Elk Mound’s Keinin Miller places and earns points in pair of state meet sprints
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ELK MOUND senior Grandt Mueller is shown clearing the bar during the Division 2 high jump competition held Saturday morning , June 1 at the 2024 WIAA State Track and Field Championships in La Crosse. Mueller finished in 11th place. He also finished 14th in the state D2 triple jump competition on Friday, May 31. —photo by Jacob Maes Photography
LA CROSSE — For the second consecutive year, Keinin Miller scored all of the Elk Mound boys’ points at the state meet.
In Saturday’s competition, the junior speedster copped a eighth-place finish in the Division 2, 100-meter final and followed it a few hours later by taking sixth in the 200-meter final to provide the Mounders’ squad with all four of their points at the 2024 WIAA State Track and Field Championships which were held Friday and Saturday, May 31 and June 1 at the Veterans Memorial Field Complex on the UW-La Crosse campus.
While temperatures were ideal throughout the two-day event, rain did fall during the first few hours of Saturday’s competition.
Miller, who qualified with a ninth-place showing in Friday’s 100 meter preliminaries following a run of :11.35, ran an identical time in Saturday’s morning’s finals despite wet conditions to finish eighth and earn a team point.
FLOATING ACROSS the finish line in Saturday afternoon’s Division 2, 200 meter state finals was Elk Mound’s Keinin Miller. The junior finished sixth in the race with a time of :22.09. Miller also placed eighth in the 100 meter finals that same day and scored all four of the Mounder boys’ points at the 2024 WIAA State Track and Field Championships.
—photo by Zach DeWitt
He also took tenth and the final qualifying spot in Friday’s 200 meter prelims with a time of :22.53. A day later, Miller trimmed nearly a half second off his previous day’s time as he ran a :22.09 to finish sixth in the finals and earn a spot on the medals podium and three more team points.
Joshua Onwunili of Campbellsport won both sprints, posting a :10.70 in the 100 meters and a :21.53 in the 200 meters.
The top six place finishers in each event were awarded medals and were recognized on the infield podium while the top eight in each event scored team points.
Miller wasn’t the only Elk Mound athlete competing in last weekend’s state meet.
Senior Grandt Mueller returned to the state meet for a second straight year and capped his prep career by competing in a pair events.
Mueller, who competed in the long and triple jumps and the high jump in last year’s state meet, returned in the triple and high jumps this season.
In Friday’s Division 2 triple jump competition, Mueller finished 14th in a field of 16 competitors with a jump of 41 feet 4 inches. Lodi senior Gavin Sargeant leaped 47 feet 9.5 inches to capture the Division 2 gold medal for a second consecutive year.
Saturday morning’s rain and wet conditions seemed to hinder Mueller’s efforts in the high jump as he cleared just 5 feet 10 inches, four inches less than his sectional jump a week earlier, to place 11th. Ellsworth senior Parker Woodland won the event with a clearance of 6 feet four inches.
With the four team points scored by Miller, Elk Mound finished in a four-way tie for 41st place in the final Division 2 boys’ team standings.
Lakeside Lutheran compiled 81 points to win a second straight Division 2 boys’ state championship. Somerset was the state runner-up with 37 points edging out Middle Border Conference mate Osceola who placed third with a 34.5 points. Rice Lake and Freedom tied for the Division 2 girls’ state championship with 45 points each. Rice Lake also won the girls’ state title a year ago.