By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
Whippet head track coach John Houwers had plenty of positives to focus on following performances by the boys and girls teams at the Rock Valley Conference Championships.
During the Evansville meet, Logan Rasmussen tallied 32 of the boys team’s 70 points.
“He won three individual events and ran a leg on the second place 4×400-meter relay,” Houwers said after the May 13 event.
Rasmussen began the day in the triple jump and struggled in the preliminaries, Houwers said, because he wasn’t jumping as well as he had previously in the season. However, he said Rasmussen was able to overcome that.
“He was actually in second going into the second jump in finals, where he clutched up and hit a solid 43-foot, 10-inch jump to put the competition away,” Houwers said.
After going to the track, Rasmussen won the 400-meter dash in a close race, only 0.1 second in front of second place. Then, he competed in the long jump.
“He was leading after prelims, but hit a huge 21-foot, seven-inch jump on his final jump to put the exclamation point on his day. A little tired, he ran a solid leg to end the 4×400-meter relay, finishing second. He was the only boy to win three individual events on the day.”
Outside of Rasmussen’s success, the 4×800-meter relay team of Jacob Korf, Mike Mattingly, Matt Mattingly and Connor Laue also took first in conference. The 4×400-meter team of Rasmussen, Mike and Matt Mattingly and freshman Juan Cuellar nearly duplicated the 800-meter team, finishing in second.
Cuellar also medaled in the 4×200-meter relay with his third-place finish, while Sashi Popke earned a medal with his 11-foot jump in the pole vault. Behind Rasmussen’s win in the 400-meter dash was Matt Mattingly’s third-place finish as well.
The boys as a team placed fifth overall.
On the girls’ side, no Whippet won an event, but Houwers said a number of girls gave it their best, posting lifetime-best performances.
“Miranda Reynolds was one, clearing five-feet, four-inches in the high jump,” he said.
Reynolds finished second in what Houwers said was a stacked field in the high jump.
“Morgan Radaj was another strong performer today. She finished sixth in the 100-meter dash, running 13.18,” Houwers said.
Cassidy Laue had a life-time best, going four-feet, eight-inches in the high jump, good for seventh place.
Others topped prior best performances as well.
“Hailey Murphy ran her best 300-meter hurdle race to take eighth. Jenna Lee, Hailey Prager and Grace Fanshaw all ran their best open 800-meter races of the year,” Houwers said.
All four girl relay teams also ran season-bests, as the 4×100-meter relay, 4×200-meter relay, 4×400-meter relay and 4×800-meter relay teams finished second, second, third and fifth, respectively.
The girls team placed seventh as a team.
Whitewater will host regionals on May 22 and then the WIAA Sectional is set for May 25 at East Troy High School.
