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Colfax track and field duo competes at State

COLFAX’S Kameri Meredith cleared a hurdle during the Friday, June 1 running of the girls’ WIAA Division 2 100 meter high hurdle preliminaries at the state track and field championships in La Crosse. Meredith set a personal best time of :16.17 to finish 13th. —photo by Shawn DeWitt

LA CROSSE – The experience was their reward.

Although Colfax’s sophomore state track and field participants Kameri Meredith and Morgen Jensen did not medal or score any points at last weekend’s WIAA State track and field championships held at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex on the UW-La Crosse campus, both garnered valuable experiences that can hopefully be called upon in future state bids.

Kameri Meredith was the first of the Vikings’ state duo to compete as she ran in the Friday afternoon, June 1, Division 2 100 meter high hurdles event. Meredith saved her best for the final performance of the season, setting a personal record by over two-tenths of a second, to finish 13th in the race with a time of :16.

And even though she did not qualify for the following day’s finals (only the top ten advanced).Meredith’s accomplishments were outstanding considering that she only came out for track this past season and began hurdling just over a month ago.

“Kameri Meredith was fantastic at state,” stated Colfax head coach Ryan Krall.

“Running a personal best by over .2 seconds was a really remarkable feat considering the lack of experience she has in the sport,” continued Krall.

“It would have been completely understandable if the moment would have been too big for her and the venue led her to a poor result, but she is a fierce competitor and didn’t let any of those things get in her way,” Krall added. “It was a little bittersweet to miss the finals by such a close amount (.12 seconds) but I think it will only make her more hungry for next season to make that next step into the upper echelon of hurdlers in our state.”

Fellow classmate Morgan Jensen’s turn came the following morning in the June 2 Division 2 state discus competition.

Jensen tossed the discus 108’ 1” to finish 12th in the 16-girl field. Had Jensen matched her sectional throw of 120’ 6”, she would have taken eighth and earned a team point.

“Morgan Jensen was disappointed with her result on Saturday but she really didn’t have any reason to feel that way,” noted Coach Krall. “While she didn’t match her season best throw from the Sectionals the week before she did a great job of hanging with her technique and throwing her best on her final attempt, which means a lot especially on that stage.”

“From what she was throwing last year (86-0 as a PR) to this year being a state qualifier in Division 2 I’d say she has a lot to be proud of if you look at her season as a whole. The future is very bright for her – we look forward to what the next two years will bring,” stated Krall.

Krall concluded by saying, “State was really the icing on the cake for us this year. The fact that we got anyone to La Crosse to compete on that stage was a bonus from what we expected early in the season. The jump up in divisions was a real challenge for us this year – we were forced to run time achieve results that we just haven’t had to achieve before in order to make it to state. But our kids stayed positive all season and worked really hard to try and qualify – I’m very grateful for the effort that all of them demonstrated this year.” 

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