Coming into the 2023 season, Chanhassen began training inside with inches of snow accumulated outside and an uncertainty of when the team would get to train outside.
But with the recent blast of summer, the Storm have had a strong showing earlier on in the season with two meets under their belts now. Chanhassen placed first as a team for both the boys and girls at the team’s season opening meet and followed it up with a strong showing at Robbinsdale Armstrong April 14 for the Storm’s first outdoor meet.
Despite losing some state qualifiers from last season, Chanhassen returns several athletes who performed well at last season’s Metro West Conference and section 2AAA championships. On the boys side, senior captain Collin Scheller returns after placing fourth in the 1,600 meter race at the Metro West Conference championship meet as well as helping the Storm win the 4x400 relay. Senior Christian Batchlor also returns with a conference and section championship in the triple jump from a year ago.
For the Storm girls, junior captain Marissa Long returns off a strong cross country season to compete again in the 1,600 and 3,200 meter races after reaching the Class 3A state meet last year. In the field events, senior captain Avery Linder returns as one of the Storm’s top throwers, winning the Metro West crown in the shot put and placing third in discus. Linder said her goals are to repeat as conference champion in the shot put and possibly break the program’s discus record. Junior Lilian Sather also expects to be a top performer in the pole vault.
With sights set on competing well in the championship season, boys head coach Nick Redman believes the team can have a special season if athletes put in the work necessary and run, throw or jump their best near the end of May and beginning of June. Chanhassen’s boys team finished second at the conference championship meet, less than two points behind New Prague while the girls team finished fifth.
Along with competing during the championship season for top individual and team performances, athletes also have the goal of making everyone on the team feel connected to each other.
“Even though we are in separate event groups, everyone’s competing for the same goal,” Scheller said.
“We want to have our team spirit all together so that when each individual person is [competing] we want to have the team come out and cheer them on so they know that they’re not alone in this and we’re together as a team,” senior captain Ethan Weinandt added.
The Storm are also competing with some new leadership at the helm. Girls head coach Jessica Matheson is in her first year of coaching at Chanhassen after spending time coaching at Minnetonka.
“This has been a dream of mine to step in as a head coach,” Matheson said. “It’s been fun, it’s been a challenge being on the other end, being brand new to this program… but there’s definite excitement around this season.”
Matheson replaces former head coach Anita Woodrow who left to be the athletic director at Chaska. Captains on the girls side of the team said they were at first nervous about Woodrow leaving given how much of a staple she had been in the program but have become very comfortable with Matheson.
“She’s been great. She’s super organized with everything and she’s super supportive, anything you need you can go to her,” Linder said. “It’s been great having her this season.”
Matheson said the athletes are also excited to have assistant coach Mark Lacy on board to coach shot put and discus.
Chanhassen’s first meet of the season took place inside April 8 at Orono. Redman said prior to the competition that he was excited to not only start competing but that it was a good opportunity for the team to get information about where athletes are at. Prior to the meet, senior captain Liv Hansen added it would be ‘the moment of truth’ for how the athletes had been training throughout the offseason and first few weeks of the season.
Chanhassen won as a team in both the boys and girls competition at Orono, with multiple first-place finishers from the meet. Winners on the boys side included sophomore Myles Woods (55m; 6.80), senior captain Tyler Beaton (400m; 53.19), junior Maxwell Woods (200m; 24.28) and Batchlor (long jump; 21’4” and triple jump; 42’9.5”). Winners on the girls side included Long (800m; 2:25.72 and 1,600m; 5:09.75), Linder (shot put; 31’8”) and freshman Bella Naples (200m; 27.89 and 400m; 1:03.74). The Storm also won the 4x200 (1:55.34) and 4x400 relays (4:36.99).
At the Armstrong meet April 14, both the boys and girls teams each took third. On the boys side, Batchlor won three events in the high jump (6’2”), long jump (20’4”) and triple jump (44’0.5”) while senior captain Brian Gilbertson finished first in the pole vault (11’6”) and Woods won the 100m dash (11.19). On the girls side, Long won the 3,200m (10:59.86), Sather won the pole vault (10’) and the Storm girls also won the 4x200m relay.
Chanhassen will be hosting a meet April 26 beginning at 4:15 p.m. at the high school. Other key meets on the calendar include the section 7AAA true team meet May 10 at Wayzata and the Metro West Conference championships May 17 at Chaska. The Section 2AAA meet is set for May31 and June 2 while the Class 3A state meet will take place June 8-10 at St. Michael-Albertville High School.