East Troy track sees season-long effort pay off
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
A few extra pieces of hardware came home from La Crosse last weekend with members of the East Troy boys and girls track teams.
(Robert Mischka photo)
To be more specific, five of them.
East Troy had entries in nine events at the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 State Meet Friday and Saturday and Trojans’ athletes earned medals in five of those to cap a stellar 2015 campaign.
“The kids performed great at state,” East Troy coach Josh Herrell said. “They really went into the met with a business-like approach.
“Many of our athletes have bought into the approach that ‘we train for June’ and do not get too worried if they aren’t getting personal bests in every meet.”
The Trojans had three top-five efforts, including a second-place finish by sophomore Hope Schneider in the high jump.
Schneider equaled her sectional jump of 5-5 to tie Martin Luther sophomore Brooke Blazei. The title went to Blazei based on a number of misses at the eventual winning height.
“Only two other jumpers in other divisions jumped higher than her,” Herrell said.
Schneider’s effort earned her all-state recognition as well, Herrell added.
East Troy’s other top-five finishes came from the boys 3,200-meter relay team of junior Jake Remza, sophomore Evan Harding and seniors Nathan Nguyen and Charlie Kutschenreuter, fourth (8:00.19) and senior Miles Kilpin, fifth in the discus (159-6).
The relay team, the first 3,200-meter squad in school history to earn a state berth, was just a bit behind its sectional qualifying time of 8:00.07.
The foursome beat McFarland in La Crosse, a team it lost to by more than 30 seconds during the indoor season.
“That means in just a few months our boys out-trained theirs by a large margin,” Herrell said. “They came to practice every day to fight for improvement. They remained hungry all year long.”
The team from Lakeland won the state title with a time of 7:52.04.
Kilpin, who is headed to UW-Milwaukee to compete on a track scholarship, was joined by junior teammate Jake Wendt in the discus. Wendt was eighth at 149-6.
“Those two really pushed each other this year,” Herrell said. “Together they were able to achieve a lot.”
East Troy also had a pair of sixth-place finishes, senior Charlie Kutschenreuter in the 400 (49.15) and junior M.E. Dodge in the discus (124-7).
Kutschenreuter broke the school record of 49.99 in the preliminaries with a time of 49.45, and then broke it again in the finals.
“There are many years Charlie would have won state with that time,” Herrell said. “This year’s field was just extremely deep in the 400.
“The boys that finished first and second both ran times that put them in the top 100 times this year. Charlie’s hard work really paid off, as he has become one of the most elite athletes in the state.”
Herrell said Kutschenreuter plans to walk on at UW-Madison next year.
The winning time in the 400 belonged to Freedom senior Collin Hofacker in 47.76.
Dodge improved from back-to-back eighth-place finishes at state with her sixth-place effort this time around.
“I was very proud to see her hard work pay off,” Herrell said.
Other state results
The girls 3,200-meter relay team of senior Erin Parr, senior Charlotte Plehn, junior Amanda Bustillos and senior Katie Hodges was 10th (9:55.89) for East Troy’s other top finish.
Herrell said the team defeated Jefferson for the first time all season, and was helped by personal-best splits by Hodges (2:26) and Bustillos (2:29).
The Edgewood team won the state title in the relay in 9:25.22.
Sophomore Hannah Buchholtz was 15th in the pole vault (9-0), while Nguyen was 16th in the 400 preliminaries (51.58), but didn’t qualify for the finals.
Herrell said Buchholtz set a goal to get to nine feet, a mark she missed at the sectional with a qualifying vault of 8-9.
“This was a major goal for her, and I am proud she was able to achieve it,” he said. “Hannah has gone to a number of pole vault camps in order to get better. It really paid off for her.”
Freedom won the boys’ team title with 66 points, followed by Milwaukee Lutheran with 46, Little Chute with 42, Catholic Memorial with 31 and Rice Lake with 28. East Troy was 18th with 13 points.
On the girls’ side, Dodgeville-Mineral Point was first with 36 points, followed by Mt. Horeb with 35, Lakeside Lutheran with 33, Edgewood with 32 and Jefferson with 27. East Troy was 24th with 11.
