Area teams look to repeat as champs
What does it take to repeat?
That's the question a lot of Tri-County Area prep spring sports teams will have to ask themselves in the 2026 season.
There were a good number of conference champion teams, such as Fall Creek baseball and softball in the Western Cloverbelt, Osseo-Fairchild baseball in the Large Dairyland, Fall Creek's girls in track and field.
There were some close runner-ups as well, looking to take that final step to the top like Eleva-Strum and Augusta in Large DC softball and E-S in girls track.
This will be tough for the Cardinal girls tracksters to do because not only are the Duellman sisters, Addy and Paxstyn, back to lead the defending champion Cochrane-Fountain City in the distance events and relays but E-S lost two seniors that dominated the throwing events in Kenzy King, who qualified for state in the discus, and Olivia Caponigro along with other point-scoring senior girls such as Olivia Spangberg, Amalia Dyar, Kaya Franson and Ella McConnell in various other individual events and relays from last year's Dairyland meet. They also graduated Jack Preston who was the DC's 800-meter run champ. Central does have 12 returning letter winners for boys and 11 for girls on a 44-person team, athletes like Russell Hulett, Aliza Kulig, Avery Spanberg, Taytum Koxlien, Jaxon Rindal, Logan Reisenweber, Daniel Segerstrom, Shay Payne, Bo Windjue, Axel Young and Reede Brown.
"Time will tell who's going to be contributor for us and where but we hope we have enough to make a run at C-FC in the girls' meet and Whitehall in the boys' meet this season." E-S coach Nadine Rivang said.
Augusta's boys graduated their top throwers in Mike Smith, DC shot put champ, and Matt Hoff but return runners like sophomore Zale Pettis and Dasan Downey and Stephanie Bergman along with Zoey Guntner in the jumps.
FC's girls tracksters will have to repeat without the services of the great Alena Sanfelippo, not only three-time state champion in the pole vault but scorer of plenty of other points for her Cricket team in her four years, including a state title in the triple jump last year. Also gone are state qualifiers and place winners like Mariah Shoop, Lydia Williams, Corina Grossinger and Reese Lucken, But FC has back sprinter and state placewinner Rebecca Sturz, runners Rylee Winsand, Audrey Koehler, Jamie Johnston and Johanna Grossinger. Winsand got the Crickets' season off to a good start as she scored the points to put her team in the top ten of the big indoor meets they were in at UW-Stout the past two weeks. State qualifier Koen Tumm in the jumps along with Jackson Tangley and Ben Pilgrim are top returnees on the boys side of things.
Ten returning lettermen are back for Fall Creek High School; Baseball Team as they try to repeat as Western Cloverbelt champs, making a remarkable run to the top late in the season and finishing 18-9 overall. These ten are Ethan Westrate, Josh Wright, Logan Gustafson, Jamison Rochester, Finley Wright, Tyler Biegel, Bryson Bann, Bryson Elkins, Kaden Prock and Braylen Prorok. Nathan Kurtz was the lone senior letter-winner to graduate. Freshmen Heath Rosemeyer and Cass Short have potential to be key contributors to the team as the Crickets will battle Elk Mound, one of the top teams in the state last season and newcomer to the WCC, along with Chippewa Falls McDonell, Eau Claire Regis and Bloomer, who the Crickets tied with at the top.
"We expect to be a competitive team each time we take the field and rely on our experience as we return 8 starters from last year's team," FC head coach Matt Prissel said. "We will hope to build on team chemistry throughout the season and work to play together and play for each other. Ideally, we would develop a strong cohesion that would enable us to achieve at high levels and to be playing our best baseball of the season when the tournament begins in May."
Eight players are back for Osseo-Fairchild, which just edged out Melrose-Mindoro and Whitehall for first in the Large DC in the final week of the regular season. These eight players are Sr. Mason Schmidt (2nd Team All Conference) Sr. Drew Paulus, Sr. Colton Williams, Jr. Drew Hanson, Jr. Emerick Korger, Jr. Brooks Koxlien (1st Team All Conference), Jr. Blaine McCune and Jr. Tyler Smith. While the Thunder lost Tryggve Korger (1st Team All Conference), Drake Swett (2nd Team All Conference) and Brady Loesel to graduation, players like Sr. Noah Filla (Third Base/Catcher), Sr. Logan Curtis (Third/First Base, Pitcher), Sr. Noah Sullivan (Infield), Sr. Chance Smith (Outfield), Jr. Noah Krueger (Infield/Outfield/Pitcher) and Jr. Mason Knudtson (Pitcher) are moving up to give the Thunder every chance of defending their title which they won for the first time since the 1980s and advance in the playoffs. The Thunder finished 18-5 overall.
