eyeing the shot put school record. Luke went to grade school at St. Catherine and started throwing as an eighth grader there.

Luke originally started throwing as a joke. Luke was a baseball player throughout grade school and his 8th grade year his team did not have enough people to fill the roster so they weren’t able to play. Luke had a friend who ran track and thought he’d give it a try just for fun. Well it turned out Luke was pretty good at throwing and that transitioned into him being only about three feet off the current shot put record at Elder.

Luke’s current personal record thus far in shot put stands at 55 feet 1 inch. The shot put record throne as of now is held by Jim Merk who threw 58 feet 3 1/4 inches in 1984. Luke is incredibly close and he knows that Merk did not throw his personal record/school record until the state finals meet.

Luke is also eyeing another school record and that is the discus record. Luke is not as close but is still worthy of some recognition. Luke set his personal record last week at Best of the West with a throw of 148 feet. Elder’s school record is currently held by Mike Rapien with a throw of 178 feet, 10 inches.

To sum it up Luke is also apart of Elder history already! This past Saturday at Best of the West the weight men had a relay team and competed against other weight men for the fastest 4×100 meter relay. This year’s team including seniors Luke Mastruserio, Jake Myers, Braedy Murphy, and Junior Spencer Bono broke the record for fastest weight men relay by an Elder team. This team beat out the former champs which included a team with Coach Nie!

Another record hopeful senior is Charles Sanders. Charles is a 4-year sprinter for Elder and is one of two varsity sprint captains this year alongside senior Devin Loechtenfeldt. Charles runs the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash, and is apart of the 4x1oo meter relay team.

Charles went to Milford junior high and has been running track since the 7th grade. Through his years at Elder, Sanders has played football and wrestled in addition to running track.

Charles currently runs a 11.00 100 meter dash and a 22.13 200 meter dash. The current 100 meter record stands at 10.6s and was set by Tyrall Butler back in 2010. For the 200 meter the record stands at 21.9s which was again set by Tyrall Butler but this time in 2011.

I spoke to Charles about some of his other goals other than the records this year and he told me that the state finals is where he wants to be. Not only does he want to make it to state but he wants to place and grab a spot on the podium.

Charles also spoke to me about his goals. “I didn’t think I would be breaking any records when I was in junior high but once I saw the record sheets my freshman year I told myself that I want to be up there before I graduate.”

Both athletes are at there peak performance heading into GCL and district meets. If you would like to come out and support them the GCL prelims are this Wednesday May 9th and the finals are this Friday May 11th. The district tournament will be held at Winton Woods High School and the prelims will start on Wednesday May 16th and the finals will start on Friday May 18th. If you want to witness history in the Elder record books this could be the place to be.