Greenwood, Loyal athletes place at state track and field event

By Valorie Brecht Last Friday and Saturday brought athletes from all over the state to Veterans Memorial Field Complex at UW-La Crosse for the WIAA State Track and Field Meet, with five individuals and one relay team from Loyal competing, and one individual from Greenwood competing, all in Division 3. Several returning athletes were able to either maintain or improve upon their performance from last year.

Friday afternoon saw hot, humid weather with highs reaching the upper 70s. The sky clouded over halfway through the afternoon and remained overcast into the evening, providing welcome relief to the athletes and spectators. Saturday saw a steady, light rain lasting through midmorning, at times becoming heavier. By around 11:30 a.m., the rain had stopped but the sky remained clouded over, keeping it cool and breezy for the competitors.

Greenwood Greenwood High School’s Renaya Horvath, a sophomore, made a return appearance at state. She took first place in the girls 100m wheelchair race, making her a two-time state champion in that event. She finished with a time of 27.91 seconds. She also competed in the girls shot put wheelchair, with a distance of 13’5”. That was a substantial improvement from 11’8”, her distance last year at state. A new state event for her this year was the girls 400m wheelchair race, which she took second in with a time of 1:57.04.

Overall, she was the state runner-up for girls track and field wheelchair and received a trophy and plaque commemorating her accomplishment.

Loyal Loyal High School saw nine athletes travel to state. They are listed with the year in high school they just completed.

Sheila Tellock, a senior, returned to state to compete in the girls pole vault after taking eighth in the event last year. This year, she was able to improve her standing to fourth place, clearing the bar at 10’6”. She made her goal of reaching the podium, which is reserved for the top six places.

“Sheila started the season with a bad ankle. But she’s a very competitive athlete and that’s probably why she made it back to state this year,” said her coach, Jim Genteman.

Tellock came into the competition ranked fourth in the state and took fourth, so she did not overachieve nor underachieve. The competition was held inside due to the rain. Jim Genteman said he was not sure if that affected Tellock’s performance or not. Regardless, he was glad for what she achieved.

“I’m proud that she met her goal. She wanted to get on the podium and she accomplished that,” said Jim Genteman.

Tellock also set the school record in the pole vault this year.

Olivia Nikolai also competed in the pole vault at state. She was unable to clear the bar at its starting height and thus did not place at state.

“They were starting the bar at her PR (personal record). So she wasn’t able to start lower and work up to it,” said Jim Genteman.

Still, “I think she was tickled, to say the least, to get to state. She really improved a lot this season. It takes a lot of effort to get to state. When you’re looking at the top 14 athletes in the pole vault, it’s very competitive. To give you an idea, if she had improved by a foot, she would get into the top seven.”

He said he was proud of Tellock, Nikolai and fellow Loyal athlete and Payton Tsai for putting in extra effort to improve their pole vaulting. The three of them went to the Spencer Pole Vault Club this year.

“Both of them (Tellock and Nikolai) worked very hard and worked jobs to afford the pole vault club. That allowed them to start pole vaulting right away in the spring while the weather’s still bad outside… It shows their dedication to the sport.”

Addysen Wolf, a sophomore, took seventh in the girls 100m dash with a time of 13.05 seconds. In the 200m dash, she took 12th in the preliminary round with a time of 26.48 and did not qualify for finals. This was a return trip to state for her, as she took eighth last year in the 200m dash.

“Addy had an unfortunate accident early in the season and hurt her ankle. Her parents got her into good therapy and that helped,” said Jim Genteman.

“She may have been a little disappointed (in how she performed at state). But she was coming off an injury, and with an injury, she wasn’t always getting the workouts she wanted this season. Also, running two days in a row (at state) can affect something. She was one-hundredth of a second away from reaching the podium and she had her heart set on that. So it’s disappointing that she got hurt early, but she recovered and made some noise at state.”

Wolf also won four events at conference this year and set the school record in the girls 100m dash.

Above: Loyal’s Sheila Tellock (left) receives the baton from Summer Smith in the 4x100m relay event. The team, which also included Noelle Teschner and Addysen Wolf, placed ninth at state. At right, Loyal’s Connor Genteman completes the final steps across the finish line in the 800m run. He took eighth place in the event.

At left, Greenwood’s Renaya Horvath poses with her coach Steve Geisthardt and her mother Tera Horvath upon receiving the second place team award for the WIAA State Girls Track and Field Wheelchair Championship. She won the team award after competing and placing in three individual events at state.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS

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Senior Connor Genteman took eighth place in the boys 800m run with a time of 1:58.50. This was a significant improvement from last year when he took 15th at state in that same event.

Connor Genteman shied away from the mile and decided to focus on the 800 this year. Over the course of the season, he set the school record in the 800, beating his brother, who held the previous record, which he enjoyed. He was ranked 11th in the state heading into Saturday’s competition.

“It was very competitive. All 10 runners above broke the two-minute mark sometime this year. This is the first time I’ve ever seen that. I don’t think that’s happened before for D3… I thought he might end up with a 1:58.50 and that’s where he ended up. He PR’d by 1.5 seconds and everybody else PR’d too.

“It’s definitely a milestone getting below two minutes. Then you start getting into the conversation of, ‘That’s a pretty good 800 runner.’” Connor Genteman plans to attend UWEau Claire next year and will try for both the track and cross country teams. Jim Genteman said it will be a positive for Connor to have teammates running close to the same time as him or even a little faster, as they can motivate each other, versus Connor leading the pack as he did for a lot of races this season.

The girls 4x100m relay team took ninth place, with a time of 51.67 seconds. The team consisted of Tellock, Wolf, junior Noelle Teschner and sophomore Summer Smith, with juniors Hope Peroshek and Molly Zvolena as alternates. Tellock and Wolf were returners from the 4x100m team that placed second at state last year.

Jim Genteman said once again, it was a highly competitive field.

“Of the 16 teams at state, 13 of them were within a half of a second. All it takes is a little bit here and there to lose that. And of the other 12, not all of them are going to have a bad race. But, the girls got to the

finals, which was a goal of theirs. They were happy about that.”

He also emphasized that it was truly a six-person team, even though only four can take to the track.

“The six girls all deserve credit. They all competed this season and all did great. The two alternates could easily have run at state. (Assistant coach) Kyle Damask did a great job with all the relays, as well as the sprinters.”

Bryce Deegan, a sophomore, competed in the 400m dash, taking 13th in the preliminary round at 53.35, so he did not qualify for finals.

“He got sick right before the race, so that had a bearing on it,” said Jim Genteman. “But he had a good year.”

“Bryce is probably one of the greatest athletes in central Wisconsin. Pretty much any sport he can do. He spends a lot of time on basketball and his ankles get injured, sometimes his knee,” said Jim Genteman. “It’d be nice to have him the whole season without basketball, but we will take him whenever we can.”

Despite injuries and Deegan also training for basketball, he was still able to achieve a personal record at sectionals and win the conference meet in the 400.

“He really came on strong at the end of the year. I’m looking forward to two more years with him,” said Jim Genteman.

Overall, the coach said his athletes should be happy with what they achieved, especially considering how many talented athletes were stacked against them in every event.

“I’m pretty proud of all of them. I think they all did great and I can’t say enough about them.”

Jim Genteman also extended his appreciation to his co-coaches – Damask, Matt Kubista and Seth Schilling, and Rebekah Smith, and Kristin Ikert at the middle school level – and the community as a whole.

“It also takes good parents, good administration and a good following from the student body to make this happen,” he said.