Continued good starts to outdoor season for Area athletes

The Eleva-Strum girls, the defending Dairyland Conference champs, are off to a good start to defending that title with success in pair of meet in the last week.

The Cardinals won the Beaver Invite competing against other Dairyland teams in Augusta on Thursday, April 18 and finished second in the Trempealeau County meet held at Whitehall Monday, April 22.

Finishing in the top three for the Cardinal at the county meet were Ella McConnell, third in the 100-meter dash and second in the long jump; Aliza Kulig, third in the 110-meter high hurdles and first in the high jump with a mark of 4-10; Kenzy King, second in the discus and the Cardinals 400-meter relay (second); 800-meter relay (third) 1600-meter relay (second) and 3200-meter relay (second) teams.

Also having a good county meet was Osseo-Fairchild's Hayden Vold. She won the 200-meter dash in a time of :29.52 seconds and the long jump with a leap of 14-1. Her O-F teammate Alyssa Burmesch finished second in the 3200-meter run and the Thunder's 400-meter relay team finished third in their debut meet of the season. Scoring points in the boys' portion of the Trempealeau County Meet were Central's 400-meter relay team (second); 1600-meter relay team (third) and 3200-meter relay team (second); Russell Hulett of E-S in the high jump, second; Brennan Hanner in the long jump, third.

At the Beaver Invite, the team scores were as follows: (Girls) Eleva-Strum 117, Melrose-Mindoro 102, Blair-Taylor 82, Whitehall 43, Augusta 20 and (Boys) Melrose-Mindoro 105.33, Eleva-Strum 91.33, Whitehall 60.33, Augusta 52

Top performances in the girls' competition came from Kulig, first in the 100-meter high hurdles, first in :19.21 seconds and first in the high jump with a height of 4-8. She also finished second in the 300-meter low hurdles. E-S's Avery Spanberg and McConnell in the 100-meter dash, second and third respectively with McConnell also winning the long jump with a lape of 14-9. Central's Amalia Dyar, second in the mile run; the Cardinals' 400-meter relay team of Kaya Franson, Kassidy Koxlien Avarie Segerstrom and Avery Spangberg, first in a time of :57.15; Callan Skoug, second in the 800; E-S's 1600-meter relay team winning in a time of 4:44.13; Spangberg and E-S's Anabel Howie placed 1-2 in the pole vault; King won the discus with a toss of 93-2 while teammate Olivia Caponigro was third and Segerstrom placed third in the shot put.

Augusta's Zoey Gunter placed third in the triple jump and fifth in the long jump while the Beavers' 400 and 3200-meter relays teams were both third.

In the boys' competition at Augusta, the Beavers' Michael Smith was second in the shot put (E-S's Jaxon Rindal finished third); Eric Lalonde was second in the triple jump and third in the long jump and second in the 300-meter IM hurdles; Beau Harmer was second in the high jump and third in the 200, Preston Schafer finished second in the mile run.

E-S's top boys' performers were Hanner, second in the 100 and 200; Jack Preston, champ in the 400-meter dash in :56.32; Reede Brown, second in 110 hurdles; Axel Young, winner of the 300 hurdles in :47.95; Hulett, first in the high jump at 5-8 along with a third in the triple jump; Ryan Julson and Rindal, 2-3 in the discus. The Cards also won the 400-meter relay in :49.44 and were second in the 1600 and 3200 relays.

Augusta will be hosting its own and bigger invitational meet this Thursday, April 25 beginning at 4 p.m.

Fall Creek competed in the Father Mac Relays at Chippewa Falls' Dorais Field on Tuesday, April 23. The Crickets girls' big vteam winners as they notched first in 400-meter shuttle relay in a time of :54.44 along with winning the 400 relay :55.39, the 800 relay in 1:46.69 and the 3200 relay in 12:01.27. They also got firsts in the high jump from Mariah Sloop at 4-8, Alena Sanfelippo in the long jump at 16-8 and the pole vault at 10-0, Corina Grossinger in the discus at 86-1 (with sister Caroline Grossinger second); and Caroline Grossinger in the shot put at 30-3. The FCHS boys also won the team title with firsts from their 800 and 1600 relay teams with respective times of 3:45.09 and 9:25.56, and individually as Koren Tumm won the triple jump with a leap of 41-8 (with teammate Jacob Wathke second), Levi Atkins won the pole vault at 11-0 (teammates Mason Antczak and Nate Spencer were second and third), Lincoln Burr won the discus with a toss of 129-2 (with teammates Dakota Antczak and Isaac Steinke completing a 1-2-3 sweep. Bo Vollrath and Steinke were 1-2 in the shot put with Vollrath's put at 42-8.