MOSES LAKE — On Friday, the Moses Lake Mavericks hosted Central Valley in a meet that saw the boys finish in second and the girls in first to open the 2026 season.

“It was great being able to host our first meet and have so many parent volunteers and members of the community and of the school come out and both volunteer and just come out and cheer for us,” Head Coach Mark Ward said. 

As a team, the boys scored 67.5 points while the girls earned 90. With a roster that has a healthy balance of experienced runners and newcomers, Ward feels his team showed a lot of promise throughout Friday’s meet. Some of their results prompted a pleasant response from the Mavs coaching staff. 

“Their time was a little bit of a pleasant surprise. I expected good things from both of them, but (this is) pretty fast for this early in the season,” Ward said.   

A particular competition that stood out to Ward was the high jump. For the boys and girls, multiple student athletes performed well. For the boys, Isaac Legault and Coltyn Mickle each recorded a six-foot jump to take the top two spots in that competition. For Mickle, it’s also his personal best performance in that competition.   

On the girls side, Addy Burns jumped for a 5’2 distance while Miciah Higley was right behind her with a solid 5ft score.   

Across other competitions, like the 100-meter dash or the 4x100 relay, the Mavericks saw strong performances put together. With many athletes excelling this early in the season, it gives Ward a lot of confidence in what they can accomplish together. It also highlights an important contributing factor, Ward said.   

“It tends to be those kids that are multi-sport athletes, and you see what they've been doing their entire athletic careers here at Moses Lake (in) volleyball, basketball, football, track and field. They’re the leaders of all those sports, and I think it just shows how important being a multi-sport athlete is,” he said.   

As the season continues, Ward and the Mavericks are keying in on putting their runners in a variety of competitions to see where they perform the best, while also not overworking them to preserve health and stamina throughout the season. Part of this also helps ensure they have the most representation possible heading into the postseason as well.   

“We've got to figure out where every kid has the potential to score the highest at both districts and state,” Ward said. “I have a lot of faith in our coaching staff that we won't overload them..., and the athletes understand that. Our ultimate focus is getting better; we make it a point that every kid (tries to) get in that top 24, if that means that we get all 24 of the kids in an event, so be it, we'll take everybody that goes.”   

The Mavericks' next meet is set for March 28 in the Eighth Annual Clay Lewis Invite, held at Hanford Stadium. As they put their philosophy to practice, Ward is confident his experienced runners and multi-sport athletes will fill their roles as leaders, he said.

“While track and field may not be their number one sport, you wouldn't know it by their attitude and their work ethic and how they lead the team,” he said. “We're all just having fun. The kids are working hard, and we've only had one meet, so (we’ll) call it a baseline, and we’ll just see where we go from here.”  

    The Mavericks’ Colton Lucero, left, turns the corner during a race against Central Valley Friday.
  

    Trinity Town leaps toward the sand pit during the girls long jump against Central Valley Friday.
  

    The Mavs’ Charlie Rippy pole vaults over the bar during Moses Lake’s home meet against Central Valley Friday.