Aberdeen Central hosted its first-ever field meet at the Brownell Activities Complex on Tuesday.

The meet featured field-only events, which gave athletes a chance to compete in events that have been hard to come by this spring due to wet conditions, as well as having a hard time getting entries into meets.

“It was one of those deals where we put it together (in the past week) and everything kind of came together pretty well,” Central boys’ coach Greg Murley said. “Coach (Dawn) Seiler and Mark Anderson did a great job of putting it together and gave some kids an opportunity. With field events, we sometimes struggle with getting entries in, so it’s kind of nice to be able to focus on them. Hopefully it’s a meet that will grow.”

Among the winners was Central’s Brian Johnson in the shot put. Johnson appreciated the opportunity to be able to compete.

“I think it’s pretty good. I think it gives a lot of us more opportunities to throw,” Johnson said. “It gives us more opportunities to get into state, and I just think today, especially with the weather being so nice, it just gave us a really good opportunity just to go out and improve on ourselves and compete.”

Johnson noted that there are always ways to get better no matter how many opportunities there are. The senior said footwork is important when it comes to throwing.

“Obviously, there’s always room for improvement, but as of today, I think I did pretty well,” Johnson said. “I have a guy, his name is Coach Murphy, always tells us you can muscle the shot put, but you can’t muscle the discus, but it’s actually a lot more technique. Our coach always tells us it’s more so about footwork than it is about throwing the thing, so I usually just make sure my footwork is right, and if my footwork’s right, then my throw is fine.”

One winner on the girls’ side was Watertown’s Elizabeth Lake, who won the pole vault and also set a personal best in the event.

“I was really nervous because I was on a bigger pole, but I was feeling good during warmups,” Lake said.

For Lake, the personal best was a long time coming.

“I haven’t PR’d since the eighth grade, so it was really special,” Lake said. “Last year, I had back surgery, so that made it even more special (because) I sat out all last season.”

Murley noted that there was a lot that could be taken from the event moving forward.

“Jett Carlson threw 170 feet in the javelin today, which is our new school record, and it’s ranked in the top eight in the state,” Murley said.

He also noted that Kiana Joerger also got a personal record in the pole vault, which will move her higher among the state leaders and “maybe give her some confidence going into the end of the year.”

Other teams that competed in the meet were Aberdeen Roncalli, Ipswich, Northwestern and Warner.

To see complete meet results, click on the following link:

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/514017/results/all