The THS track teams took a long bus ride to compete against familiar opponents in Thursday’s WIAA Bloomer Sectional.
Much more was on the line, however, with state berths in the balance.
The Hatchets raised their performance level to make sure they created plenty of state meet entries, with three individual qualifiers and three relays.
The top four positions advance in D2 and D3. Bryan Tomek had the top finish with a runner-up PR of 4:27.53 in the 1600M, and Hanna Meyer was 3rd in the triple jump at 34′ 6.5″. The 800M team of Jacob Ungerer, Austin Bellile, Neko McMahon and Eddie Yirsa broke the school record by 2/10ths with a third-place 1:33.44.
Breanna Renn set a PR of :12.83 to advance 4th in the 100M, and the boys 1600M team (Yirsa, Bellile, Mcmahon, Tomek, 3:29.52) and the girls 800M group (Meyer, Emmy Larson, Katie Koth, Renn, 1:50.99) also placed 4th.
“It was a long trek to Bloomer and our athletes along with the athletes in the GNC handled it well,” THS coach John Zuelsdorf said. “In many of the relays it looked like the GNC Meet with Lakeland, Medford, Tomahawk and Pines in many of the key advancing positions. That really showed the strength of our regional and conference in general.
“For the qualifiers, it’s special, especially for our seniors. Eddie, Katie, Breanna, Neko, Austin and Jacob have all had it as their goal to end their season in LaCrosse and now it’s a reality. They have worked hard for this and are excited for this opportunity.
“For our underclass athletes, led by Bryan and Hannah as individual qualifiers along with relay qualifier Emmy, it will be great experience to reach the pinnacle level of their sport.”
Grace Mickelson (9′ 6″ SB in pole vault) and Sam Schade (108′ 3″) both just missed out on a state spot while placing 5th. The 9′ 6″ height ranked as high as 3rd, with fewer misses, and the 108′ 3″ throw was just 2″ shy of a qualifying place.
The 400 team of Meyer, Larson, Koth and Renn tied for 6th in :53.09. Alex Zedler PR’ed with an 8th-place 12:41.76 in the 3200. The 400 team of McMahon, Bellile, Yirsa and Ungerer also ran 8th (:45.71).
Kaitlin Gaedtke (300 LH, :51.88) placed 9th, and the 3200 squad of Dani Whiting, Audrey Dichsen, Talyn Jones and Zedler put up a SB 10:47.02 to end up 11th.
“Before we stepped off the bus onto the facility at Bloomer we reminded our athletes that they were there to compete and shoot for seasonal bests and PR’s,” Zuelsdorf said. “They did and they all can hold their heads high, even if they didn’t advance to this week’s state venue.”
The girls finished 8th with 27.5 points, while the boys were 15th of 32 teams with 20. Osceola topped Hayward 81-77 for the girls title and Prescott bested Somerset 60-54 in the boys event.