Boyceville, Glenwood City tracksters fare well at regional meet

By Cara L. Dempski

BOYCEVILLE — It was not just the sunshine and clear skies that made the Monday track and field meet at Boyceville such a nice one for the Bulldogs, Hilltoppers and a host of other Division 3 teams.

The Glenwood City boys’ team earned third place in the May 22 regional meet held at Boyceville, and the girls took fifth. Boyceville’s ladies finished fourth as a team, and the boys were sixth. Both schools boasted a series of strong individual performances that sent more than a few athletes to this coming Thursday’s sectional meet at Colfax.

The Hilltopper boys’ relay team of Darian Multhauf, Jacob Nelson, Carson Strong and Jacob Kopacz won the 400m, 800m and 1600m relays, while the Boyceville boys’ team of Kiel Anderson, Rian Corr, Michael Chich and Caleb Hagen took third in the boys’ 3200m relay to send the teams from both D-SC schools in the region to sectionals.

The Glenwood ladies continued to hold their own in running events, while the Boyceville girls kept up their strong performances in field events to send a handful of girls from each team on to sectional competition. The one surprise for the day was the Lady Toppers’ second-place finish in the 800m relay after Boyceville was disqualified for both a dropped baton and an exchange outside the zone.

Individuals earning first through fourth at regional meets qualify for sectionals, while the top four finishers in each sectional event earn state berths.

The Bulldogs and Hilltoppers will compete at the May 25 Colfax sectional for spots in the state track and field meet held June 2 and 3 at UW-LaCrosse.

Glenwood City

If you were looking to watch some good relay races at the May 22 regional at Boyceville, you definitely got used to looking for blue jerseys and shorts marked with a red and white “GC” on them.

The Hilltopper boys accrued 85 points for a third-place team finish behind regional champions Grantsburg and runners-up Webster, and the girls took fifth with 88 points after Shell Lake edged out second-placed Grantsburg to take the girls’ regional championship.

And some of the strongest Glenwood performances of the night came from the relay teams. Of course, in some cases, a dropped baton can be your best friend.

The boys’ relay team of Nelson, Kopacz, Strong and Multhauf earned the right to run again in the 400m, 800m and 1600m relays after winning all three with times of 45.08, 1:34.38 and 3:42.02. They will hit the track again May 25 at Colfax.

Ethan Kahler will compete in both the 110m and 300m hurdles at the sectional meet after winning the 110m race in 18.03 and taking second in the 300s behind Webster’s Dustin Kern with a time of 43.64. Peter Hill will join him in the 300 race after he took third when he finished in 45.47.

Hill will also compete in the high jump at Colfax, after he placed third in the event at Boyceville with a 5-10.00 jump. He was bested by Turtle Lake jumper Erik Bauer, who cleared 6-06.00 for the win.

Quinn Taylor is heading to sectional for a field event. He placed third in triple jump with a 38-07.25 effort; Bauer won this event as well with a 40-04.50 jump.

The girls’ 3200m relay team of Taylor Drinkman, Emily Bethell, Elizabeth Wink and Megan Speiser lead the race for all eight laps and took the win after finishing in 10:27.56, nearly 30 seconds ahead of second-place Clear Lake.

Wink and Speiser also earned sectional spots after finishing second and third in the 400m dash. Wink raced to a 1:03.39 finish, while Speiser’s race was over in 1:04.94. Grantsburg runner Gracie Gerber won with a 1:03.19 race.

Isabella Williams took third in the 1600m run in her rookie track and field season after finishing in 6:01.74, a little over 20 seconds behind race winner Hallie Jensen of Grantsburg. Drinkman and Bethell were then bested by Jensen in the two-mile race, finishing second and third with times of 12:39.62 and 13:08.50 respectively.

Hanna Strehlo moved on to sectionals with a third-place, 53.79 race in the 300m hurdles behind first-place Julia Pokorny of Shell Lake.

The one surprise for the girls’ team came in the 800m relay, where the Topper team of Bethany Ullom, Tressa Peskar, Hanna Strehlo and Delaney Quinn earned second place behind Turtle Lake/Clayton with a time of 1:58.12.

