Elk Mound boys repeat as D-SC track and field champions, girls finish third
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ELK MOUND’S Allie Robel cleanly cleared a hurdle during the 100 meter highs at the Dunn-St. Croix Conference track and field meet held in Boyceville May 14. The sophomore finished second in a time of :16.52 and also took the silver in the 300 m low hurdles.
—photo by Shawn DeWitt
BOYCEVILLE — For a second straight year, the Elk Mound boys’ track and field team dominated the Dunn-St. Croix Conference meet.
Under near perfect conditions, the Mounder boys showed off their talent and depth once again as they copped eight first-place finishes, four seconds, five thirds and a dozen other top eight finishes (team points were awarded for first through eighth place in each event) to capture back-to-back championships at the 2024 Dunn-St. Croix Conference meet held Tuesday, May 14 at Evenson Field in Boyceville.
The Elk Mound boys scored 184 points, exactly matching last year’s winning tally, to easily best runner-up Durand-Arkansaw by a whopping 72 points as the Panthers finished with 112 points. Glenwood City took third with 105.5 points while host Boyceville placed fourth out of the eight conference schools competing with 92 points.
Senior Lydia Levra scored a trio of gold medals in the sprint events and placed fifth in the long jump to led the Elk Mound girls. The Lady Mounders also had three thirds and a quartet of fourth-place showings to bring home third place after scoring 127.83 points in a very tight race for the girls’ team title. In fact, less than 17 points separated the top three schools. Mondovi won its third consecutive girls’ team championship with 144.33 points. Durand-Arkansaw placed second after tallying 133 points followed by the Mounders. Colfax was a distant fourth with 67.
Elk Mound’s boys dominated the sprint events and jumping events again this year and brought in first-place finishes in a relay and the shot put.
ELK MOUND senior Grandt Mueller is shown on his way to winning the 110 meter high hurdles in :16.43 at the 2024 Dunn-St. Croix Conference track and field meet held Tuesday, May 14 in Boyceville. Mueller also won the high jump competition and took second in the long jump and triple jump to help the Mounder boys repeat as conference champions. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
Senior Grandt Mueller and junior Keinin Miller each placed first in a pair of events and pointed in two others to account for 67 of the squad’s points.
Mueller won his second straight conference high jump crown when he cleared six feet two inches in Boyceville last Tuesday. He also grabbed a gold medal in the 110 meter high hurdles with a winning time of :11.66 in the finals. In addtion, he copped a pair of second-place finishes in the long jump and triple jump with leaps of 21 feet even and 40 feet and 11.75 inches, respectively, finishing behind fellow senior Caden Wold of Boyceville in both events.
Keinin Miller won back-to-back 100 and 200 meter conference titles with respective runs of :11.66 and :22.83. Miller came in third in the 400 meter dash with a time of :51.62 and jumped 19 feet to place fourth in the long jump.
Senior Tyler Gagner finished second to Miller in the 100 meters with a run of :11.85, and later in the meet, won the 300 meter intermediate hurdles in :42.41.
Junior Brooks Burcaw and Landon KasaKaitas also contributed wins to the Mounders total. Burcaw cleared nine foot and six inches to take first in the pole vault and finished eighth in both the 110m high hurdles (:19.33) and 300m intermediate hurdles (:47.28). KasaKaitas threw 46 feet and six-and-a-quarter inches to win the shot put.
The boys’ final gold medal came in the 4×100 meter relay which they won in a time of :45.93. They also medaled in the other three relay
MOUNDER junior Keinin Miller (left) crossed the finish line first to defend his conference title in the 100 meter finals at the Dunn-St. Croix meet in Boyceville May 14. Miller also won the 200. Senior teammate Tyler Gagner (right) finished second in the 100 meters and won the 300 m intermediate hurdles. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
events, taking second in the 4×400, third in the 4×200 and fourth in the 4x800m relays.
