Six from Area to compete in State meet
There will be a contingent of prep athletes from the Tri-County Area at this weekend's WIAA State Track and Field Meet.
Not a large contingent mind you but at least a handful to represent.
The 130th Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Boys Track and Field Championships and the 55th Girls Track and Field Championships will be held Friday-Saturday, June 5-6 at the Veterans Memorial Stadium Complex on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The Divisions 2 & 3 session begins at 3:30 p.m. The competition resumes Saturday at 9:30 a.m.
Augusta sophomore Zale Pettis will be the first AHS entry in several years at state. He rallied to get into the top four of automatic qualifiers in the 3200-meter run, edging out Alma/Pepin's Griffin Riesgraf, the Dairyland Conference champion in this event, by hundreths of seconds (10:08.62 to 10:08.99) could have easily placed third.
There were no champions from the Area at last week Friday, May 29th's WIAA Division 3 Bangor Sectional. Like Pettis, the group of girls from Fall Creek who qualified for state from that meet finished in the top four. In fact they all bronze medaled.
Junior Rilee Winsand finished third in the 300-meter low hurdles in :47.23 seconds. Senior Corina Grossinger was third in the discus with a throw of 117-9 inches. And the foursome of Winsand, senior Becca Strurz, freshman Audrey Heuer and sophomore Lydia Sopiarz placed third in the 800-meter relay in a time of 1:46.77. For Stursz it is her fourth state meet qualification in four years of high school track.
The ticket price for the State Track & Field Championships is $11 per session plus online fees. Tickets are available to be purchased online on the WIAA website through GoFan, the WIAA ticketing partner. The live stream of the State Meet will be produced by Rush Media on the WIAA.TV portal of the NFHS Network. To purchase a $13.99 monthly subscription to the live programming, log-on to WIAA.TV and click on the subscription image on the home page.
The points FC's state qualifiers scored put the Crickets in 12th place in the girls' team standings with 23 points. Cochrane-Fountain City won the girls sectional title over Kickapoo/LaFarge 60-46 and will have a shot of defending the D-3 state championship the Pirates won a year ago. Kickapoo/La Farge took the boys title edging out runner-up Durand-Arkansaw 56-47.
Other Tri-County Area athletes who scored points in the sectional meet were as follows: In the girls meet: Sturz finished sixth int he 100-meter dash; Eleva-Strum junior Annelyse Preston placed seventh in the 800-meter run; Winsand and Sopiarz were fifth and seventh in the 100-meter high hurdles; Augusta's 1600-meter relay team won their heat and finished eighth overall; FC freshman Paige Anderson placed eighth in the pole vault. In the boys meet, Osseo-Fairchild senior Dylan Fritz placed sixth in the 200-meter dash; Eleva-Strum junior Bo Windjue finished seventh in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles while Fall Creek freshgman Kale Korger placed eighth in the same event; E-S senior Jaxon Rindal placed eighth in the discus.
The outcomes and the numbers were much better for the Area at the D-3 regional meet last week Tuesday, May 26 in Mondovi. FC's girls were second in the 12-team meet. Team scores were Elmwood/Plum City 110, Fall Creek 102, Mondovi 74, Eau Claire Regis 68, Lincoln 59, Durand-Artkansaw 51, Whitehall 47, Eleva-Strum 43, Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 41, Augusta 38, Spring Valley 35 and Osseo-Fairchild 20. Area athletes who won regional titles were Winsand in the 100 hurdles in :16.82 seconds (with Sopiarz in second) and the 300-meter low hurdles in :48.12 seconds; the Crickets' 800 relay team in 1:48.99 and Augusta 1600 relay squad in 4:27.24.
Those who qualified for sectional in the girls meet by finishing in the top four were Sturz in the 100; Augusta junior Stephanie Bergman in the 400; the E-S 800 relay team, third; the Osseo-Fairchild 400-meter relay team, third; Augusta senior Zoey Guntner, third in the 300 hurdles; Preston, second in the 800; Fall Creek junior Emily Volbrecht, third in the 3200-meter run; the Central 1600 relay team, third; E-S senior Aliza Kulig, third in the high jump with FC junior Johanna Grossinger fourth in the same event; Anderson, second in the pole vault and second in the triple jump; and Corina Grossinger, third in the discus.
Tri-County Area athletes scoring points in the regional meet finishing in the top eighth were as follows: FC's 3200-meter relay team, fifth; Augusta junior Viola MacDonald, fifth in the 100 hurdles and eigth in the 300 hurdles; Osseo-Fairchild freshman Naomi Hoffman, seventh in the 100 and fifth in the 200 and long jump; Fall Creek junior Audrey Koehler and Iris VanWormer, 6-7 in the 1600-meter run; Augusta freshman Kinley Nelson, fifth in the 400; Eleva-Strum freshman Lydia Nicolet, seventh in the 400 and fifth in the triple jump; Central, fifth in the 400 relay; Kulig, sixth in the 300 hurdles; Koehler, eighth in the 800; FC junior Madilyn Morneau, eighth in the 200; osseo-Fairchild senior Alyssa Burmesch, sixth in the 3200; Fall Creek senior Peyton Ruff, fifth in the high jump with Anderson eighth; Eleva-Strum junior Avery Spanberg, fifth in the pole vault with Fall Creek senior Jamie Johnston and Volbrecht sixth and eighth respectively; Heuer, eighth in the long jump and triple jump, Winsand, seventh in the triple jump and Osseo-fairchild senior Makeala Kiesow, eighth in the shot put.
Durand-Arkansaw easily finished first in the boys' team standings of the regional meet in Mondovi with 149 points followed by the host school with 95, Whitehall 87, Regis 81, Lincoln 60; Fall Creek 60; Eleva-Strum 46, Immanuel 30; Elmwood/PC 29, Osseo-Fairchild 24, Spring Valley 24, Augusta 12. Fall Creek senior Trevor Whittlinger was the lone Area athlete to win a regional title as he took first in the shot put with a mark of 45 feet, one inch.
Area athletes finishing in the top four and qualifying for sectionals were Eleva-Strum 3200 relay, fourth; Fritz, third in the 100 and second in the 200; Pettis, fourth in the mile and two-mile runs; FC's 800 relay, third; O-F 400 relay team, fourth; Windjue and Fall Creek sophomore Ira Mason and Korger, 2-3-4 in the 300 hurdles; Mason and Windjue 3-4 in the 110-high hurdles FC boys 1600 relay, fourth; Eleva-Strum senior Russell Hulett, fourth in the long jump and Rindal, second in the discus.
And those placing fifth through eighth and scoring team points were: FC 3200 relay team, sixth; Fall Creek junior Drake Nesbit, fifth in the 200 and eighth in the 100; O-F junior Jason Sedillo, fifth in the high hurdles; E-S 800 relay, sixth; 400 relay, seventh and 1600 relay, fifth; E-S senior Axel Young, eighth in the IM hurdles; Centra; junior Brock Stendahl, sixth in the 800; AHS senior Dasan Downey, eighth in the 3200; junior Alex Anderson, senior Ian Jacobson and freshman Trey Winsand of Fall Creek, 6-8 in the pole vault; Fall Creek junior Jackson Tangley, sixth in the triple and seventh in the long jump; Osseo-Fairchild senior Maddox Abramczak, eighth in the long jump; Whittlinger, eighth in the discus; Rindal, seventh in the shot put and FC senior Ian Viring, eighth in the shot put.
