Arcadia’s Dahl wins three sprint events at Coulee Championship meet

Arcadia junior Jaylie Dahl went into Black River Falls with high expectations, knowing that she could very well win each of the three sprint events she was set to compete in. Expectations became reality last weekend when Dahl made a clean sweep to become a conference champion in three different events.

Dahl crossed the finish line first in the girls’ 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes at the 2025 Coulee Conference Championship Meet, held this past Saturday in Black River Falls.

During the 100-meter prelims, Dahl finished just behind Viroqua junior Alana Christianson with a time of 12.70 seconds to Christianson’s 12.68. While Christianson replicated her time of 12.68 in the finals, Dahl shaved off nearly two-tenths of a second to win with a mark of 12.51.

Dahl proceeded to win both the 200-meter dash (26.14) and 400-meter dash (1:00.92) to complete an impressive hat trick. 

“I really try not to get into my own head. It’s a lot to process,” Dahl said of managing the expectations coming into the day. “You try to really not get in your head and just think ‘you can only control yourself, so just try to do your best out there.’”

On the boys’ side of things, Arcadia senior Trey Lyga led the way for the Raiders by dominating in the discus throw. His winning toss of 156 feet, 11 inches was nearly 10 feet better than Luther senior Jack Schmeling (147-6) in second and nearly 20 feet better than Black River Falls junior Aidan Krista (137-5) in third.

Senior Ted Teske registered second-place finishes in four different events for the Arcadia boys in the 200- and 400-meter dashes, the high jump and the long jump. Sophomore David Escalara took second in the 300-meter hurdles.

Junior Alec Conrad finished third in the pole vault and fourth in the 800-meter run. The Raider boys had fifth-place performances courtesy of senior Andy Monroy in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, sophomore Trevor Pronschinske in the triple jump, Escalara in the 110-meter hurdles and Lyga in the shot put.

In addition to Dahl’s standout showing, the Arcadia girls had junior Malania Tullius in the pole vault.

G-E-T’s Vail breaks Coulee 200 record

Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau sophomore Mikah Vail did more than just stake his claim as conference champion — he rewrote the record book.

Vail crossed the finish line in the boys’ 200-meter dash with a winning time of 22.50 seconds. That outdid the previous Coulee Conference Championship Meet record of 22.53 that had been set by Corbin Sigler of Black River Falls in 2017.

Vail also claimed second in the 100-meter dash.

“The 200 went pretty well for me. I was pretty stoked about that,” Vail of breaking the conference record.

Though he wasn’t quite up to his usual standard and finished well off his career-best of 14 feet, 3 inches, G-E-T senior Sawyer Smock still repeated as conference champion in the boys’ pole vault by clearing the bar at 12 feet, 6 inches.

Smock also shouted out the performances of Luther’s Nathan Jordahl in second and Arcadia’s Ben Kolstad in third.

“It means a lot that I was able to come back here and defend from last year,” Smock said. “I’m just really happy that everyone had a good day, even though I didn’t.”

G-E-T’s smattering of third-place finishers included senior Rion Waxlax in the 400-meter dash, junior Carter Giemza in the 800-meter run, sophomore Adrian Bautista in the 3,200-meter run and senior Kyle Seiling in the triple jump.

Sophomore Isaiah Carroll took fourth in the 100-meter dash and fifth in the 200-meter dash for the Red Hawks. Bautista and senior Westlie Olson placed fourth in the 1,600-meter run and triple jump, respectively.

Notable finishers for the G-E-T girls included senior Audrey Swenson in fourth in the 300-meter hurdles and freshman Caydie Thompson in fourth in the discus throw, along with sophomore Ave Grandt in fifth in the 100-meter hurdles.

West Salem captured the team conference titles for both the boys and girls last Saturday in Black River Falls. The Panther boys accrued 179 team points, comfortably ahead of G-E-T (123) in second and Arcadia (106) in third.

The battle for the girls’ team title came all the way to the final event: the 1,600-meter relay. The Panthers won that event to finish with 177 points, ahead of second-place Westby’s total of 172.5. G-E-T (56) and Arcadia (40) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the girls’ team standings.

Boys track, Coulee Conference Championship Meet, May 17 at Black River Falls

West Salem 179, G-E-T 123, Arcadia 106, Luther 91, Viroqua 86, Westby 45, BRF 36

Arcadia top five finishers

Firsts—Lyga, discus throw, 156-11

Seconds—Teske, 200, 22.90; Teske, 400, 52.18; Escalara, 300 hurdles, 42.22; Teske, high jump, 6-0; Teske, long jump, 20-9.5

Thirds—Conrad, pole vault, 11-6; 1600 relay (Kolstad, Sanchez, Guardado, Escalara), 3:44.63; 3200 relay (Conrad, Badillo, Schultz, Gonzalez), 9:12.46

Fourths—Conrad, 800, 2:09.18

Fifths—Monroy, 1600, 4:49.70; Monroy, 3200, 10:44.18; Escalara, 110 hurdles, 16.81; Pronschinske, triple jump, 39-5; Lyga, shot put, 44-0.5; 800 relay (Pronschinske, Zaragoza, White, Glenzinski), 1:40.44

G-E-T top five finishers

Firsts—Vail, 200, 22.50; Smock, pole vault, 12-6

Seconds—Vail, 100, 11.09; 400 relay (Knapmiller, Vail, Seiling, Carroll), 44.53; 1600 relay (Waxlax, Foust, Jimenez, Giemza), 3:37.06; 3200 relay (Bautista, Caya, Earney, Giemza), 8:56.09

Thirds—Waxlax, 400, 52.37; Giemza, 800, 2:07.30; Bautista, 3200, 10:22.04; Seiling, triple jump, 40-5.5

Fourths—Carroll, 100, 11.54; Bautista, 1600, 4:45.06; Olson, triple jump, 39-6.5; 800 relay (Knapmiller, Seiling, Senn, Jimenez), 1:38.45

Fifths—Carroll, 200, 23.93

Girls track, Coulee Conference Championship Meet, May 17 at Black River Falls

West Salem 177, Westby 172.5, Viroqua 113.5, Luther 98, G-E-T 56, Arcadia 40, BRF 12

Arcadia top five finishers

Firsts—Dahl, 100, 12.51; Dahl, 200, 26.14; Dahl, 400, 1:00.92

Fifths—Tullius, pole vault, 8-0

G-E-T top five finishers

Thirds—400 relay (Garcia, Thill, Pretasky, Schulze), 54.58; 800 relay (Garcia, Thill, Pretasky, Schulze), 1:51.00

Fourths—Swenson, 300 hurdles, 51.26; Thompson, discus throw, 91-1; 1600 relay (Garcia, Thill, Schulze, Breidenbach), 4:36.07; 3200 relay (Higgins, Hilton, Tarjeson, Wolfe), 11:13.97

Fifths—Grandt, 100 hurdles, 18.57