Host of Hornets headed to La Crosse

Followers of the Colby track and field team will find many familiar faces at La Crosse this coming Friday at the WIAA D-3 state meet. Following their performances at the sectional meet held in Mondovi on Thursday, May 26, several Hornets will be making repeat appearances at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Among those who have competed in prior state meets is Malayna Rieck, who qualified in both the discus and the shot put. Rieck was the only Hornet to place first at the sectional meet, with her throw of 123 feet, three inches leading the way in the discus. Her second place finish in the shot put, with a distance of 34 feet, six-and-three-quarters inches, will send her back to La Crosse in the event she competed in last year.

Trinity Severson competed in four events in Mondovi and qualified for state in three of them. Her second place finish in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 47.96 seconds gives her the opportunity to compete in the event at the state meet for the second year in a row. The same 4x800meter relay team that participated in last year’s state meet, which consisted of Severson, Willow Oehmichen, Daisy Feiten and Mercedes Sarkkinen, finished fourth on Thursday with a time of 9:51.38.

Oehmichen is heading back to La Crosse in the pole vault after placing third in the event in Mondovi with a height of ten feet, three inches.

HaydenWillneristhenewfaceamongst the Hornet state qualifiers, qualifying as an individual in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 48.16 seconds and as a part of the school-record-holding 4x400meter relay team of herself, Severson, Feiten and Oehmichen. The team placed second at the sectional meet with a time of 4:10.91. Willner just missed qualifying for a third event, as her time of 16.74 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles resulted in a fifth-place finish.

Feiten placed seventh in a competitive 800-meter run event with a time of 2:27.27 and Severson placed ninth in the long jump with a distance of 14 feet, 11.5 inches.

Jazmyn Heeg finished 13th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 28.44 seconds, Pearl Feiten finished 10th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:06.69 and MaKenna Herrmann took ninth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:00.29 and 12th in the 3200-meter run with a time of 13:28.36. Reagan Schraufnagel also par- ticipated in the 3200-meter run, finishing 14th with a time of 13:39.86. Kaylee Podevels finished eighth in the high jump with a height of 4-10.

As a whole, the girls team placed fourth overall, improving on the team’s ninth place finish at sectionals one year ago. Their 57.50 points placed them only behind third place Fall Creek’s 63, second place Kickapoo/La Farge’s 64 and sectional champion Lancaster’s 72.50.

Caden Healy will be representing the Hornets boys team at the state championships. He will make his second appearance in La Crosse in the long jump, where a final distance of 20 feet, eight-and-a-quarter inches helped him punch his ticket with a second place finish at the sectional meet. Healy also competed in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, as well as the shot put. His fifth place finish in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.47 seconds was one-one-hundredth of a second slower than the fourth place finisher and left him just short of qualifying. He also just missed the mark in the 200-meter, as his time of 23.33 seconds earned him fifth place in the event. His throw of 44 feet, one inch netted him a tenth place finish in the shot put. After winning the shot put at the regional meet, Derek Jeske looked to continue his success in Mondovi. He would come up just short of qualifying for the state meet, finishing fifth with a distance of 46 feet, five-and-a-half inches. Jeske also took part in the discus, where a throw of 108 feet, three inches had him finishing 13th. Grant Oelrich’s throw of 113 feet, nine inches in the same event gave him a 12th place finish. Seth Hopperdietzel and Max Adams also participated in the sectional meet as individuals, with Hopperdietzel finishing ninth in the pole vault with a height of 10-6 and Adams finishing the 3200-meter run in 11:32.86 for 13th place.

Finally, three boys relays ran at the sectional meet. The 4x200-meter relay of Hopperdietzel, Caden Kleparski, Joseph Streveler and Tyler Timmers placed 16th with a time of 1:45.97, the 4x400-meter relay of Kleparski, Richard Streveler, Carter Roth and Josiah Bridger also placed 16th with a time of 3:59.38, and the 4x800-meter relay of R. Streveler, J. Streveler, Roth, and Adams placed 14th with a time of 9:38.74.

With the sectional meet complete, qualifiers now look ahead to the state meet to be held at UW-La Crosse. The meet is held over two days, with preliminary events to take place on Friday, June 3 and then final events taking place on Saturday, June 4. D-2 and D-3 will be running their events concurrently. Both track and field events should begin at 3 p.m. on Friday.