Elk Mound boys claim D-SC Championship; girls third

HAMMOND – After finishing as runner up to St. Croix Central last year, the Elk Mound boys track and field team turned the tables and finished ahead of Central to claim the Dunn-St. Croix Conference title at the meet held May 14 in Hammond. It is the eighth overall title for the Mounders and the first since 2010. The girl’s team also took great strides by placing third after finishing sixth last year.

 It seems there is no happy medium temperature wise for the Mounders as just five days earlier they competed in a steady rain at Boyceville, and on this day they battled the heat with the thermometer hitting 95 degrees. Even so, three individuals won their events for the boys along with three relay teams. Dakota Tarnow continues to run strong in the 110 hurdles coming in at 16:10 for a personal best time, Josiah Bauer heaved the shot put a personal best 46-07, and Jonah Bauer, just a freshman, zipped past all competitors to win the 100 m dash at 11.21 and the 200 m dash at 22.81, both personal bests in his short career. He was also a member of the winning 4 X 100 relay team with Yeng Her, Tyler Deutschlander and Jordan Klemp with a time of 45.90. The 4 X 200 with Deutschlander, Klemp, Adam Gottschalk and Tarnow were first with a time of 1:38. 46, three seconds ahead of second place Colfax and the 4 X 400 relay ran to a win with Ryan Bridges, Hunter Alexander, Nate Mack and Mitch Zimmer finishing at 3:40.98.

The girls saw Andie Friberg win the pole vault title at 9-00, Elly Friberg took the high jump  with a leap of 5-00 and Alyssa Buros threw the shot put a personal best 36-02 for a win. The 4 X 100 relay team consisting of the Friberg sisters, Waive Melgaard and McKenna McVey also won their event at 52.69.

“This was the first meet that every school had to compete in with high heat,” Mounder coach Jeff Mack said. “We were all concerned with each athlete’s physical state. Every team ran their athletes in multiple events to maximize their total points which means some kids were doing things they may not have done throughout the year. So we  really needed to monitor the condition of each athlete. Our kids put the heat out of their mind and far exceeded anything we thought they were capable of and competed at a high level. We knew we had some givens like Dakota Tarnow in the hurdles and Andie Friberg in the pole vault but we had some surprises as well. Shawn Lane scored points in every distance event, Ryan Bridges gutted out a win in the 4 X 400, Jon Adank jumped almost three feet further then his personal best in the triple jump for points and Nate Mack jumped a personal best 6-02 in the high jump which is five inches higher then his own height. But every athlete performed well and I am proud of all of them,” he added.

Following are all other Elk Mound competitors with places and times/distances. A personal best is indicated by “pb”.

BOYS INDIVIDUAL: 4 X 800 relay: 3. Zimmer, Mack, Lane, Drew Sternecker 8:50.75; 110 hurdles: 7. Nevin Melgaard 18.22; 100 m dash: 5. Bridges 11.77, 8. Deutschlander 12.14 pb; 1600 m run: 3. Ben Holzwarth 4:58.18, 6. Lane 5:09.59; 300 m hurdles: 3. Tarnow 45.04, 10 Melgaard 48.25; 800 m run: 2. Mack 2:09.38 pb, 3. Zimmer 2:09.64 pb; 200 m dash: 3. Klemp 23.51 pb, 7. Bridges 24.27; 3200 m run: 3. Holzwarth 10:58.05, 4. Lane 11:42.35, 8. Lucas Winter 12:08. 10; High Jump: 3. Mack 6-02 pb; Pole Vault: 4. Tarnow 11-06; Triple Jump: 6. Adank 39-06 pb, 10 Travis Nelson 36-02; Discus: 3. Gabe Anderson 120-10 pb, 10. Adank 101-10; Shot Put: 6. Bridges 40-11 pb, 8. Anderson 37-07

GIRLS INDIVIDUAL: 4 X 800 relay: 6. Samantha Jain, Hannah Flatness, Rachel Caron, Danae Sternecker 11:34.95; 100 m dash: 4. A. Friberg 13.79, 8. Abbey Olson 14.66; 1600 m run: 6. Emma Hayes 5:57.95, 7. Flatness 6;00.05; 4 X 200 relay: 3. Olson, Moriah Mauer, McKenna McVey, Melgaard 1:56.40; 400 m dash: 11. Caron 1:09.36, 12. Corrine Zimmer 1:11.57; 300 m hurdles: 13. Jamie Solem 1:00.98; 800 m run: 7. Hayes 2:39.36, 8. Flatness 2:48.54, 9. Sternecker 2:49.57 pb; 200 m dash: 2. McVey 27.75 pb, 3. A. Friberg  27.95 pb; 3200 m run: 8. Kayla Black 14:53.35, 9. Jain 15:06.92; 4 X 400 relay: 5. Caron, Flatness, Alex Hagberg, Zimmer 4:38.58; Long Jump: 2. E. Friberg 16-00 pb, 8. Mauer 14-06.50, 13. Hagberg 13-02; Triple Jump: 11. Mauer 29-03.50 pb , 13. Paxtyn Pavelski 28-04.25; Discus: 3. Burros 101-00.75 pb, 9. Anne Kendzierski 79-10; Shot Put: 6. Kendzierski 30-10 pb,10. Taylor Deling 28-03

BOYS TEAM SCORES: Elk Mound 156, St. Croix Central 130, Colfax 91, Glenwood City 89, Spring Valley 71.50, Boyceville 68, Mondovi 49, Elmwood-Plum City 47.50

GIRLS TEAM SCORES: Mondovi 143, St. Croix Central 102, Elk Mound 100, Elmwood-Plum City 99, Colfax 93, Glenwood City 65, Spring Valley 62, Boyceville 27