LANCASTER — On Feb. 15, at the Platteville Track spring organizational meeting, the boys and girls team both set a goal to win the conference championships.
Nearly three months later they accomplished it. The amount of dedication, hard-work, team building and determination witnessed by the coaches and experienced by the individuals was awe-inspiring.
The Platteville boys’ have won an amazing 19 conference titles in the last 20 years, including four straight, while the girls’ program has garnished 13 conference championships over the past two decades, as well as the past four.
The Platteville girls’ medal count included four golds, three silvers and nine bronze to out-point team runner-up Dodgeville/Mineral Point by 25 points, 145–120, while the Platteville boys used five firsts, nine seconds and eight thirds to post a dominating 63-point win over Dodge–Point, 185–122.
“We had a fantastic night at Lancaster,” said Platteville head coach Rob Serres. “The kids were ready, and focused on what our goal for the night was. In looking over the pre-meet entries, we knew our boys had a good shot of winning, as long as we performed well. On the girls side we knew it was really going to be close and we would have to be at our best and a bit more. Both of the squads went in to the meet with the attitude of ‘It’s go time.’ They were gritty, determined, and stayed true to our Hillmen philosophy of giving your all.
“The coaching staff is very proud of these young people for the dedication that put into their training and their readiness for their events.”
Platteville’s outstanding throwers put on a clinic, headed by junior Austin Jentz’s gold medal career-best shot put (50’10.25”) and discus (172’5”) throws.
Junior Izzy Carroll also launched career-best throws in both the discus (124’8”, first) and shot put (36’5.25”, second) to earn a gold and silver medal. Carroll’s throw in the discus fell just three inches short of the conference record held by River Valley’s Kristy Erderer (36’8.25”).
Fellow junior MJ Stephens continued her breakout season placing second in the discus (114’3”) and third in the shot put (31’9”).
Sophomore Alayna Digman added to the girls’ point total by placing third in the discus (114’2”) and fourth in the shot put (31’4.75”). The discus trio of Carroll, Digman, and Stephens now rank as the third, fifth and eigth-best discus throwers in PHS History.
Freshmen Devin Digman had the most dramatic improvement of the night and possibly the year by setting a new Freshmen record in the boys’ discus with a throw of 136’8” topping Joe Wang’s throw from 1994 to finish second.
Senior pole vaulters Calvin Wernimont, Chris Gillen and Gabe Tashner swept the top three spots in that event to add 24 points to the Hillmen boys team total with identical heights of 12’6”.
Fellow senior sprinters Tyler Moss and Osaze King went one, two in both the 100 and 200-meter-dashes with sophomore Jonny Rule adding a third in the 200 to sweep the top three spots in that event.
Distance runners junior Brittani Meis and senior Sierra Wunderlin each brought home gold in the girls’ 1,600 and 3,200 respectively. Wunderlin’s race involved an officials error resulting in “finishing kicks” by the two race leaders on both lap 7 and again on lap 8. Wunderlin outdistanced Hanna Cohn of Lancaster to win that event with a career best time of 12:29.54.
The Platteville girls’ 4x800 relay team of Bri Poller, senior Renee Momot, Wunderlin and Meis passed the baton to the top of the medal stand with a winning-time of 10:19.20.
Clare Drefcinski, Anya Donner, Rachel Burkard and Sara Langmeier survived a dropped baton and still raced to a silver medal finish of 1:54.63 in the girls 4x200 relay.
The boys 4x400 relay team of Rule, King, senior Jace Serres and Moss went stride for stride with Dodge–Point’s quarter milers losing a photo finish while posting a time of 3:32.12.
Senior Austin Wein used a strong finish to place second in the 300 intermediate hurdles (43.16), while fellow hurdlers Abbigail Goomey (52.85) and Emma Opgenorth (53.27) surprised the field to place fourth and sixth respectively in the girls’ 300 hurdles.
Junior Mic Frommelt continued his year of dramatic improvement by taking a bronze in the boys’ 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 16.81 seconds.
