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Track: Hillsboro's Bartels, Sebranek qualify for state
Tiger juniors qualify in a total of five events at Fennimore Sectional
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VIROQUA — Junior teammates Matt Bartels and Max Sebranek will once again end their prep track seasons at the WIAA State Track and Field Championships in La Crosse.

Bartels qualified for state in Division 3 in the 100 meters, 200 meters and the long jump, while Sebranek earned a return trip to state in both the 110 and 300 hurdles.

Bartels, a 2012 state qualifier in the 4x100 relay, established a new school record of 22.6 seconds in the preliminaries of the 200 at Thursday’s Fennimore Sectional, held at Viroqua High School. He went on to place fourth in the event with a finals time of 22.85.

Bartels placed fourth in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 4¼ inches. The top four finishers at sectionals automatically qualified for state.

Bartels also placed fifth in the 100, but earned an extra qualifier spot in the state field because his time of 11.39, was among the eight fastest D3 times in the state.

Sebranek finished second to Whitehall’s Brian Matthews in both the 110 hurdles (15.09) and the 300 hurdles (40.14).

Last year Sebranek placed sixth at state in the 110s and 10th in the 300 hurdles. He will look to improve on both finishes this year.

Bartels and Sebranek will both compete Friday morning when the Division 2/3 preliminaries begin at 9:30 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

The top eight finishers in each race of Friday’s prelims will advance to Saturday’s finals.

Bartels will compete in the D3 long jump Saturday morning, beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Led by Bartels and Sebranek’s impressive showings, the Hillsboro boys scored 45 points and placed sixth as a team at Thursday’s sectional.

The Hillsboro boys 4x800 relay team of Noah Mayberry, Logan Rohn, Nick Skala, Alex Shaker broke the school record by almost nine seconds (record from 1995) with a time of 8:26.78, but finished fifth and just missed being an extra qualifier.

The girls 4x800 relay team of Hilary Stanek, Savanah Noth, Kelsey Taylor and Breanna Beaver) placed seventh with a time of 10:48.35.

Hillsboro head coach Chad Schmidt thought the relay team had an outside shot at qualifying for state, but as he said, “Iit just didn’t work out.”

Taylor also placed eighth in the 3,200 (13:27.31).