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LA CROSSE – Spencer picked up three medals, and Marshfield Columbus Catholic and Auburndale each added one as competition began at the 2018 WIAA State Track & Field Championships on Friday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Spencer’s Logan Zschernitz placed fourth in the Division 3 boys discus with a throw of 155 feet, 10 inches, and a pair of Rockets girls earned state medals with top-six finishes in the D-3 high jump as Sabrina Vircks took fourth with a jump of 5-1 and Hannah Zastrow was fifth with a leap of 5-0.
The Auburndale girls 3,200-meter relay team also earned up a state medal, finishing as the runner-up. Kali Karl, Macie Schmeiser, Erricka Zenner and Taylor Stanton ran the race in 10:04.53 to finish second.
Columbus Catholic’s Noah Eckelberg finished fourth in the boys wheelchair shot put with a toss of 18 feet, 4½ inches. He will compete in the 100, 400, and 800 meters on Saturday.
A number of other area competitors qualified for Saturday’s finals with top-10 finishes in preliminaries on Friday.
Zastrow, who will compete in the Division 3 pole vault on Saturday, qualified for the 110-meter hurdles finals after taking third in the prelims in 15.63 seconds.
Aaron Pankratz qualified for the finals in the D-3 boys 400, placing second in 50.91 seconds, but missed out on the 200-meter finals after taking 12th in qualifying (23.23 seconds).
Auburndale’s 800 and 1,600 girls relay teams will also run in finals on Saturday. The 800 team of Paityn Hamus, Isabelle Hilber, Maddie Krings and Kaitlyn Trowbridge took ninth in 1:49.79, and the 1,600 team of Karl, Hilber, Isabella Jewell and Hamus took third in 4:07.46.
The Apaches’ 400 relay team of Hamus, Hilber, Krings and Trowbridge did not qualify, taking 11th in 51.81 seconds.
Jewell will run in the D-3 girls 400 finals on Saturday after taking ninth in qualifying in 1:00.22.
Six area athletes competed in finals on Friday and did not medal.
Marshfield’s Nadia Ougayour took 19th in the girls Division 1 discus (110-5) and Adam Elhendy-Gunnarsson was 18th in the D-1 boys long jump (21-1); Columbus Catholic’s Jessica Jakopin took 13th in the Division 3 girls shot put (34-11¼); Stratford’s Parker Hoffman was 18th in the Division 2 boys triple jump (40-4); and Spencer’s Collin Nieman was ninth in the D-3 boys 800 (2:01.65) and Nate Karau was ninth in the discus (145-4).
Elhendy-Gunnarsson did not qualify for the D-1 boys 200 finals after finishing 17th in the preliminaries in 22.33 seconds.
In addition to Eckelberg and those qualifying for finals, seven others will compete in finals events on Saturday – Marshfield’s Meg Bryan (Division 1 girls long jump), Joey Goettl (D-1 boys triple jump), and Adam Maki (D-1 boys pole vault); Auburndale’s Julianna Kollross and Spencer’s Zastrow (D-3 girls pole vault); Zschernitz of Spencer (D-3 boys shot put); and Auburndale’s Karl (D-3 girls 800 meters).
Competition begins at 9:30 a.m.