Hornet track teams finish second inAugusta

By Nathaniel Underwood

Augusta Invitational

Colby notched a pair of second place team finishes in Augusta last Thursday evening. The boys 108 team points only trailed Owen-Withee’s 130 points and the girls team’s 127.50 points were second to the Blackhawks 142 points.

The Hornets won a combined total of nine events, the most of any meet in 2024. All three of the boys’ wins came in the field events, with Erik Martinez, Seth Hopperdietzel and Xander Buchanan all taking the top spots in their respective competitions. Martinez’s win in the discus was the closest of the three, with the senior’s throw of 118 feet, one inch just edging out Columbus Catholic’s Lucky Laessig by half a foot in the event. He also had a solid performance in the shot put, where he placed second with a throw of 38 feet, 10 inches.

The other two boys’ margin of victory gave them a bit more breathing room. Hopperdietzel had a two-foot advantage over Loyal’s Payton Tsai and Columbus’s Seth Roewe in the pole vault, finishing the day with a height of 12 feet, four inches and Buchanan was two jumps ahead of everyone else in the high jump, clearing a height of five feet, 10 inches to take the win. Teammate Caden Kleparski was the next closest in high jump, finishing in second with a height of five feet, six inches.

On the girls side, Daelyn Rieck won both throwing events with throws of 40 feet, one inch in the shot put and 125 feet, three-and-three-quarters inches in the discus.

Distance runners Ali Adams and Casey Reynolds won the 1600-meter and 3200-meter runs respectively, with Adams claiming her first win of the season with a time of 6:19.83 and Reynolds picking up her victory by completing her race in 12:46.53. Annamarie Schmitt added a second place finish in the 3200-meter run, finishing behind Reynolds with a time of 13:12.63. The 4x800 relay of Adams, Reynolds, Schmitt and Alexis Vanderhoof also took first in Augusta, defeating Whitehall’s relay by over a minute with a time of 11:24.03.

Pearl Feiten had the final victory for the Hornets, winning the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:03.28, beating out Owen-Withee’s Kendall Weiler by over a second. The junior also finished as the runner up in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:40.03.

Veronica Mateer and Max Adams also picked up seconds for Colby. Mateer did so in the triple jump, where her leap of 29 feet, 10 inches narrowly defeated Loyal’s Molly Zvolena while trailing only Whitehall’s Alexis Correa. Meanwhile, Max Adams also just came out on top in a battle for second. His time of 4:49.49 in the 1600-meter run was just over a tenth of a second better than Colton Paczkowski of Owen-Witheee.

Kleparski grabbed a pair of third place finishes in the sprinting events for the sprints, posting times of 12.44 seconds in the 100-meter dash and 56.21 in the 400-meter dash. Tori Underwood also got third place in a sprint, earning her spot in the 200-meter dash with a time of 30.63 seconds. She also notched a fourth place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 14.56 seconds. Kaitlyn Weiland and Edynn Hinker both had thirds in field events while Rolyn Hopperdietzel and Oliver Steen added thirds in the field for the boys squad. Weiland earned hers in the high jump with a height of four feet, four inches and Hinker had the third best throw in the shot put with a distance of 28 feet, seven inches. Rolyn Hopperdietzel grabbed his third in the long jump, posting a leap of 17 feet, three inches and Steen was not far off the pace of his teammate in the discus, putting up a throw of 116 feet, 11.75 inches.

Wausau East Invite

The Hornets also competed at Wausau East’s Sawmill Invitational last Tuesday, where the girls team took fourth place overall with a total of 77.50 team points while the boys squad placed fifth with a final score of 43.75.

Wausau West grabbed first place in the girls competition, finishing with a final score of 163 points while Stratford claimed the top spot amongst the boys teams with a final score of 212.75.

Daelyn Rieck and the girls 4x800-meter relay team continued their successful seasons by notching wins in three events. Rieck topped both of the girls throwing events, winning the discus with a throw of 120 feet, six inches and taking first in the shot put with a toss of 38 feet, 10 inches. Meanwhile, the 4x800-meter relay grabbed the top spot with a time of 11:08.15, defeating the Stratford relay by two seconds.

The girls distance runners also found a good amount of success in the 1600-meter run, where they had three athletes finish in the top-eight. Casey Reynolds took second in the event, finishing with a time of 6:05.42, Annamarie Schmitt picked up fourth place with a time of 6:17.12 and Ali Adams finished in seventh with a time of 6:41.55.

Sprinter Jazmyn Heeg added another scoring performance to her season’s resume by taking fourth in the 100-meter dash. The senior finished in 13.22 seconds.

Veronica Mateer and Kaitlyn Weiland picked up points for the Hornets in the field events, with Mateer taking fifth in the triple jump with a distance of 30 feet, five-and-a-quarter inches and Weiland placing sixth in the high jump after clearing a height of four feet, four inches. Max Adams and Xander Buchanan had the top placements for the boys team last Tuesday. Adams took fourth in the 3200-meter run, completing the day’s longest race in 10:57.50. Buchanan, meanwhile, had a pair of fourth place finishes in the field events, earning his spot in the high jump by reaching a height of five feet, six inches and doing so in the triple jump with a leap of 37 feet, five inches. Caden Kleparski also scored in the high jump, taking seventh with a height of five feet, four inches.

Erik Martinez picked up a sixth place finish for the Hornets in the shot put with a throw of 40 feet, two inches.

FIRST PLACE THROW - Daelyn Rieck added four more throwing event victories to her season’s resume over the past week. STAFF PHOTO/MATT FREY 150139_ 6

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