Viking tracksters earn trio of fifth places at state meet
By placing in the top six of their respective events, several athletes from Colfax earned medals at the Division 3 State Track and Field meet held in La Crosse May 31-June 1. Team points were awarded for the first eight places and the girls finished with nine points for 26th place and the boys scored six points for 36th place.The meet was held under sunny skies with a bit of wind to contend with both days.
Senior Michael Larson placed fifth in the high jump, an event he just began competing in this year, with a leap of 6-00 which was an inch higher than his sectional jump. For the girls, junior Heidi Lieffort, in her third trip to state in the pole vault, placed fifth this year with a personal best vault of 9-03 after last year’s 11th place finish at 8-03. The girls ‘4 X 800 relay also took fifth with sophomore Dannielle Dachel, seniors Ryleigh Prochnow and Brittany Rothbauer and freshman Dempsey Fogarty coming in with a time of 9:57.14, cutting nine seconds off their personal best time. Lieffort added a team point by placing eighth in the discus throw, heaving it 107-05.
Senior Garrett Miller came close to breaking the school record in the 400 m dash this year but in his final attempt came up a little short of both a medal and the record, placing seventh with a time of 50.96. Junior Noah Pretasky qualified for the finals in the 100 m dash and finished 10th in the race at 11.68 while the all senior 4 X 800 team of Lachlan Hinwood, Matthew Almquist, Larson and Miller concluded their high school careers in 12th place in a time of 8:34.23. Pretasky also competed in the 200 m dash but did not make it to the finals with his 24.43 time.
Dachel claimed a 14th spot in the 800 m run at 2:29.77, beating her best time by a second, senior Hannah Hover ran the 200 m race in 29.01 but did not qualify for the finals and Fogarty, perhaps a little nervous, false started and did not get to run in her 400 m race. Hover, battling a back injury, also ran with the 4 X 200 relay team along with Prochnow, sophomore Katie Christoffel and junior Katy Toycen as they ran a personal best time of 1:53.20 in the prelims but did not get to the finals with that time. The 4 X 400 relay of Dachel, Prochnow, Rothbauer and Fogarty had a time of 4:15.84 for 12th place in the prelims.