By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
Catholic Central High School sprinter Nick Aldrich qualified for the WIAA Division 3 State Track and Field Meet in the 100-meter dash his sophomore and junior seasons.
As a junior, after he won sectionals, Aldrich placed seventh in state at 11.33 seconds, which was .25 seconds off the school record set in 2013.
He finished third in sectionals his sophomore season.
Aldrich, however, found team achievements one of the most memorable while running with the Hilltoppers.
“My biggest highlight was qualifying for state in the 4×200-meter relay last season. This was my biggest highlight because going into the year, our main goal was to make it to state in one of our relays,” said Aldrich, also a member of the 4×100 relay team.
“I was the only one who had made it to state before on our relay team, two of them had never ran track before, and the other battled many injuries through his career, so they kind of looked up to me as the leader of the team.”
The team, he said, had only one mission.
“When we did qualify for state, it was one of the best moments of my entire high school career,” he said.
Aldrich, meanwhile, said he enjoyed the team’s family-oriented atmosphere consisting of unconditional support.
The unconditional support included cheering each other on during meets.
“The thing I loved most about our team is that we were all a family. We all enjoyed competing with each other at practices and cheering our teammates on at meets,” he said.
“A lot of the times during the school day, most of us would spend time scouting out our competition for an upcoming meet or just seeing where our teammates are ranked in the state. We all really enjoyed the sport and enjoyed playing it with each other.”
Aldrich said his career at Catholic Central brought friendships and guidance from the coaching staff.
“The one thing I will miss most about the program is just being able to enjoy the sport with some of my best friends and some of the best coaches I’ve ever had,” he said.
Aldrich looks to continue his career at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
He plans on studying sports management and marketing.
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