Tracksters get preview of competition for upcoming big meets
Conference and WIAA postseason meets are on the way in the next few weeks for Tri-County Area prep track athletes, in meets the past week they got at least a partial picture of who their main competition will be in various events individually and in the team scores.
Last week Tuesday, May 6 was the annual Landgraf Invitational in Bloomer that Fall Creek usually takes part in. The girls finished fourth in the team standings out of 15 teams with 78 points. Cameron won the meet with 108.5 points followed by Hayward and Bloomer, FC and then Chippewa Falls McDonell. Eau Claire Regis also finished in the top 10. These will be the top schools FC will face in the Western Cloverbelt Conference meet next week Tuesday, May 20 at Dorais Field in Chippewa Falls.
FC got points from their usual faces. Senior Alena Sanfelippo won the 100-meter dash in :12.73 seconds; won the pole vault with a height of 12 feet even, the triple jump at 36-5 and set a new school record in the long jump at 17-2 to win first. Her points were over half FC's totals.
The Crickets also got a first place from junior Becca Sturz in the 200-meter dash in a winning time of :25.91. All these marks from Sanfelippo and Sturz plus some good times in the 400 and 800-meter relays and from junior Corina Grosinger in the discus (where she finished second at Bloomer) are all listed on the state high school track honor roll in various places in the Top 25 across the state in Division 3 and overall.
And Sanfelippo's record didn't last for long as she leaped 18-5 in the long jump at the Myrhum Invitational on May 10, the state's largest regular season outdoor prep track and field meet in Hartland, to finish second. She also finished second in the pole vault with a height of 12 feet even.
Other points for the Crickets in the girls' meet came from senior Mariah Sloop in the high jump, third at 4-10; freshman Johannah Grossinger in the 100-meter high hurdles in seventh; sophomore Audrey Koehler in the 1600-meter run, eighth and fourth in the 3200. The FC relay scores were sixth in the 800 relay and 1600 relays.
Fall Creek sophomore Koen Tumm is also highly ranked in the state in Division 3 in the triple jump where he finished fifth in Bloomer. The FC boys finished 11th as a team with 34 points as Hayward was winning the team title with 118 points, well out in front of Elk Mound which was second with 71. Scoring points for the Crickets were junior Ben Pilgrim in the 200, eighth; the 400-meter relay team, second; 1600-meter relay team, third; 3200-meter relay, fourth; Tumm, sixth in the long jump and junior Lincoln Burr in the discus, fourth.
Augusta was the site of the Dairyland Conference Team Meet last week Thursday, May 8, a preview of the regular DC meet taking place this coming Thursday in Whitehall (the rain date is Monday, May 19). The meet was split between large and small school divisions. Indy/Gilmanton just edged out Eleva-Strum by a margin of 985.50 to 982.5 to win the Large Division girls team title with Augusta fifth at 323 and Osseo-Fairchild sixth at 251. Whitehal topped E-S for the LDC boys team title 1,130 to 991 with Augusta fourth at 536 and O-F sixth at 280. Winning the SDC team titles were Lincoln in girls and Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran for boys.
In a true team meet all athletes score points regardless of finish with first place finishes getting 30 points and downward all the way to one if their are 30 athletes in a field.
Tri-County Area athletes who were in the traditional top eighth in the respecitve events among Large Dairyland Schools were as follows starting with the girls' meet:
In the 100-meter dash, sophomore Avery Spanberg finished second, freshman teammate Tatum Koxlien was seventh and Osseo-Fairchild senior Jillian Scheffer placed eighth; E-S senior Ella McConell placed third and Augusta sophomore Stephanie Bergman finished seventh in the 200; E-S junior Ashlyn Hansonwas second and her junior teammate Callan Skoug finished sixth in the 400; Sophomore Annelyse Preston won the 800 in 2:32.15; seniors Amalia Dyar and Olivia Spanberg of Eleva-Strum finished 4-5 in the mile run and were both 3-4 in the two mile; junior Aliza Kulig won the 100-meter high hurdles in :18.38 seconds while Augusta sophomore Viola MacDonald was fourth and Eleva-Strum junior Evelyn Barneson finished fifth; Kulig was second in the 300-meter low hurdles with Bergman fourth and E-S senior Olivia Caponigro seventh; Kulig finished second in the high jump, Skoug fifth and the Cardinals' Brenley Bauer finished sixth; Avery Spanberg finished second in the pole vault; freshman Taytum Koxlien of E-S was second in the long jump with McConnell fourth and O-F freshmen Addi Olsen and Finley Anderson seventh and eighth; Hanson was fifth in the triple jump with Bergman sixth, Augusta junior Zoey Guntner seventh and Barneson eighth; Caponigro and E-S senior Kenzy King were 1-2 in the shot put with Caponigro winning with a toss of 32-8 with O-F junior Makela Kiesow fifth and Augusta senior Tatum Kruger sixth. King won the discus with a toss of 112-10 and Caponigro second, Kruger third and Kiesow sixth. In the relays, E-S was second in the 400; 800 and 3200 and Augusta third in the 800 relay.
