Thompson captures state track medal in 400 meter, Hannah and boys’ 4×800 relay place

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LA CROSSE — Glenwood City sophomore Brady Thompson added to his collection of state track and field medals this past weekend.

After winning gold and bronze medals a year ago as a member of the Hilltoppers’ state championship 4x400m relay squad and their 4x800m relay team that finished third, Thompson copped his first individual medal when he finished fifth in the Division 3, 400 meter dash at the 2024 WIAA State Track and Field Championships.

While Thompson was one of six Glenwood City athletes to compete in this year’s culminating event of the Wisconsin high school track and field season, he was the only Hilltopper to return from La Crosse with a coveted medal.

The top six finishers in each event earned medals and made the awards podium while first through eighth earned team points.

After qualifying for the finals with a seventh-place finish of :50.59 in Friday’s preliminaries, Thompson shaved nearly  a quarter of a second off that time as he ran a :50.35 in Saturday’s Division 3 final to take fifth place which not only put him on the medals’ stand but gave the Topper boys four team points.

Thompson was also a part of the boys’ 4×800 meter relay along with fellow sophomore Clayton Hoffman and juniors Ilan Anderson and Elliott Springborn that opened this year’s Division 3 state meet Friday afternoon with a 16th place finish in a time of 8:44.28.

Senior Conner Gross, competing in his second straight Division 3, state shot put competition, finished 15th with a heave of 42 feet 10.50 inches. In last year’s state meet, Gross had a best effort of 45 feet 3.25 inches which had him finishing in the 14th slot.

On the four points garnered by Thompson’s fifth-place showing in the 400 meter dash, the Glenwood City boys finished in 51st place in the final Division 3 standings which they shared with five other schools – Reedsville, Flambeau, Brookwood, Deerfield and Bonduel. Iola-Scandinavia won the
D3 state title with 45 points with  Stratford scoring 34 to take home the silver trophy.

The Hilltoppers’ lone female state representative, senior Haylie Hannah, capped her prep track and field career by participating in her third consecutive state pole vault competition. After finishing sixth two years ago and taking second in last year’s state meet, Hannah just missed her bid for a third straight podium pose when she finished in a tie for seventh place with a top jump of 10 feet even. Due to the morning’s rain, Saturday’s pole vault competitions were held inside UW-La Crosse’s recently completed indoor field house. Fall Creek junior Alena Sanfelippo repeated as the D3 state champion with a vault of 12 feet.

With the 1.5 team points Hannah received for her seventh-place tie, the Topper girls finished 58th along with Roncalli. Deerfield took the Division 3 girls’ state team championship with 42 points. Cameron scored 39 to finish second.