High school track & field is supposed to follow a certain rhythm. Typically, at least in the Capitol Conference, teams will compete in early-week quads before splitting off to challenge themselves at larger invitationals later in the week. A lot of rain on Tuesday, April 16 threw a wrench into these plans, though, for Marshall and Waterloo.
Waterloo’s early week warm-up was set to be a quad at Belleville High School against Columbus, Lodi, and Sugar River. Marshall was set to take on a triangular that same day at Cambridge, taking on both the host Blue Jays as well as Wisconsin Heights. Both meets were rescheduled to Monday, April 29 as the weather made the contests impossible.
As such, both programs turned their attentions towards late-week invitationals. Marshall competed at the Deerfield Mini Invitational on Thursday, April 18 while Waterloo headed off to Horicon High School for the Dodge County Invitational on Friday, April 19.
Marshall’s Thursday performance was highlighted by seven first place finishes at the nine-team event. Junior Daniel Nickel was responsible for two of them. He won the triple jump with a distance of 37’10.75” and the high jump with a height of 5’8”. Junior teammate Lucas Christen also finished runner-up in the triple with a leap of 37’6.75”.
Sticking in the field events, a pair of senior girls tied for the top spot in the pole vault. Both Lizet Lopez-Montes and Wynn Held achieved a vault of eight feet flat to tie for first place. Freshman Javon Williams added another first place finish for the boys in the long jump, where he put up a distance of 17 feet flat.
They boys kept on winning on the track. Senior Jaxon Hornby took the top spot in the 3,200 meter run with a time of 10:47.05. Classmate Caden Norquay was also top dog in the 300 meter hurdles with his time of 44.19 seconds.
Marshall’s high-end performances didn’t end there. The springs were another spot of success for the Cardinals, highlighted by a runner-up finish in the 100 meter dash from junior Max Timpel with a time of 12 seconds flat. In the same race, sophomore Carter Pettit placed fourth at 12.13 seconds and junior Brady Stensven was fifth at 12.24 seconds. Held placed third in the 200 meter dash with a time of 29.59 seconds and sprinted a time of 14.22 seconds in the 100 meter dash for fourth.
Junior Luke Egan had a pair of strong distance runs, taking third in the 800 meter and fourth in the 1,600 meter with times of 2:33.05 and 5:30.60, respectively. For the girls, sophomore Keira Hellenbrand put up a time of 1:08.17 for third in the 400 meter run.
Back to the field, Marshall got a pair of runner-up finishes in the throws. For the boys, senior Peyton Gundelach launched a toss of 38’8” for second in the shot put. He would also finish fourth in the discus with a toss of 110’4”. Junior Alexandra Moreth repped the girls with a throw of 98 flat for second in the discus.
The following day, Waterloo was one of eight teams competing in the Dodge County Invitational. The boys finished in the middle of the pack in fourth with a team score of 85 while the girls finished last with 16 team points. The Pirates did not have a first place finisher on the day but featured plenty of high-end finishes.
Senior Benny Marshall took second place in the long jump with his leap of 18’11”. The boys’ 4x800 meter relay team also finished runner-up as senior Matteo Cefalu, juniors David Cefalu and Harrison Schaefer, and sophomore Isaac Opsteen raced a time of 9:29.14. Schaefer would also split off individually to place third in the 400 meter run with a time of 58.05 seconds.
Sophomore Ben Ugorji found plenty of success in the field portion of the meet. He placed third in the pole vault with a height of nine and a half feet and threw a 115’06” discus for fourth place. Speaking of fourth place, that’s the position junior Owen Koele finished in both distance runs. He ran a 5:14.59 in the 1,600 meter and 11:39.00 in the 3,200 meter.
On the girls side, senior Cordelia Webber had the highest finish of the day at fifth with a height of seven feet flat on the pole vault. Senior Evelyn Dominguez-Carrillo also placed seventh in the 400 meter run with a time of 1:14.19.
This week, Marshall and Waterloo hope to return to their typical schedules. Marshall will host its first home meet of the season, a triangular against Sugar River and Cambridge, on Tuesday, April 23. They’ll follow that by participating in the Mayville Invitational on Thursday, April 25.
Waterloo swings back into action on Tuesday, as well, with a conference quad at Poynette High School. In addition to the host Pumas, the Pirates will be competing against Columbus and Wisconsin Heights. Waterloo will close the week with a 12-team invitational at Pardeeville High School on Friday, April 26.
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