Tri-County Area athletes who were in the traditional top eight in the respective events among Large Dairyland Schools were as follows in the boys' meet: Junior Luis Kinser finished fourth for Eleva-Strum in the 100 and O-F senior Nolan Olson placed eighth; junior Logan Reisenweber and senior Brennan Hanner of Eleva-Strum were 3-4 in the 200; junior Russell Hulett of Central was fifth in the 400 with junior teammate Roman Mora Bates eighth; senior Jack Preston won the 800-meter run for the Redbirds in 2:11.74 with Augusta freshman Zale Pettis fifth; Augusta senior Preston Schafer finished second, E-S sophomore Shay Payne fourth, junior teammate Alex Awe sixth in the mile run; Schafer finished third in the two-mile while Awe was fifth and AHS junior Dasan Downey placed sixth; E-S junior Reede Brown was second, Thunder sophomore Jason Sedilio third, E-S sophomore Bo Windjue fourth in the 110-meter high hurdles; E-S junior Axel Young placed third and his junior teammate Gabe Wakefield was eighth in the 300-meter IM hurdles; Hulett finished second in the high jump while Jack Preston finished sixth; Reisenweber and Windjue both finished sixth in the pole vault; Windjue was fourth in the long jump and his teammates Kinser and Hanner finished 6-7; Hulett finished fourth in the triple jump, Young was sixth and Payne eighth; Mike Smith, a senior, won the shot put for Augusta with a toss of 42-4 with Central junior Jaxon Rindal second, the Beavers' Matt Hoff in fourth and O-F junior Matt Jennings fifth; Rindal won the discus with a throw of 127-4 with Smith behind hime at 124-7, Brown and his E-S teammate freshman Xavier Franzwa 4-5 and Hoff eighth. In the relays, E-S's team of Hanner, Kinser, Reisenweber and Brown won the 400 in :47.28. The E-S team of Hulett, Preston, junior Daniel Segerstrom and Payne won the 3200 relay in 9:10 and the Cards finished third in the 1600 relay.
Both Eleva-Strum and Fall Creek competed in the Mondovi Invitational on Monday, May 12. E-S was second in girls and fifth in boys team standings while FC was ninth in girls and seventh in boys out of nine teams competing. Durand-Arkansaw swept both team titles.
In the girls' meet, E-S was second in the 3200 relay; Dyar finished seventh in the 1600 run; FC sophomore Rylee Winsand was third, Kulig fourth and FC freshman Lydia Sopiarz fifth in the 100-meter high hurdles; McConnell finished fifth in the 100; The E-S 800-meter relay team of Bauer, Koxlien, Avery Spanberg and senior Kaya Franson won in a time of 1:57.12; Hanson finished sixth in the 400; E-S won the 400-meter relay in :54.96 seconds with a team of Franson, McConnell, Koxlien and Avery Spanberg; Preston was third in the 800; Avery Spanberg placed seventh in the 200; Olivia Spanberg finished sixth in the 3200; E-S was third in the 1600-meter relay; Sloop won the high jump at 4-10 with Kulig second and Bauer fifth; Sanfelippo won the pole vault at 12 feet even and Avery Spanberg was fifth; Koxlien finished eighth in the long jump; Barneson placed seventh in the triple jump; King won the discus with a toss of 118-2 with Caponigro third and Caponigro also placed third in the shot with King eighth.
In the boys' meet, the quartet of Payne, Preston, Hulett and Segerstrom won the 3200 relay for Eleva-Strum in 9:18; Pilgrim finished fourth in the 100; Brown finished third in the 110-meter high hurdles while Windjue was fifth; senior Caleb Steinke placed third in the mile run while Payne was eighth; E-S finished fifth in the 800 relay; junior Patrick Lebeis finished second in the 400 for Fall Creek; FC took second in the 400 relay while E-S was fifth; Young placed second in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles; Preston finished fourth in the 800; Hanner placed eighth in the 200; Awe finished eighth in the 3200 run; E-S took second in the mile relay; Steinke finished fourth in the high jump while Hulett finished seventh; Tumm was second in the triple jump and third in the long jump; Hulett finished eighth in the long jump; Rindal placed third in the discus and fourth in the shot put.
