Wolverines win third straight 3,200 relay
LA CROSSE – The target Waukesha West’s 3,200-meter relay team carried this season didn’t slow it down one bit.
The Wolverines girls relay squad won their third straight WIAA Division 1 state title Friday with the fastest time of their current streak. The team of senior Maddie Frey, juniors Brooke Studnicki and Brooke Lytle and senior Becca Langer won in 9 minutes 9.54 seconds, the fifth-fastest time run in the event in the state, according to records kept by wisconsintrackonline.com.
Based on the team’s showing overall at the meet, which was held at UWLa Crosse’s Memorial Stadium, the burden of expectations wasn’t weighing them down either.
Teams don’t win state titles on the first day of the state track and field meet, but they can put themselves in position for a big Day 2. That was the story Friday for West, one of the teams expected to contend for the Division 1 championship.
“We did what we had to do today, so we’re real happy,” West coach Chris Ramsey said. “We’re happy where we’re at.”
The Wolverines, who tied for second last year, got 10 points out of the only final in which they were expected to score and advanced to the final in four other events. When the meet
resumes Saturday morning, West will be the top seed in the 1,600 relay, the No. 2 and No. 6 seeds in the 800 (Langer and Studnicki), the No. 4 seed in the 400 (Frey) and the No. 5 seed in the 1,600 (Langer).
West entered the meet seeded first in the 3,200 with what entering the day was a state-best time of 9:23.43. The team dropped that dramatically by getting sub 2:21 splits from each of its runners to win with relative ease over a field that was strong on Classic 8 teams.
League rivals Muskego (second, 9:13.45), Waukesha South (sixth, 9:27.39) and Arrowhead (9:29.90, eighth) were among the top eight.
Frey, a senior who normally runs the 400 and 200, opened the race with 2:20.08.split. It was only her second time running the race in competition.
“I was nervous,” she said, “because I didn’t want to let my teammates down. I had fun with it. I definitely had a plan that my coach put in place, so all I had to do was follow that, and it worked out well.”
West’s title highlighted an opening session of the state meet that included a false start for the start in the 100 that disqualified the state’s top sprinter and another state record by one of the state’s premier performers.
State record in the hurdles
First, the record.
Already the meet record holder and all-time leader in the 400, Wausau West junior Brooke Jaworski matched that feat in the 300 hurdles by qualifying for the final in 41.62 seconds.
That easily beat the record of 43.04 set by Milwaukee Riverside’s Valerie Thames in 2013.
Jaworski’s rise has been meteoric in the event. This is just her first season.
“For me I find it a little bit easier than the (400),” she said. “The hurdles are there obviously, but it’s shorter and I feel like it goes by a little quicker. You jump over a hurdle and there is the next one. It’s just really fun and I feel like my 400 training has definitely correlated good with my 300s.”
Mistake, but a solid day for King
The flip side was the disappointed for Milwaukee King’s Amari Brown. The sophomore, the favorite to win the 100, was disqualified for a false start.
Brown bounced back in the 200 to post the fastest 200 time (23.76) of the season. It marked the first time she ran a sub-24-second time in the race. It also ranks fourth on the all-time list.
Despite Brown’s scratch, it was a solid day for King, the two-time defending team champion.
King will be seeded first in the 800 relay Saturday, third in the 400 relay, fourth and seventh in the 100 with defending champion Makayla Jackson and sophomore Camarii Tellis. Plus Jackson is the returning state runnerup in the long jump, an event scheduled for Saturday.
Nicolet junior Destiny Huven also set herself up nicely for Saturday. The defending champion in the 100 high hurdles, is the No. 3 qualifier for the final (14.66), the No. 2 seed in the 100 (12.02) and the anchor of the Knights’ 400 relay, the top seed with a time of 47.87.
Langer is in a good spot too. She has performed well at state in both the events she is slated to run.
She was the state runner-up in the 800 as a sophomore and fourth last year. She was also third in the 1,600 last season.
Regardless of what happens, though, her legacy as a three-time champion in the 3,200 relay is sealed.
“We’re proud of all four of them,” Ramsey said. “They did their job. For them to run a 9.09, it was a super race.”