Even though we lost two senior pitchers (15 wins between them) from last year's Conference Championship team, we are hopeful to be in the mix for a Conference Championship run again," O-F head coach Matt Korger said. "This will not be easy as Melrose-Mindoro and Independence/Gilmanton return all of their players from last year's teams. Eleva-Strum will have two top end pitchers in their pitching rotation and Blair-Taylor will be looking to repeat as Small Dairyland Champs. I see us being very good defensively and with eight hitters back from last year, improved offensively as well. Losing 15 wins on the mound is no small feat to try and replicate, but we have two senior pitchers ready to go in Mason Schmidt and Drew Paulus as well as seven juniors who saw time on the mound last year during the JV season and Legion. It will be competitive for positions on the field and in the standings."
The pitchers for E-S Korger mentioned were seniors Calvin Barneson and Noah Martinson. They're back from last season's 10-13 squad along with teammate and fellow senior Titan Miller.
Competition in the Dairyland Large Division for softball will be just as fierce to win the title. Defending champ Melrose-Mindoro has three first team all -conference players back from last season while Eleva-Strum senior pitcher Ruby Bartholomew and junior Maddea Brown, both first teamers All-DC are back as well as is Augusta sophomore pitcher Laney O'Brien and teammate junior Brooklyn Krueger. O'Brien was honorable mention All-District by the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association.
Other returning letterwinners for Augusta, the defending regional champs and 16-10 last season, are Haley Strauch, Breleigh Bruder, Cecelia Schroeder, Rachel West, Maddi Meyer, Stella Zank, Rilee Bethke and Sophie Bergman. Parker Waugh was the lone senior letterwinner who graduated. Head coach Joe Zawacki hopes Faith Bergman, a freshman, has a good chance of contributing right away this season.
"She has a lot of speed and works hard. She has a great attitude and works hard." Zawacki said.
Not only would AHS love to repeat as regional champs but accomplish much more this season.
"We put together a really tough schedule to challenge our girls this season," Zawacki said. "We have four games against pre-season Top 10 teams in the state and eight games against teams that played in a Regional Final, Sectional, or State game last season. We won our first Regional Final in 33 years last year and it's hard not to have the expectation of repeating that this year. We have a loaded regional/sectional, so we know that it is going to be really hard to do. "
Meanwhile, the team that won the regional title two seasons ago and came oh-so-close to making it to state that year will have one more season with All-Conference, All-District and All-State honorable mention Ruby Bartholomew (P 2.74 ERA, .475 BA), junior Mariah Steffenson (.220 BA), Brown (.478 BA) and Karli Hart. However the Cardinal lost six starters from last season's 14-7 squad, best record in school history, including all-conference performer Olivia Norby. Head coach Amy Miller hopes Eden Segerstrom (freshman), Riley Malota (freshman) and Josie Iverson (junior) didn’t play her sophomore can replace these departed seniors.
"Eden is extremely fast and will make an impact in the outfield," Miller said. "Riley is a utility player and can play anywhere on the field and Josie didn’t play her sophomore year but is extremely athletic and can play 1st base or outfield."
Miller acknowledges this will be a young squad to put around Bartholomew, Brown and Steffenson but she feels there's enough time in the season and enough talent to jell into a contender as they did two years ago.
"We are a very young team and Ruby is an exceptional pitcher," Miller said. "We need to put balls into play on offense and keep the errors down on defense."
Would Fall Creek's softball team love a repeat performance as conference, regional, sectional and state runner-ups or state champions as they've been the past two seasons? Absolutely! But they'll have to do so without an extraordinary core of juniors and seniors from back in 2024 through 2025 that have passed through the program and who led it to its greatest heights.
From those teams, all that remains is junior Kamryn Dahlberg, junior Reese Asmussen and senior Delany Lewandowski. Sophomore Avery Ludescher made all-conference last season. Everyone else and all the all-state, all-district and all-conference honors they obtained along the way have graduated, and this includes from last season the all-state triumverate of pitcher Grace Herrem, Kennedy Tumm and Emma Westrate along with Addy Haynes, Kendyl Asmussen, Anna Dougherty and Larissa Johnson.
