This story is sponsored by: The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
LA CROSSE – Four area athletes picked up medals on the first day of the 2014 WIAA State Track & Field Championships on Friday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Marshfield senior Keiron Howlett took third in the Division 1 boys long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 11½ inches to earn a medal for the Tigers. Robert Starnes of Green Bay Preble won the event with a jump of 23-5¼.
Howlett also competed in the Division 1 110-meter hurdles Friday, but failed to qualify for Saturday’s finals. He finished 11th in the preliminaries in 15.27 seconds, missing out on a spot in the finals by one spot and 2/100th of a second.
Matt Oestreich also competed in the Division 1 long jump for the Tigers, finishing 12th (21-2½). Both Howlett and Oestreich will compete in the D-1 triple jump on Saturday.
Auburndale senior Isaac Castellano finished sixth in the Division 3 boys 800 meters in 2:00.22 to earn a medal in his final event of a great all-around athletic career for the Apaches.
Stratford’s Eli Temanson took fourth in the Division 2 boys pole vault, finishing with a height of 13-6, to grab a medal for the Tigers. He also qualified for Saturday’s finals in both the 100 and 200 meters.
Temanson took 10th in the 100-meter preliminaries to earn the final spot in Saturday’s finals in the event. He finished in 10.40 seconds. He was ninth in the 200 prelims, finishing in 22.54 seconds.
Spencer freshman Noah Zastrow took third in the Division 3 boys pole vault, earning a medal. He finished with a height of 13-6, coming up six inches short of the winning vault of 14-0 by Marathon’s Devan Gerschen.
Marshfield’s two girls that qualified for the state meet competed on Friday.
Martha Kupfer took 16th in the preliminaries of the 400 meters in 59.72, failing to qualify for Saturday’s finals.
Rebecca Voss ended her stellar athletic career at Marshfield with an 18th-place finish in the Division 1 girls 3,200 meters, running in 11:56.71.
In Division 2, Stratford’s 800-meter girls relay team failed to qualify for Saturday’s finals, taking 12th in the prelims. Brooke Schultze, Abby Bender, Tori Dietel and Emily Hauke finished in 1:47.45.
Nadia King, Schultze, Bender and Hauke also did not qualify for the finals in the Division 2 1,600 girls relay. The Stratford team finished 13th in Friday’s preliminaries in 4:08.84.
King will be competing in the Division 2 individual 1,600 meters finals on Saturday.
Columbus Catholic sophomore Alexandra Hutchison qualified for the Division 3 girls finals in both the 100 and 200 meters.
Hutchison took first in the 200 preliminaries (25.69) and second in the 100 prelims (12.74), and will compete in the finals in both events on Saturday.
Hutchison and her Dons’ teammates in the 400 relay also will compete in the finals Saturday after placing seventh in the preliminaries on Friday. Katie Weister, Rachel Roehl, Hannah Stratman and Hutchison took seventh in 51.49 seconds.
The Columbus Catholic boys 3,200 relay team of Samual Studinger, Ben Behling, Scott Steinert and Christian Payant will compete Saturday.
Two of Spencer’s girls competing at the meet had their seasons come to an end Friday. Paige Lawrence took 16th in the 400-meter prelims in 1:02.70, failing to qualify for the finals. Abby Varsho took 11th in the high jump (4-10), missing out on a medal.
Rachel Zastrow will compete in the Division 3 pole vault for Spencer on Saturday.
Sylviann Momont earned a point for the Auburndale girls, taking eighth in the Division 3 long jump (16-6). She will compete in the triple jump on Saturday.
Auburndale’s 400 relay team of Lakisha Sutton, Ashley Breu, Hannah Castellano and Momont failed to reach the finals after taking 15th in the Division 3 preliminaries (52.26).
For the Auburndale boys, Lee Jepsen qualified for the Division 3 finals in the 100 meters. He took eighth in the preliminaries Friday in 11.54 seconds. Tom Sabel also moved on to the D-3 finals by placing fifth in the 200 preliminaries (23.38).