By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
The Elkhorn Area High School girls track and field team missed a title by a handful of points April 14 in the Southern Lakes Conference relays at Badger High School in Lake Geneva.
The Elks finished third with a team total of 97 points. Badger won the meet (101) and Westosha Central finished second (100).
The boys finished sixth with a team total of 60 points. Badger won the meet (113).
The Elkhorn boys and girls teams compete Friday in an invitational at Brodhead.
“One of the most impressive things about the performances of both our boys and our girls was the depth and determination that they displayed during the meet,” coach Steve Simonson said of the conference relays.
Simonson said the Elks might be conference relays title winners, if not for injury issues with key personnel.
“Two of our top athletes, Taylor Mair and Rachel Anderson, did not compete due to injury concerns,” Simonson said. “The girls that filled in for them were ready to step up to the challenge and go head-to-head with the other top teams in the conference.
“We felt that if we had had Tay and Rachel, we would have won the overall team title on the girls’ side.”
The Elks’ pole vault relay of Jessica Reiff and Caiti and Megan Leahy finished first and set a school record in the event for the second time this season.
“We were also excited about our girls 4 X 800 relay of Leesa Sesing, Gabby Pinnow, Maddie Barlow and Bethany Buikema, who won that event and beat two teams that are the traditional powerhouses in our conference in the distance events,” Simonson said.
Simonson said the triple jump relay of Leahy, Maddie Barlow and Bianca Trombley also finished.
“Overall it was a good building block for our young kids, and a great measure of where we are and what we still need to do as a team if we want to be a dominate force in the SLC,” Simonson said.
For the boys, Tyler Daehn set a school freshmen record in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 1.75 inches.
The 3,200 relay of Caleb Jacques-Hembree, Connor LaFavor, Siddharth Babu and Derek Davey finished third in 9 minutes, 4.11 seconds.
In girls team standings, Waterford finished fourth (86.5), Burlington fifth (81), Wilmot sixth (63.5), Delavan-Darien seventh (39) and Union Grove eighth (37).
Central finished second in the boys’ standings (104), followed by Waterford (93) in third. Wilmot and Burlington tied for fourth (73). Elkhorn finished sixth (60), Union Grove seventh (41) and Delavan-Darien eighth (37).
