Girls take conference by skin of their teeth
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
That was a close one.
The East Troy girls track team put 114 points on the scoreboard at Saturday’s Rock Valley Conference Meet and needed every single one of them to pull off the overall team championship.
Jefferson was right behind with 113.5 points, followed by McFarland with 110, Whitewater with 66.5 and Brodhead-Juda with 54.
Rounding out the team scores were Turner with 53, Big Foot with 48, Edgerton with 47, Clinton with 40, Evansville with 26, Parkview with 25 and Palmyra-Eagle with five.
The East Troy boys completed the sweep to give the Trojans both titles for just the second time ever and the first time since 2013.
“The girls had a lot more drama,” East Troy coach Josh Herrell said. “They had to fight tooth and nail for everything.”
Capturing conference titles for the East Troy girls were Hope Schneider in the high jump (5-4); Hannah Buchholtz in the pole vault (9-3); and Katrina Santos in the triple jump (33-9 1/4).
Buchholtz tied the school record, held by her sister, Rachel, who was at the meet, Herrell said.
Herrell said he was pleased to see Santos rebound from the long jump, where she entered the meet ranked third in the RVC, but didn’t record a qualifying jump.
“She could have gotten down on herself, but instead, focused on maintaining a positive attitude,” he said.
Finishing second were M.E. Dodge in the shot put (34-1) and the discus (119-9) and Tori Miller in the 100-hurdles (16.51, sophomore school record time).
Other top-five finishes were turned in by the 1,600-meter relay team, third (4:16.95); the 3,200-meter team, third (9:57.23; Katie Hodges, fourth in the 400 (1:02.39); Santos, fourth in the high jump (5-0); Callie Vogel, fourth in the triple jump (32-10 1/4); Charlotte Plehn, fifth in the 400 (1:04.01); Sydney Scadden, fifth in the 100-hurdles (17.17) and the 300-hurdles (50.4); the 400-meter relay team, fifth (53.62); and Schneider fifth in the long jump (15-6).
“Things went back and forth all day,” Herrell said. “We were in first at the beginning, then we slipped to third, where we sat for much of the meet
“Toward the end of the met, the triple jump, discus and pole vault scores were all added in, and suddenly, we were right back in the thick of it.”
Heading into the last event, the 1,600-meter relay, East Troy trailed Jefferson by .5 points – so the title was on the line in that race.
Herrell said Jefferson held the lead after the first runner, but Hodges passed three runners to give the Trojans the lead.
After Scadden’s leg of the race, East Troy turned to Plehn to finish it, which she did, to give the Trojans the conference title in both that event and as a team.
“All four runners on the 1,600 team ran all out and gave it 100 percent max effort,” Herrell said. “They delivered the conference championship on their home track.”
East Troy was back in action Thursday afternoon with a freshman/sophomore invitational at Evansville. Both squads will travel to Clinton next Tuesday for a Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 regional meet a 4:30 p.m.
East Troy will host the sectional Friday, May 29, with field events beginning at 3:30 p.m.