The Glenwood City ladies were trailing the Boyceville squad by a few seconds after the second leg when a botched handoff from Boyceville disqualified the Bulldog  team and left the window open for the Toppers.

It was a true fight to the finish, with anchor Delaney Quinn just edging out the Shell Lake runner for second place.

Boyceville

You could see the anguish on the face of Boyceville’s Carlee Schultz as she fell to the track in tears after a botched handoff from her teammate Naomi Hillman caused a dropped baton and then a few steps outside the exchange zone to disqualify the Bulldogs’ girls’ 800m relay team from the race.

They had been running in second place up to that moment.

It made for a rough night on the track for the May 22 regional track and field meet Boyceville hosted, but the ladies were still able to nab a fourth-place team finish while the boys were sixth out of nine teams.

Despite the DQ in the 800m relay, there were many bright spots for the Boyceville girls at the meet. Seniors Cassie Malean and Erica Sempf earned trips to the May 25 sectional at Colfax in multiple events.

Malean picked up fourth in the girls’ 100m dash and was part of the Bulldogs’ 400m relay team with Sempf, Carlee Schultz and Naomi Hillman that took second place in 52.75 behind race winner Shell Lake. She also took the region’s best high jump into the Thursday meet after winning the event with a height of 5-00.00.

Sempf was fourth in the girls’ 200m dash with a time of 28.73, a little over one second behind race winner, Shell Lake’s Nicole Mikula. The senior also jumped 15-08.00 in long jump to finish second behind Mikula in the event.

Junior Emily Voelker raced to a fourth-place finish in the 400m dash with a time of 1:06.44, and earned third place in the girls’ 1600m relay with Lauryn Dominick, Megan Hintzman and Naomi Hillman to take their team to Colfax. The team finished in 4:36.43, just over nine seconds behind race winner Grantsburg.

The girls’ 3200m relay team of Dominick, Voelker, Tara Gunnafsen and Rachel Becker finished the race in third behind winner Glenwood City with a time of 12:07.83.

In field events, Brooklyn Booth made it to sectionals with a 8-03.00 height in pole vault behind winner Julia Pokorny of Clear Lake. Paulina Wenke took third in shot put with a 32-08.50 throw, while Tiringo Mosher of Webster earned the win with a toss of 34.10.50. Junior Haley Wold earned second in discus with her 108-07 throw, and was topped by just Ashlea Meister of Shell Lake, who beat Wold by a single inch. Wenke finished the event with a throw of 102-08 for fourth place.

On the boys’ team, Caleb Hagen will be headed to Colfax for the 800m run after finishing his race in 2:09.92 to take fourth behind a trio of runners from Webster. Kiel Anderson finished the 3200m run in 11:38.43 for third place after Turtle Lake/Clayton’s Kent Nonemacher won the event.

The Bulldog boys’ 1600m relay team was just over seven seconds behind race winner at 3:49.37 to earn a sectional spot, and the 3200m relay took third in 9:02.93 after Webster took the win in 8:30.15.

Tyler Krueger and Brandon Kenefick proved dominant in the regional pole vault standings, taking first and second in the event. Krueger cleared 12-06.00, and Kenefick got over 12-00.00 to take the top two spots.

BOYS’ INDIVIDUAL RESULTS: 100m dash: 10. Trystin O’Connell 13.14; 400m dash: 7. Michael Chich 1:00.24, 10. Jacob Nadeau 1:00.86, 11. Owen Wagner 1:00.96, 13. Dylan McNew 1:03.58, 14. Kyle Meyers 1:06.53; 800m: 4. Caleb Hagen 2:09.92, 10. Jabin Hojem 2:22.36, 12. Emmett Kapsner 1:55.44; 1600m: 5. Jabin Hojem 5:08.22, 7. Kiel Anderson 5:11.35, 8. Rian Corr 5:19.21, 10. Lane O’Meara 5:32.37, 12. Ryker Ferg 5:36.53; 3200m: 3. Kiel Anderson 11:39.43, 5. Ryker Ferg 12:11.37, 6. Corey Klatt 12:39.47; 110m hurdles: 1. Ethan Kahler 18.03; 300m hurdles: 2. Ethan Kahler 43.64, 3. Peter Hill 45.47, 9. Justin Lombardo 48.38, 11. Addison Mertz 52.02; 400m relay: 1. Glenwood City 45.08; 800m relay: 1. Glenwood City 1:34.38; 1600m relay: 1. Glenwood City 3:42.02, 2. Boyceville 3:49.37; 3200m: 3. Boyceville 9:02.93; High jump: 3. Peter Hill 5-10.00, 7. Justin Lombardo 5-02.00; Pole vault: 1. Tyler Krueger 12-06.00, 2. Brandon Kenefick 12-00.00, 5. Owen Wagner 10-00.00, 6. Jacob Nadeau 9-06.00; Long jump: 5. Quinn Taylor 19-01.00, 9. Trystin O’Connell; Triple jump: 3. Quinn Taylor 38-07.25; Shot put: 13. Austin Wannemacher 36-00.50, 19. Jordan Klatt 26-10.00; Discus: 8. Allen Croes 101-11, 11. Damien Waller 89-09, 16. Jordan Klatt 66-08.

