Bland Middle School’s (BMS) Lady Bear and Bear track squads opened their season last Tuesday afternoon at the Linn High School sports complex in the Linn Middle School Open.

Racking up 113 team points, Bland’s Bears placed second to Fatima’s Comets who recorded 124 points.

Coming off a solid cross country season, Jackson Prater looked to start his season off on a winning note.

He ended up doing more than that.

Winning the boys 800-meter run in 2:16.58 and the boys 1600m run in 4:56.40.

Both of those times broke BMS records that are older than he is.

“It was pretty cool to have it happen at the first meet so now he can re-break it all season,” BMS track coach Samantha Ridenhour said.

Netting 20 points in those two events alone, Prater also helped the Bear 4x400m relay team post a first-place time of 4:18.66 in the final event of the meet.

Joining Prater with victorious legs of the 4x400m relay were Alden Zabel, Liam Smith and Michael Felton.

“It was cool that the guys I broke the records for were my uncle Patrick’s teammates,” Prater said. “I am now focused on what the high school record is so I can start training to beat that record sometime in the next few years.”

In addition to running in the boys 4x400m relay, Felton picked up 14 more team points for the Bears with a second-place time of 2:28.29 in the boys 800m run and a third-place time of 5:26.97 in the boys mile.

Felton also won the boys high jump clearing 1.55 meters.

Zabel also added a second-place time of 18.13 in the boys 100m hurdles to his winning leg in the boys 4x400m relay.

Sprinting to a second-place time of 53.29 in the boys 4x100m relay was the Bear foursome of Liam Smith, Weston Sadler, Chase Sellers and Dakota Stockton.

Also placing third in the boys 4x200m relay with a time of 1:55.16 was the Bland quartet of Sadler, Sellers, Zabel and Stockton.

Rounding out Bland’s contingency of Bear relay teams was the 4x800m relay team of Ryker Huebner, Garit Trainer, Tharon Kent and Liam Bialczyk with a third-place time of 12:25.32.

Stockton also led six Bears running in the 100m dash with a sixth-place time of 13.46.

Bland sprinters following Stockton in the event were Smith (11th, 13.97), Owen Dobson (12th, 14.18), Ryder Huebner 27th, 15.46), Bialczyk (28th, 15.95) and Braxton Elrod (30th, 16.90).

Dobson (7th, 1:08.03) and Jaseton Rodgers (11th, 1:10.93) posted their best individual finishes of the meet for Bland in the boys 400m dash.

In addition to Prater and Felton in the boys 800m run for Bland, Treyton Huebner also posted a 12th-place time of 3:15.89.

Karsen Ridenhour led Bland’s Bears with a fourth-place throw of 8.63m in the boys shot put.

Also competing for Bland in the boys shot put were Elliott Smith (8th, 7.96m), Hunter Boyer (11th, 7.79m), Spurling Hendrix (12th, 7.57m) and Ciris Burrows (16th, 5.65m).

Taking three of the top five spots in the boys triple jump for Bland were Prater (3rd, 9.16m), Sadler (4th, 9.09m) and Dobson (5th, 8.93m).

Bland’s Lady Bears scored 32 team points good for seventh place at Linn.

Sedora Carroll posted her best finish of the meet with a 17th-place time of 16.39 in the girls 100m dash.

Three Lady Bears finished within the top eight of the girls 800m run including Skylar Stevens (3rd, 3:07.83), Gracie Jarvis (6th, 3;18.20) and Marianne Francis (8th, 3:18.92).

Faith Gromowski just missed scoring a team point for the Lady Bears in the girls 100m hurdles with a ninth-place time of 22.66.

Helping Bland place third in a time of 12:55.52 in the girls 4x800m relay was the Lady Bear team of Stevens, Francis, Gromowski and Jarvis.

Emilyn Lewis led the way for Bland’s Lady Bear throwers winning the girls discus with a mark of 19.22m while placing fifth in the girls shot put with a throw of 7.61m.

Lucie Scott (15th, 5.93m) and Harlie Gingerich (19th, 5.21m) also posted their best finishes of the meet at Linn for the Lady Bears in the girls shot put.

BMS track returned to action last night (Tuesday) at the Vienna Middle School open.