Platteville began the WIAA tournament series at Monday’s Division 2 Prairie du Chien regional. The top four finishers in each event then qualify on to D2 East Troy Sectional Thursday. The top four sectional finishers from each event will then compete at the WIAA Track & Field Championships in La Crosse on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1.
SWC Conference Meet
(from Tuesday, May 14 @ Lancaster)
(Boys)
Team scores — 1.Platteville 185, 2.Dodgeville/Mineral Point 122, 3.Richland Center 78, 4.Lancaster 77, 5.River Valley 65, 6.Prairie du Chien 27.Platteville top finishers (top 8)
1,00 — 1.Tyler Moss 11.68, 2.Osaze King 11.70, 5.Max Allion 12.14. 200 — 1.Moss 23.55, 2.King 24.13, 5.Jonny Rule 24.52. 400 — 5.Luke Sigwarth 55.30, 6.Nick Kroll 55.97. 800 — 3.Alex Sonsalla 2:04.62, 5.Jace Serres 2:08.14. 1,600 — 2.Serres 4:31.18, 5.John Cramer 4:49.01, 7.John Wells 4:59.18. 3,200 — 2.Cramer 10:23.09, 3.Wells 11:07.89, 4.Sam Kronick 11:17.28. 110 hurdles — 3.Mic Frommelt 16.81, 5.Gabe Tashner 17.37. 300 hurdles — 2.Austin Wein 43.16. 4x100 relay — 3.Platteville (Allion, Miles Steckling, Caleb Wright, Ethan Immobersteg) 46.49. 4x200 relay — 3.Platteville (Rule, Steckling, Eli Cline, Immobersteg) 1:36.85. 4x400 relay — 2.Platteville (Serres, Moss, King, Rule) 3:32.12. 4x800 relay — 2.Platteville (Calvin Wernimont, Lucas Johnson, Chris Gillen, Wells) 8:31.35. Pole vault — 1.Wernimont 12’6”, 2.Gillen J12’6”, 3.Tashner J12’6”. Long jump — 4.Steckling 19’0”. Triple jump — 3.Moss 41’6.5”, 7.Steckling 39’3.5”. Shot put — 1.Austin Jentz 50’10.25”. Discus — 1.Jentz 172’5”, 2.Devin Digman 136’8”.
(Girls)
Team scores — 1.Platteville 145, 2.Dodgeville/Mineral Point 120, 3.Lancaster 109, 4.Richland Center 91, 5.Prairie du Chien 73, 6.River Valley 16.Platteville top finishers (top 8)
100 — 3.Becca Hoyer 13.72, 6.Kiersten Freed 14.14. 200 — 3.Hoyer 28.5, 4.Sara Langmeier 28.56, 5.Georgiana LeGrand 29.13. 800 — 3.Harmony Bell 2:35.42, 5.Renee Momot 2:37.49, 7.Brittani Meis 2:42.62. 1,600 — 1.Meis 5:39.40, 3.Bell 5:43.40, 6.Sierra Wunderlin 5:49.80. 3,200 — 1.Wunderlin 12:29.54, 8.Bri Poller 15:16.24. 100 hurdles — 5.Talitha Goomey 18.83. 300 hurdles — 4.Abigail Goomey 52.85, 6.Emma Opgenorth 53.27. 4x100 relay — 3.Platteville (Clare Drefcinski, Rachel Burkard, Freed, Lauren Becker) 54.02. 4x200 relay — 2.Platteville (Burkhard, Anya Donner, Drefcinski, S. Langmeier) 1:54.83. 4x400 relay — 3.Platteville (S. Langmeier, Momot, Bell, Hoyer) 4:29.69. 4x800 relay — 1.Platteville (Poller, Meis, S. Wunderlin, Momot) 10:19.20. High jump — 3.Emily Fields J4’10”. Pole vault — 5.Lauren Becker 7’6”, 7.Abbey Sasse J7’6”. Triple jump — 4.Hoyer 31’11”, 8.Mia Bernhardt 30’3.5”. Shot put — 2.Izzy Carroll 36’5.25”, 3.MJ Stephens 31’9”, 4.Alayna Digman 31’4.75”. Discus — 1.Caroll 124’8”, 2.Stephens 114’3”, 3.Digman 114’2”.
