Four Colfax track and field athletes conclude high school careers

COLFAX — A trio of experienced athletes and a newcomer represented the senior class for Colfax High School on the track and field team this spring. Heidi Lieffort and Noah Pretasky were both four year letter winners, Emily Halpin competed three years and  Allison Yingst was a rookie this year. All four of them persevered through meets that took place in rain, wind, high heat and high humidity which they will remember for years to come.

Lieffort was a highly diversified athlete, competing in the high jump, 300m  hurdles, relays, the discus and what turned out to be her specialty, the pole vault. In her freshman year, she was third in the conference meet in the pole vault and ninth in the high jump and 300 hurdles, placed second in the regional meet in the pole vault and was seventh in the 4 X 400 relay. After placing second at sectionals in the pole vault, she qualified for state and although she did not make the opening height, she gained some valuable experience. As a sophomore, she increased her height in the pole vault to 8-06 at the conference meet and was sixth in the 300 hurdle event, then won the pole vault at the regional meet and took second in the hurdles. After taking the runner up spot at sectionals again in the pole vault, she placed 11th at state at 8-03.

Moving on to her junior year, Leiffort (with a little push from her Aunt Tina Rothbauer, the school record holder in the discus) added the discus throw to her list of events. She won the conference meet in the discus, took second in the pole vault and tenth in the hurdles. At the regional level, she won the pole vault at 8-06 and was second in the discus, qualifying for state in both events. She earned a medal by placing fifth in the pole vault at 9-03 and was eighth in the discus with a toss of 107-05. She continued to score points in several events throughout her senior year, winning the conference meet in the pole vault at 9-10, earning a second in the discus with a heave of 125-03, a third in the high jump and an eighth in the 300 hurdles to lead the team to a second place finish. She won both the pole vault and discus at the regional and was fifth in the high jump, won the pole vault at sectionals and placed second in the discus to advance to state in both events again. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago in the state write-up, a steady rain hit the La Crosse area on both days of the meet, and a mix up with an official caused problems for Lieffort. After moving the pole vault indoors, Lieffort finished second with the same height as another athlete, but had more missed attempts which put her in second place with a school record of 10-00. Running off to do her warm-ups for the discus, she was then called over to receive her pole vault medal but the official (who later admitted he had made a mistake) would not let her check out to do so. She had to complete her three throws immediately or be disqualified. Needless to say, her last chance of breaking her aunt’s record went down the tubes as she scratched on two of her three throws.

“It was a bittersweet day for my last meet,” Lieffort said. “The rain made it miserable for everyone, but by moving the pole vault inside, we had a chance to compete under good conditions. After four years at state, it was exciting to break my own school record and finish second. But I was disappointed I didn’t have the chance to prepare for the discus. I had been throwing so well at the end of the season and I think I could have medaled with a decent throw. But all in all, I had a great four years and I plan on continuing in track by competing on the UW-Stout team next year,” she added.

Pretasky also competed all four years at the state level, starting as a freshman on the 4 X 100 relay. He and his teammates won the conference and regional meets and took third at the sectional before finishing 12th at state. As a sophomore, he was a member of the conference winning 4 X 100 relay, took fourth in the 100m dash, fourth in the long jump and fifth in the 200m dash. At the regional meet, he was on the first place 4 X 400 relay team and on both the runner up 4 X 200  and 4 X 100 relay while placing fifth in the long jump. During the sectional meet, Pretasky, along with Dallin Dahnke, Greg Christoffel and Garrett Miller, broke the school record in the 4 X 100 relay in 44.69 and he was also on the winning 4 X 400 relay team. The 4 X 400 went on to take fourth at the big show with Dahnke, Hayden Fehr and Miller finishing at 3:30.39,  while the 4 X 100 was fifth at 44.78.

As a junior, he ran a personal best 11.58 for third in the 100m dash, took fourth in the 200 and 13th in the long jump. He was at his peak when it counted, winning the 100 and 200 at regionals and winning the 100 at sectionals with a fourth in the 200. Back at state again, Pretasky finished 10th in the 100 but did not qualify for the finals in the 200. Senior year brought some struggles with injuries and along with several meets run in bad weather, Pretasky had trouble finding his stride. He was third in the conference meet in the 100, fourth in the 4 X 100 and fifth in the 200, but again came up big by placing second at regionals in the 100 and third in the relay. His third place at sectionals in the 100 sent him back to state along with his third place relay team. In his final meet, he did not get to the finals in the 100 and ended up not running the relay due to an injury.

Halpin came into her own in the throws her junior and senior years after placing third in the discus at conference her sophomore year. She placed 11th in the discus and 12th in the shot put at the conference meet her junior year then threw a personal best 86-00 in the discus to claim third at the regional meet with an eighth in the shot put. She then finished tenth at the sectional meet in the discus. She began to show off her speed her senior year, running in a couple of different relays as well as doing her throws. She ran a leg of the fourth place 4 X 200 at the conference meet while taking ninth in the shot put and 13th in the discus. She qualified for sectionals as a part of both the 4 X 200 which took third at the regional meet, and the 4 X 100 which was fourth. But her throw of 96-09 in the discus was only good enough for fifth place and her shot put toss of 30-00.75 put her sixth to end her throwing days. In the sectional meet, the 4 X 200 was ninth at 1:56.8 while the 4 X 100 was tenth in 55.26.

Yingst may have wished she had started track a few years earlier as it took a while for her to find her niche. She ran some relays, tried the 200m dash, 400m dash and the long jump. She helped the 4 X 400 relay earn some conference points with a seventh place in 4:50.96 and she was 14th in the long jump. She leaped 13-06 at the regional meet in the long jump for ninth place.