Large group of area athletes advances to sectional track meet

The Northland Pines and Three Lakes-Phelps track teams competed in the most important track meet to date yesterday, as plenty of area athletes will have a shot at the WIAA State meet in La Crosse. Thirty (30) Northland Pines track athletes advanced from regionals by finishing in fourth 

place or higher in their respective events, while four advanced for Three Lakes-Phelps at the Stratford regional. 

The Eagles will compete in the D2 sectional at Rice Lake this Friday, May 29, at 4 p.m. Three Lakes athletes will compete at Marathon High School, starting at 3:30 p.m. 

Thirty athletes advance 

It was an even split between the boys’ and girls’ teams for Northland Pines, with 15 athletes from each team advancing to sectionals. For the boys, there were four first-place finishes, two second-place finishes and six third and fourth-place finishes. 

Senior Jacob Beer topped the podium in the 100m dash, posting a time of 11.23. Josh Graves also took first place in the 200m with a time of 23.75. 

A race to the finish in the 800m boys’ relay put the Eagles on top with a time of 1:31.35, with second-place Lakeland Union having a time of 1:31.50. Pines threw out Hunter Tameling, Beer, Ryan Rydeski, and Graves to anchor the event. 

Mason Minaudo (14-3) broke the school record for the pole vault on his way to a win in the event. 

Tameling also ran the 200m individually and took second place behind his teammate Graves to advance. 

Jackson Olejniczak, Xavier Gaffny, Noah Duffek and Rydeski took second in the 1600m relay, as the four athletes posted a time of 3:35.53. 

A third relay squad has a shot at state for the boys; this time, it was the 400m relay team that took third. 

Ethan Wirth was one of two shot put throwers to make it through to sectionals. Layk Evenson-Mortag also had a good night by advancing through two events individually. He took third in both the 110m and 300m hurdles with times of 16.05 and 43.04, respectively. Bodie Bakken and Brendan Ceckiewicz took fourth in the 100m dash and shot put, respectively, as both moved on. 

For the girls, two school records were highlighted at regionals with first-place finishes. Junior Avery Renkes finished with a time of 12.60 in the 100m dash, and she was also part of the first-place finishing 400m relay team. 

Ella Hahn, Adi Thompson, Ava Carrillo and Tatum Meier were two seconds out of first place in the 800m relay, as they took second place with a time of 1:49.65. All four relays eventually advanced through regionals, as the Eagles’ 1600 and 3200m finished third and fourth, respectively. Cheyenne Hyrczyk finished strong in the high jump to finish in third out of 10 scored athletes.

Other advancing fourth-place performances included Ava Meyer (18.53) in the 100m hurdles, Carrillo (9’3”) in the pole vault, and Thompson in both the long and triple jump. 

Stratford regional 

Three athletes from the boys’ team survived and advanced to sectionals that will be held this Friday. There were plenty of close calls, but juniors Nolan Waltz and Zach Weavers, along with sophomore Cameron LaGree and freshman Bekah Koch, will each compete for the Bluejays. Waltz hit the trifecta in the 800, 1600 and 3200m runs, but it didn’t happen without some tests. The top four finishers in the 800 finished within two seconds of each other. Waltz took second at 2:00.94, while third and fourth place finished at 2:01.65 and 2:02.78. 

The junior also took third in the 1600 to advance with a time of 4:43.90. Waltz finished the day with the 3200m and dominated that event by 23 seconds. LaGree caught fire in the 100m dash as the regular season moved along. His hard work paid off, as he qualified for the finals in third and then took fourth in the finals at 11.85 seconds. 

Weavers ran into a strong Marathon thrower, Chrus Arcell, in the discus and finished second. He tossed 139’11”, while Arcell finished north of 200’ at 205’11”. Weavers also took third in the shot put at 50’6.50” to get through in both events. 

Koch, a freshman, was the lone girls' athlete to advance for Three Lakes. She took fourth in the 1600m at 5:52.27.