By Adam Knoll
Sports correspondent
After a grueling 2014 spring track and field season, several Whitewater High School track team members will head to the state meet in LaCrosse this weekend.
Whippets Brett Harms and Liz Mielke are both headed to state as individual runners.
Harms will ride in on the back of his 3,200-meter run against the best runners in the region. Harms, who nearly lost the pack with about 600 meters to go, fought back and gutted out a third place finish with a career best of 9:26.65. The top five runners in the group all came in under 9:30 with the top four advancing to the state meet.
Harms also will compete in the 1,600 meters, which he took third place in at sectionals.
Mielke will run in the same events as Harms but on the girls side after qualifying in both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs at sectionals with third and second place finishes, respectively.
Other Whippet athletes headed to state include Brad Stoll, who earned a place at state in the shot, heaving a second place throw at 52-5.
“Brad was very motivated after falling inches short of qualifying last year,” head coach John Houwers said.
Joe Bullis will return to state in the 300 hurdles following a 40.04 finish at sectionals. Houwers said he thinks it’s only a matter of time before Bullis cracks 40 seconds.
“He is getting closer and closer, he continues to drop time at the perfect point in the season,” Houwers said.
The girls 4×800 relay team of Jacquelyn Caldwell, Sarah Ziolkowski, Amanda Herold, and Dani Dolan “really ran well,” according to the coach. Each runner, he said, had to dig deep to earn a spot at state, and they came through.
Keagen Stonewerth qualified for the state meet in two events as well. His vault at 13 feet-0 inches won the day and his personal best in the broad jump landed him in second place at 21-5.75.
“Keagen has proven throughout the season to be able to come up with a big performance when the pressure is on,” Houwers said.
Stonewerth was not, however, able to help either of his relay teams advance to state, including that of Joe Bullis, Anthony Juoni and Dallas Jones, who ended up one place shy of moving on.
Whitewater was the host for the 40-team meet for the Division 2 sectionals last week. This competition was difficult due to the steep curve to get invited, and only the top four qualifiers from each regional competition were able to participate.
The Whippets left for LaCrosse the morning of June 6 with competition beginning at 3 p.m. First up will be the girls 4×800 relay and from there, plenty of Whippets will have a chance to shine this weekend on the biggest stage in the WIAA track and field arena.