Two other seniors placed and scored points in a pair of events. Caleb Beskow cleared five feet six inches in the high jump to finish third and hurdled to fifth place in the 300m intermediates with a run of :46.26. Graycen Banaszak took third in the discus with a fling of 117 feet seven inches and was sixth in the shot put with a heave of 37 feet three-and-a-half inches.
Sophomore Rownan Soul-Stewart ran a :17.70 in the 110m high hurdles to earn a bronze medal.
The top three finishers in each event also earned all-conference designation. Events winners made the first team, runners-up were second-team honorees and third-place medalists made the list as honorable mention.
The top eight places earned team points.
Taking fourth were senior Jesse Moyer in the 3,200m run (11:20.99) and sophomore Dalton Banaszak in the high jump (5’ 6”); senior Gabe Jenson heaved the steal shot put 37 feet three-and-three-quarter inches for fifth; sophomore Teegan Wright finished sixth in the 400m run (:57.15); freshman Hudson Banaszak ran to seventh in the 1,600m (5:12.50); and junior Parker Dutzle finished eighth in the 200m dash (:57.15).
As previously noted, senior Lydia Levra finished with most individual wins for Elk Mound s she earned three golds in Boyceville and accounted for 34 team points by herself. Levra dominated the girls’ sprint events winning the 100 meters in :12.91, the 200 meters with a time of :27.02 and the 400 meters with a one-lap time of 1:00.23. She also took fifth in the long jump with a best of 14 feet ten-and-a-half inches.
Like Levra, sophomore Taylor Frinack finished well in the sprints and pointed in four different events. She was third in the 100 (:13.27), the 200 (:27.94) and the 400 meters (1:03.94) and went six feet six inches in the pole vault to finish eighth.
Joining in the sprint success was junior Savannah Nechanicky who took second in the 200 meters (:27.65) and was fifth in the 100 meters (:13.39).
Senior Carly Mohr’s final conference meet yielded three point-getting finishes. She took fifth in the 100m high hurdles (:18.21), was sixth in the 300m low hurdles (:56.19) and leaped to seventh in the high jump (4’ 4”).
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SPRINT QUEEN — Elk Mound senior Lydia Levra (second from left) ran a :12.91 in the 100 meter finals to win gold at the 2024 Dunn-St. Croix track and field meet in Boyceville on May 14. Levra also won the 200 and 400 meter championships. Sophomore teammate Taylor Frinack (far right) also ran in the 100m final as well as the 200 and 400m and placed third in all three sprints. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
our other Mounder girls earned placement and points in two events each.
Sophomore Allie Robel earned a pair of second-place finishes in the 100m high (:16.52) and 300m low hurdles (:49.52) and just missed scoring a point in a third event when she finished ninth in the high jump.
Freshman Lauren Gabert went 15 feet 11 inches to finish third in the long jump and cleared four feet seven inches in the high jump for fifth. Fellow freshman Abby Wolf scored eighth-place finishes in the 100m high (:20.63) and 300m low hurdles (:59.20).
In the distance runs, senior Marley King was fifth in the 3,200 meters (14:47.05) and eighth in the 1,600 meters (6:24.81). King just missed scoring a point in the 800 run when she placed ninth.
The girls’ 4×100 meter relay team struck gold in a time of :53.40 while the 4×200, 4×400 and 4x800m relay squads each placed fifth.
The Elk Mound teams were back in action Monday in Bloomer they competed in the WIAA Division 2 regional. The top four finishers in each event will advance to this Thursday’s (May 23) sectional meet at Colby High School.
Boys’ Team Scores
1. Elk Mound 184, 2. Durand-Arkansaw 112, 3. Glenwood City 105.5, 4. Boyceville 92, 5. Mondovi 75, 6. Spring Valley 61, 7. Colfax 39, 8. Elmwood-Plum City 26.5.
Girls’ Team Scores
1. Mondovi 144.33, 2. Durand-Arkansaw 133, 3. Elk Mound 127.33, 4. Colfax 67, 5. Spring Valley 61, 6. Elmwood-Plum City 54.83, 7. Boyceville 51.5, 7. Glenwood City 51.5.