LA CROSSE — The pressure and excitement of last weekend’s WIAA State Track & Field Meet didn’t seem to phase Platteville’s John Skubal.

Instead the junior rose to the occasion.

Seeded 13th entering Fridays’ Division 2 discus competition Skubal delivered the second-best throw of his career to finish seventh overall. His toss of 150 feet, was just three feet shy of earning a spot on the medal stand.

Skubal established his personal best of 153–3 when he won the SWC conference title in mid-May.

“John threw very well,” said Platteville coach Rob Serres. “He stepped up and put himself in position to medal. It just didn’t quite happen.”

Platteville’s 4x100 relay team of seniors Ben Kroll, Alex Niehaus, Alvaro Plaza and Trevor Oaks got off to a fantastic start at the two-day meet, running a season-best 43.92 seconds (also the fourth-best 4x100 time in school history) in Friday’s prelims and was seeded fourth heading into Saturday’s final. But the Hillmen quartet was disqualified from Saturday’s race for running out of the exchange zone on the first handoff and did not place.

“That was a tough break,” said Serres. “They were going for it and they got a little bit anxious. Those things can happen.”

Junior Ben Bahr finished his season Friday with a 14th-place finish in the D2 boys’ pole vault. He cleared 12 feet before missing three consecutive attempts at 12–6.

“I feel bad for Ben because he struggled a little bit with the wind,” said Serres. “We should have got him on a stiffer pole to help him out.”

The two team points scored by Skubal gave the Platteville boys a tie for 56th place in the D2 team standings.

On the girls’ side freshman Allie Serres competed in two events on Friday.

She placed 12th in the long jump with a new personal-best leap of 16–7. She also placed 14th in the 100-meter-dash with a time of 13.80 seconds. Serres did not qualify for the finals in either event.

Junior Danielle Jentz cleared 9–6 to place 10th in Saturdays’ D2 girls pole vault competition. Jentz cleared a person-best 10–0 a week earlier at the Boscobel Sectional and was seeded fourth entering the state meet.

“As a whole I felt we did pretty good over the weekend,” added Serres. “We didn’t do anything terrible, but we just didn’t have a meet where everyone was popping their very, very best performances. Overall I was happy with the way the kids competed.”

WIAA D2 State Meet
(from Friday-Thursday, May 30-June 1
@ Veterans Memorial Stadium, La Crosse)
(Boys)
Top 5 team scores — 1.Shorewood 44, 2.Catholic Memorial 37, 3.Mount Horeb 33, 4.Seymour 31, 5.Marinette 26.....56(tie).Platteville 2.
Platteville’s state qualifiers
4x100 relay — DNF.Platteville (Trevor Oaks, Alvaro Plaza, Alex Niehaus, Ben Kroll) DQ. Pole vault — 14(tie).Ben Bahr 12–0. Discus — 7.John Skubal 150–0.
(Girls)
Top 5 team scores — 1.East Troy 57, 2.Dodgeville/Mineral Point 36, 3.Osceola 34, 4.Wrightstown 30, 5.Notre Dame 28....
Platteville’s state qualifiers
100 — 14.Allie Serres 13.80. Pole vault — 10.Danielle Jentz 9–6. Long jump — 12.Serres 16–7.