By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – In past years Marshfield Columbus Catholic has been well represented at the WIAA State Track and Field Championships, but this year all of the hopes on the Dons bringing a medal back home from La Crosse rides on one relay team.
The boys 400-meter relay team of seniors Greg Wunrow and Dodge Langreck, sophomores Austin Mahoney and BeomJun Koh, and senior alternates Logan Reigel and Matt Gotz, are the lone entry for the Dons at the state meet Friday and Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
“I feel like we really have to represent and bring home at least one medal for the team,” Langreck said. “We sent 18 events to our sectional but only came away with one, but I think we can represent really well.”
The relay team will be a definite underdog when it takes the track Friday afternoon in Division 3 preliminaries as the last seed in its eight-team race. Overall, the Dons’ time of 45.62 seconds was the 13th fastest sectional time of the 16 teams at the state meet.
In order to cut time and grab a top-six finish to get a medal, the relay team is working on their handoffs.
“The 4×100 has been cutting their times down constantly, almost every meet,” Columbus coach Tom Zimmerman said. “We’re still making adjustments in the exchange zone to get the giver and the receiver hitting at 100 percent speed, which is always a tough thing to do.
“There’s no really stud athlete in the group running a sub 11.5 (seconds) or anything like that. They’re all right around that 11.8-11.9 range, so if we don’t make maximum efficiency off of our handoffs, it’s not going to happen.”
Langreck said the team will have to cut off more than one-half second to get under 45 seconds and have a shot at a medal.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries, but I think everyone’s back on top of their games and I think we can pull off some of our best times now,” Langreck said. “I think we all have it in us.”
Zimmerman knows they will have to be on top of their game.
“It’s what team means. They all have to have their best race at that time or it’s not going to happen,” he said.
Paul Lecker can be reached by e-mail at paul@marshfieldareasports.com.
