G-E-T boys third, Arcadia fourth at Coulee meet
Arcadia’s Trevor Pronschinske braced himself as he landed during the triple jump at the Coulee Conference Championships on Saturday. Pronschinske won the event as the only competitor to top 40 feet. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau’s Carter Giemza was the final runner on his school’s conference-champion 3200-meter relay team. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Josie Rupple of Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau was the Coulee Conference runner-up in the shot put at the CC Championship on Saturday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Arcadia’s Jaylie Dahl won her heat during Saturday’s Coulee Conference Championships at G-E-T. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Two Arcadia athletes and a trio of G-E-T relay teams were the headliners for the Trempealeau County teams at this year’s Coulee Conference Championship Meet, which marks the beginning of the stretch run toward the end of the spring sports season.
Arcadia senior Jerson Sanchez and junior Trevor Pronschinske each picked up a win in an event at this past Saturday’s conference championship meet, held at G-E-T High School.
Pronschinske earned his victory in the boys’ triple jump, posting a top leap of 40 feet, 11 inches — making him the only competitor in the event to clear 40 feet on the day. Sanchez won the boys’ 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.44 seconds, which was six hundredths of a second ahead of Luther junior Nathan Dobberstein in second.
Sanchez also placed third in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 42.70 seconds, behind only Dobberstein (41.60) in first and Arcadia junior David Escalera (42.35) in second. Pronschinske, Sanchez and Escalera were also part of the Raider 1,600-meter relay team (along with senior Alec Conrad) that finished in third with a time of 3:42.95.
Conrad (4:51.70) also placed second in the boys’ 1,600-meter run. Senior Matthew Badillo (2:06.44) finished in third in the 800-meter run.
Senior Malania Tullius posted the best result for the Arcadia girls, clearing the bar at nine feet to tie for second in the pole vault. Senior Jaylie Dahl, one of the favorites in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes, placed fourth in the 100 and was scratched from the 200.
The G-E-T boys had two victorious relay teams, with junior Andrew Lebakken, junior Adrian Bautista, junior AJ Earney and senior Carter Giemza winning the 3,200-meter relay with a time of 8:44.25 and the team of junior Sawyer Foust, Lebakken, Earney and Giemza posting a mark of 3:33.90 to win the 1,600-meter relay.
The Red Hawk boys had three second-place finishes on the day courtesy of Giemza (2:06.12) in the 800-meter run, junior Isaiah Carroll (11.27) in the 100-meter dash and sophomore Chase Repaal (155-8) in the discus throw. Bautista finished in third in both the 1,600-meter run (4:52.29) and the 3,200-meter run (10:53.94).
G-E-T was without junior Mikah Vail, who would’ve been one of the favorites in both sprint races, due to an injury that threatens his whole postseason.
For the G-E-T girls, freshman Kinley Giemza, junior Claire Breidenbach, senior Clara Schulze and sophomore Jayden Thill put up a time of 51.61 seconds to win the 400-meter relay.
The Red Hawks also had two second-place relay teams: Giemza, Breidenbach, Schulze and Thill (4:20.5) in the 1,600-meter relay and junior Nadiah Beacker, freshman Chloe Tollefson, Breidenbach and Schulze (1:50.14) in the 800-meter relay.
The quartet of Tollefson, senior Sydney Nelson, sophomore Alyssa Pett and junior Bella Tibbitts placed third in the girls’ 3,200-meter relay with a time of 10:52.23.
Individually, the Red Hawks had two second places as well thanks to Thill (33-3.5) in the triple jump and junior Josie Rupple (35-8.5) in the shot put. In terms of individual third-place finishes, G-E-T had Giemza (32-11.5) in the triple jump and sophomore Caydie Thompson (34-3) in the shot put.
For all-conference purposes, event winners are named to the first team, second-place finishers get second-team honors and third-place finishers are honorable mentions.
West Salem won the team conference title for both the boys and girls, finishing comfortably ahead in the standings.
In the boys’ standings, the Panthers (196 points) were followed by Onalaska Luther (118) in second, G-E-T (103) in third, Arcadia (90) in fourth, Viroqua (81) in fifth, Black River Falls (61) in sixth and Westby (16) in seventh.
In the girls’ standings, West Salem (192) finished ahead of Viroqua (133) in second, Westby (125.5) in third, G-E-T (95.5) in fourth, Luther (67) in fifth, BRF (30) in sixth and Arcadia (23) in seventh.
