I/G’s Marsolek earns state track curtain call

=Independence/Gilmanton senior Sam Marsolek has needed to roll with the punches at times throughout his high school athletic career. Last year, a season-ending ankle injury derailed his first spring as a pole vaulter. This past winter on the wrestling mats, he made it to sectionals but came up agonizingly short of the state tournament.

However, this spring finally gave Marsolek the opportunity for the breakthrough he’d been working for, as he wrapped up his career as an Indee with an appearance at the state track meet.

Marsolek placed ninth in the Division 3 boys’ pole vault at the 2025 WIAA State Track & Field Championships, held last weekend at the Veterans Memorial Stadium Complex in La Crosse.

Marsolek and his fellow D3 vaulters needed to contend with a slight but steady drizzle of rain during part of Saturday morning’s competition. Marsolek cleared the bar at 12 feet on his first try, cleared the bar at 12 feet, 6 inches on his second attempt at that height but was unsuccessful in all three of his attempts at 13 feet.

The event was won by Athens senior Kyle Schreiner with a mark of 14 feet, 3 inches.

Though Marsolek came up short of a spot on the medalist podium, he still had the honor of his senior swan song coming at the state meet. It capped off a spring in which he broke the school record in the pole vault by hitting 12 feet, 3 inches in Whitehall — the same place he suffered his ankle injury a year earlier — and then improved on that mark further to set the new I/G record at 13 feet.

“We’re extremely proud that he made it (to state),” said I/G head coach Trent Preissner. “That was his goal was to make it to state in track, especially after being so close in the wrestling season and after having a season-ending injury last year when he took on pole vaults. He PR’d by two feet this year. He set the school record. He’s had a great year. He’s a great leader. We’ll really miss having him on the team.”

Even though Marsolek’s time with the Indees is over, Preissner believes his impact will continue to be felt even after his graduation.

“When he first picked up pole vault, we had nobody left. And now our vaulting program this year, we had six vaulters. And a lot of it is because of Sam. He’s tremendous,” Preissner said. “He did a lot of learning on his own in the offseason, going to different camps, teaching his peers. He was frequently coaching them when (vaults) Coach Austen (Whitwam) wasn’t around. It’s not going to be the same without him, that’s for sure.”

Like Marsolek, I/G sophomore Nora Schank dealt with the Saturday morning sprinkle while competing in the D3 girls’ high jump. Schank cleared the bar at 4 feet 8 inches in her first try and did the same at 4 feet 10 inches in her second attempt but could not clear it at 5 feet. 

Lena-St. Thomas Aquinas Academy senior Eva Brooks was the state champion in that event with a winning mark of 5 feet, 7 inches.

The state result was a bit of a disappointment for Schank after she had tied the school record a week earlier at sectionals with a mark of 5 feet, 2 inches, but she still gained valuable state experience as she progresses forward with her career.

“I think this is a pretty daunting atmosphere. We’ve got a pretty massive crowd here. She performed very well under pressure at sectionals,” Preissner said. “Overall, it’s a great learning experience to know like how do you need to prepare? What is the atmosphere you’ve got to be ready for when you’ve got to show up? It’s just really good to experience it already as a sophomore.”

In the very first race of this year’s state meet on Friday morning, the Independence/Gilmanton team of junior Taylor Sylla, freshman Allie Sylla, sophomore Anna Kent and sophomore Sophia Kampa placed eighth in the D3 girls’ 3,200-meter relay with a time of 9 minutes, 56.01 seconds. 

Kohler’s relay team crossed the finish line first in that race in 9 minutes, 34.31 seconds.

That I/G quartet ran a season-best 9:55.46 at sectionals — nearly 34 seconds better than the previous school record of 10:29.53 from 1994 that was in place going into this spring.

“None of them are graduating, so we only expect them to continue to get better,” Preissner said. “It would have been great to see them on the podium, but they achieved so much this year and definitely defied our expectations.”