BOYS’ TEAM RESULTS: 1. Grantsburg 146, 2. Webster 137, 3. Glenwood City 85, 4. Clear Lake 82, 5. Turtle Lake/Clayton 74, 6. Boyceville 54, 7. Siren 36, 8. Prairie Farm 35, 9. Shell Lake 29.

GIRLS’ INDIVIDUAL RESULTS: 100m dash: 4. Cassie Malean 13.75, 16. Julia Nerby 15.86, 17. Leire Diaz 16.36, 18. Denisa DeSmith 17.90; 200m dash: 4. Erica Sempf 28.73, 5. Megan Speiser 29.19, 6. Tressa Peskar 29.72, 12. Megan Hintzman 31.68; 400m dash: 2. Elizabeth Wink 1:03.39, 3. Megan Speiser 1:04.94, 4. Emily Voelker 1:06.44; 800m: 5. Lauryn Dominick 2:43.73, 6. Makayla O’Brien 2:45.17, 8. Isabella Williams 2:51.13; 1600m: 3. Isabella Williams 6:01.74; 3200m: 2. Taylor Drinkman 12:39.62, 3. Emily Bethell 13:08.50; 100m hurdles: 5. Hanna Strehlo 19.39, 9. Jasmine Windsor 22.00; 300m hurdles: 3. Hanna Strehlo 53.79, 8. Leire Diaz 1:01.35, 9. Jasmine Windsor 1:07.26; 400m relay: 2. Boyceville 52.75, 6. Glenwood City 57.71; 800m relay: 2. Glenwood City 1:58.12; 1600m relay: 3. Boyceville 4:36.43; 3200m relay: 1. Glenwood City 10:27.56, 3. Boyceville 12:07.83; High jump: 1. Cassie Malean 5-00.00, 5. Emily Bethell 4-04.00, 6. Bethany Ullom 4-02.00, 7. Brooklyn Booth 4-02.00, 9. Delaney Quinn 4-02; Pole vault: 4. Brooklyn Booth 8-03, 5. Mikayla O’Brien 7-09.00, 6. Megan Hintzman 7-06.00, 7. Emily Voelker 6-06.00; Long jump: 2. Erica Sempf 15-08.00, 8. Naomi Hillman 13-06.25, 14. Carlee Schultz 13-00.00; Triple jump: 7. Carlee Schultz 30-02.25; Shot put: 3. Paulina Wenke 32-08.50, 5. Haley Wold 30-03.00, 8. Jasmine Windsor 28-03.50, 19. Hallie Cook 25-00.25, 20. Delaney Quinn 24-08.00, 22. Biridiana Leandro-Mendez 24-05.25; Discus: 2. Haley Wold 108-07, 4. Paulina Wenke 102-08, 6. Satina Chilson 96-06, 12. Biridiana Leandro-Mendez 75-08, 23. Hallie Cook 43-02.

GIRLS’ TEAM RESULTS: 1. Shell Lake 132.50, 2. Grantsburg 130, 3. Webster 99, 4. Boyceville 97.50, 5. Glenwood City 88, 6. Clear Lake 51, 7. Turtle Lake/Clayton 49, 8. Siren 23, 9. Prairie Farm 19.