Wright City freshman Peyton Hart had the best stretch of her young high school track career last week.

The Wildcat jumper broke the school record in the high jump at the Wildcat Invitational, posting a final height of 5 feet.

A day later, she hit the mark again at Bowling Green.

“Peyton breaking the school record and then hitting that mark again Friday was outstanding,” Wright City Coach Fred Ross said. “That was great to see. Clearing 5 feet as a freshman is huge, so we’re expecting big things out of her going forward.”

Hart tied Valley Park’s Jilane Pedersen for first place Thursday in Wright City, and helped the Wright City girls finish fifth overall.

Hart was one of the few bright spots Thursday for the Wildcats, who have been working through injuries and a flu bug that has been going around school lately.

“We’re battling through some things, but we’ve had a few highlights,” Ross added.

Former state-qualifier Kailyn Gudermuth broke the 100-foot mark in the javelin, finishing third at 104 feet, 3 1/2 inches.

It was her best toss of the year, and not far from her career-best of 114-8 at last year’s sectional meet.

Sophomore Will Janowski set a personal-best in the 400-meter after finishing third in 54.29 seconds, and junior Jayden Mahaney continued his impressive spring with a win in the 100 (11.93).

He also clocked in at 23.94 in the 200, earning him a second-place finish.

“Jayden had a big day in the 100 and 200,” Ross said. “His times are solid and he’s running well.”

Sophomore John Pezold finished third in the triple jump, setting a personal-best mark of 38-3.

The 1,600 relay team of Pezold, Janowski, Jonathan Burke and Adam Neeley finished fourth in 3:48.75.

In the 3,200 relay, Richard Vellinga subbed in for Janowski and helped post a time of 9:04.81, earning the team a third-place finish.

“We were missing a few key relay runners with this sickness that has been going around, but we plugged in some of our younger kids, and they really did well,” Ross said. “The boys 4X4 and 4X8 did really well time-wise.”

The Wildcats will travel to Orchard Farm Friday afternoon.

“We’re going to see some of our district opponents, including Jennings, so we’re going to see some smoking relays that day,” Ross admitted. 

As the weather gets warmer and Wildcat athletes work on getting healty, the team also is preparing for the postseason.

The Eastern Missouri Conference meet is set for May 1, and the district meet will be held the following week at Lutheran North.

“In some spots, yes,” Ross said when asked if the team is as good as coaches thought it would be at this point. “This freshman and sophomore class is probably better than we expected, so we’re probably ahead of where we thought we’d be in that regard. It’s just hard when it’s not warm to get in shape. So as soon as we get some warmer weather, we’ll get in shape and see what we can do.”