Waukesha West girls take care of business with Division 1 title
LA CROSSE – Chris Ramsey can be a taskmaster at times.
The Waukesha West girls track coach and his staff run a tight operation, especially at the state meet, where if need be, he’ll wait at the gate where the athletes exit the track, ready to usher them here or there.
“I told them you can have all the fun after the
meet, but not during the two days," he said. "They can’t. It’s not fun time until after the race.”
That philosophy netted West state titles in 2000, ’04, ’05 and ’06 and runner-up finishes in 2013 and ’17.
You’re not going to keep a program as good West’s off the top of the podium forever, though. At some point, the Wolverines were bound to really do some celebrating.
Saturday was their time. Sparked by a victory in the first race of the meet Friday, helped along by some big races by senior Becca Langer and capped by a strong finish in the 1,600-meter relay, Waukesha West edged two-time defending champion Milwaukee King, 38-35, to win the WIAA Division 1 title Saturday at UWLa Crosse’s Memorial Stadium.
“It’s really nice to see how we all contributed to this title and how all of our hard work paid off,” Langer said. “During the season because of the weather, we had quite a few meets canceled and we were training inside, which is really hard on your legs. It was a struggle to do that. …It's definitely a different season than I’ve ever had before.”
West’s victory was part of a state meet that included a second straight team title for Wittenberg-Birnamwood in Division 2 and Benton Co-op’s first title in Division 3.
Individually, Wausau West phenom Brooke Jaworski pulled off a rare 400 dash-300 hurdles double, capping the feat with a state-meet and all-time state record (41.40 in the hurdles) for the second straight day.
Locally, Nicolet junior Destiny Huven (100 hurdles) and Waukesha South senior Armoni Brown (long jump) defended their state titles, as did Arrowhead’s 1,600 relay and Catholic Memorial’s 800 relay. Huven (100 and 400 relay), Memorial junior Tatum Straw (200 and 800 relay) and Ozaukee senior Emma Richards (shot put and discus) won multiple titles.
West won just one race, but it was a tone-setter.
Its 3,200 relay of senior Maddie Frey, juniors Brooke Studnicki and Brooke Lytle and Langer won in 9 minutes 9.54 seconds Friday, the fifth-fastest time ever run by a girls team in the state, according to wisconsintrackonline.com
The Wolverines spent the rest of Day 1 putting themselves in position to score on Day 2. They had five entries Saturday and got points from each individual.
Still, they trailed a handful of teams entering the 800, which Langer and Studnicki were racing. Ramsey's message was clear to the two. The team needed no worse than a second-place finish from Langer and he needed Studnicki to score.
Both were up to the challenge. Langer took second to Waterford senior Haleigh Reindl with a time of 2:13.81, and Studnicki finished eighth to get one point.
“I like having the pressure because it just shows that he believes in me and trusts me,” said Langer, who also took third in the 1,600 Saturday. “It makes me want to go out there and do it, not just for myself but mainly for my teammates. Getting those points for my team was really cool.”
West still had work to do. After King’s Amari Brown won the 200, West needed to finish no worse than third in the 1,600 relay to win the title outright.
They did that with ease, thanks in part to a strong second leg from Frey, who finished fourth in the 400 with a time of 55.68 earlier in the day. The Wolverines were edged by Arrowhead for the title in that race.
This was a case, however, of losing the battle but winning the war.
“It’s incredibly special,” said Frey, who will run at Brown next year. “(In) our senior year I’m so proud of what this team accomplished. Me and the team, it took us a while to get into the swing of things. … It’s really special that we pulled everything together."