By Heather Ruenz
Community Editor
Whitewater competed at East Troy in the Division 2 Sectional Track and Field Meet last Friday night and three team members qualified for the state meet in La Crosse this weekend – Kailey Reynolds, Sarah Ziolkowski and Keagan Stonewerth.
Leading the charge was Reynolds, who qualified in three events: the long jump, 100-meter, and 200-meter. In the long jump she was in the lead going into the finals but was edged out of first by Jefferson’s Mikaela Grant by a mere inch. Since Reynolds’ preliminary distance was good enough to qualify her for state she opted not to jump in the finals.
Reynolds then took care of business in the 100-meter, taking second in that event as well by running a solid time of 12.58. She will enter a crowded state meet field sitting fourth with that time. The top 7 athletes go to La Crosse, qualifying within just 0.2 seconds of each other in the 100-meter for what is sure to be a competitive event.
Ziolkowski will be running the 1600-meter race at state. She ran a very smart race at sectionals, according to coach John Houwers, making sure she was in contact with the lead group from the start, but not getting out too fast where she would compromise the second half of the race. She was able to close strong the final 600 meters and finish second, behind only Morgan Florsheim from Shorewood. Ziolkowski will head into her race in La Crosse sitting sixth.
Also finishing well for the Whitewater girls, but not quite high enough to qualify for state were Abby King, taking seventh in the 3200. Houwers said King “ran a solid race and will be looking to build from it as she heads into her senior year. It will undoubtedly provide some motivation to put in some miles over the summer in preparation for cross country in the fall.”
Ali Ketterhagen, noted Houwers, did well in the high jump at sectionals, clearing 4 feet, 10 inches and ending a strong freshman campaign on a high note.
Just shy of record
The Whippet boys will send Stonewerth as the team’s lone representative at the state meet. He easily cleared 13 ft. in the pole vault to win the competition and then moved the bar to 14 feet, 3 inches to attempt to break his own school record but missed after a couple good attempts at it, Houwers said.
Stonewerth also just missed qualifying in the long jump, finishing fifth, three-quarters of an inch out of the final qualifying spot for La Crosse.
Houwers said a number of boys came very close to qualifying but fell just shy of making the top four.
“Roland Luckett ran an awesome 300 hurdles race, making his way on the all-time top ten list in the event, only to finish fifth, 0.22 seconds from the last qualifying spot,” Houwers said.
The Whippets 4×100 relay team of Juan Villegas, Connor Rupke, Stonewerth, and Mark Cuevas finished sixth, while the 4×200 and 4×400 relays were both seventh.
“The 4×400 ran an excellent race from the first heat, dropping significant time. Ashton Caputo and Mike Mattingly were both under 52 seconds with their splits, while Joe Bullis was Cuevas both also ran excellent legs, doing their best to try to set a solid time for the second heat to beat,” Houwers said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t hold up.”
Also receiving accolades from the coach was Xhonatan Shahollari who placed eighth in the triple jump.
“I was very pleased with how well both teams competed. While we came up short in a couple places and it is disappointing to not have more kids qualify for state, I am in no way disappointed in how the team performed last night,” Houwers stated in his recap of sectionals.
“Our times dropped in the 4×200 and 4×400 relays. Roland dropped time in the 300 hurdles. It’s just that their competitors dropped time as well, and we just didn’t quite make it. I am proud of how hard they competed.”
Pick up a copy of next week’s Whitewater Register for complete coverage of the Whippets at this weekend’s WIAA State Track Championship Meet.
