Lady Hilltoppers finish as sectional track and field runners-up, boys take ninth
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TOPPERS’ senior Yasmin Mendez won the sectional shot put last Thursday in Cameron with this throw of 35’ 1” to beat Jeanette Hydukovich of Colfax by only three-quarters of an inch. Mendez also placed sixth in the discus. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
CAMERON — Glenwood City had seven individuals, including four as sectional champions, along with three girls’ relays qualify for the WIAA Division 3 state track and field championship, which will be held at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the UW-LaCrosse campus this Thursday, June 24.
Hilltoppers Yasmin Mendez, Will Eggert, Austin Nelson, and Malachi Keller each won individual championships in their respective events at the WIAA Division 3 sectional track and field meet held Thursday, June 17 at Cameron High School.
A senior-led effort highlighted by Yasmin Mendez’ win in the shot put along with second-place finishes from Marie Garcia in the 100 meters; the 4×100 and 4×200 meter relay teams; a third from the 4×400 meter relay team; and a pair of fourths, one each by Lexi Wannemacher and Bella Rassbach, had the Glenwood City girls finishing in second place among the 32 teams that scored points in Cameron last Thursday. The Toppers tallied 57.5 points while Ladysmith finished with 74 to take the girls’ sectional team title.
The Glenwood City boys with their trio of first-place medal winners came in ninth with 39 points. Chetek-Weyerhaeuser claimed the boys’ crown with 59 points just edging out runner-up Grantsburg by a single point and third-place Clear Lake by four.
With just a handful of sectional competitors, Boyceville had just one athlete, sophomore Haylee Rasmussen, qualify for the state meet.
On the strength of Rasmussen’s third in the high jump, the Bulldog girls placed 29th in the sectional meet with 5.50 points. The Boyceville boys’ team did not score a point.
The top four place winners in each sectional event earned a state berth.
Glenwood City
Senior Yasmin Mendez saved her best throw for the finals. She threw the shot 35 feet and one inch to overtake Colfax freshman Jeannette Hydukovich to win the girls’ sectional shot put title by three-quarters of an inch. Mendez also placed sixth in the discus with a throw of 98’ 5”.
The Glenwood City girls also scored three second place finishes in Cameron last Thursday.
Marie Garcia, another of the Toppers’ talented Class of 2021, ran a :13.07 in the 100-meter finals to finish as the runner-up. The 4×100 meter relay team of Maddie Booth, Brenna Schwartz, Hailey Hannah, and Garcia took second in :53.67. That same quartet finished as the runners-up in the 4×200 meter relay with a 1:51.98 – just five hundreths of a second off their school-record pace set in Monday’s regional meet.
The team of seniors Bella Rassbach, Kinzie Strong and Lexi Wannemacher, and junior Bella Simmons finished third in the 4×400 meter relay after turning in a time of 4:18.39.
Rassbach and Wannemacher also earned individual state berths. Rassbach finished in a fourth-place tie in the long jump with a leap of 16’ 1.75” while Wannemacher crossed the finish line of the 300-meter low hurdles in :48.64 to also place fourth.
The girls 4×800 meter relay just missed qualifying for state when it finished fifth in a time of 10:48.06. The team consisted of Gabby Moede, Wannemacher, Simmons, and Strong.
Simmons also earned a team point when she placed eighth in the 1,600-meter run (5:50.70).
Junior Brenna Schwartz cleared 6’ 6” to finish 11th in the pole vault.
All three of the Toppers boys’ state qualifiers won their respective events.
Will Eggert soared to victory in the triple jump with a best attempt of 43 feet even – a new personal record for the senior. Junior Austin Nelson flew passed his competition in the 400-meter dash to claim the gold medal in a time of :51.71, and freshman Malachi Keller topped the high jumpers with a first-place height of six feet. All three had also won those events three days earlier at the regional meet in Colfax.
CLEARING THE BAR and winning the sectional high jump was Toppers’ freshman Malachi Keller. He jumped six feet to win the gold medal at the sectional meet in Cameron June 17 and earned a trip to the state championship in LaCrosse this Thursday. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
The boys’ 4×200 meter relay team of Eggert, Keller, Wyatt Thompson, and Drew Olson ran a 1:38.12 to place fifth, just missing the state cut by one place.
PREPARING to make a high jump attempt at the June 17 sectional track and field meet in Cameron was Boyceville sophomore Haylee Rasmussen. She finished in a tie for third place following a successful jump at five feet and qualified for this Thursday’s state meet in LaCrosse. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
Taking seventh were sophomore Brady Klatt in the discus (126’ 7”) and the 4×800 meter relay squad of Elek Anderson, John Jager, Anthony Nelson, and Austin Nelson (9:20.86).
The boys final team point came in the 4×100 meter relay where the team of Thompson, Klatt, Keller, and Eggert ran a :47.75 to finish in eighth place.
Elek Anderson just finished outside the points, taking ninth in the 800-meter run.
Boyceville
Sophomore Haylee Rasmussen will be Boyceville’s lone representative at the 2021 state meet after she finished in a two-way tie for third place in the high jump. Rasmussen and Chequamegon senior Kristina Peterson both cleared five feet even in the sectional competition.
Rasmussen also competed in the triple jump, placing 14th with a leap of 30’ 10.5”.
Junior Shiloh Wheeldon finished 14th in the 100-meter-high hurdles (:19.96) and the 4×400 meter relay team of Emma Gruenhagen, Jaden Stevens, Rasmussen, and Wheeldon took 11th (4:35.02).
Freshman sectional representatives Caden Wold and Peter Wheeldon were not able to garner any points in the meet. Wold finished just outside the points, which are given to the top eight place winners, when he took ninth in the long jump (18’ 18.75”). Wheeldon cleared 5’ 4” in the high jump to place 13th.