This story is sponsored by: Chili Implement
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
A number of former local high school athletes have moved on to the next level and are playing sports collegiately across the country.
Periodically, MarshfieldAreaSports.com will publish a College Sports Roundup updating readers on some of those local athletes’ exploits at the collegiate level.
Holland wins pole vault title; Pearce, Hill help La Crosse to team championship at NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Gracie Holland, a 2020 graduate of Marshfield High School and a sophomore on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater track team, is a national champion after capturing the women’s pole vault title at the NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships on Saturday.
Holland had a vault of 13 feet, 1½ inch, to earn her third All-American honor. She placed second at the national outdoor meet and fifth at the indoor meet last season.
Marshfield graduates Addison Hill (2020) and Caden Pearce (2019) were part of the UW-La Crosse men’s track team that won the national team title at the two-day meet. Both were part of the 1,600-meter relay team that finished sixth in preliminaries but was disqualified for a rules infraction in the finals.
Pearce also ran on the men’s distance relay team that placed 10th in 9:56.88 for the Eagles, who totaled 35 points as they won the title by just one-half point for Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Three Spencer graduates also competed at the national meet, with one earning All-American honors.
Mason Barth, a 2019 Spencer grad, finished second in the men’s heptathlon with 5,297 points. He won the pole vault (15-9) and was third in the 100 meters and high jump in the heptathlon competition for UW-Stout.
Hannah Zastrow, also a 2019 Spencer graduate, placed 15th in the women’s high jump (5-1¾) and failed to qualify for the finals in the 60-meter hurdles, taking 18th in preliminaries with a time of 8.93 seconds.
Leah Zastrow, a 2022 Spencer graduate that placed second in the pole vault at the WIAA Division 3 state meet, competed in her first NCAA indoors and took 19th in the women’s pole vault (11-3¾).
Hertel wins national wrestling title for UW-La Crosse
ROANOKE, Va. – Nolan Hertel, a 2019 Marshfield High School graduate, earned a national title for UW-La Crosse at the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships on Saturday.
Hertel, a senior at UW-La Crosse, won the 157-pound title with a 6-5 overtime win over Tyler Shilson of Augsburg (Minn.). Hertel, who was fifth at the same weight in last year’s national tournament, is UW-La Crosse’s first national champ since 2013.
Hertel’s high school teammate, Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann, earned a fourth-place finish at 184 pounds to help Augsburg to the team title.
Schwanebeck-Ostermann lost in the semifinals to Shane Liegel of Loras 10-5, and won his first consolation match 15-4 before dropping the third-place match to Donovan Corn of Luther 7-1. He finished the season with a 32-8 record. Schwanebeck-Ostermann took sixth at 197 pounds last season at the national tournament.
Augsburg racked up 101 points to easily win the team title, with Wartburg second with 66.5. La Crosse was fifth with 61 points.