The Owen-Withee Trackhawks trekked on over to Colby high school on Friday, May 30 to compete in the WIAA Sectional Track and Field Meet. At this meet, there were athletes from 47 different schools from the Northwest part of the state competing for a chance to perform at the State Track and Field Meet. To qualify for the state meet, participants had to place in the top four competitors in each of the different events. Besides a 30-minute storm delay, the meet went on without a hiccup and resulted in an abundance of area teams having athletes qualify for state. The Owen-Withee Track and Field Team performed exceptionally well.
For the Girls team, Kendall Weiler placed 2nd in the 300 Meter Hurdles, and the team of Kendall Weiler, Kayla Rasmussen, Madi Mueller, and Cassidy Graski placed 2nd in the 4X400 Meter Relay.
For the Boys team, Brandon Geldernick placed 2nd in both the 100 Meter and 200 Meter Dash; Colton Paczkowski placed 2nd in the 800 Meter Run; Mason Gay placed 1st in the 300 Meter Hurdles; Sully Poehler placed 4th in the Discus; the team of Mason Gay, Colton Paczkowski, Dominic Sherwood, and Brandon Geldernick placed 1st in the 4X400 Meter Relay; the team of Mason Gay, Colton Paczkowski, Sam Wells, and Talon Mueller placed 2nd in the 4X800 Meter Relay.
There were also two other athletes who just barely missed the qualifying mark by placing 5th in their event; Dominic Sherwood in the 300 Meter Hurdles, and Cassidy Graski in the 100 Meter Hurdles. Cassidy also just barely missed the school record in the event by .02 seconds.
In addition to qualifying for the State meet, there were several record breaking performances. Brandon Geldernick broke his own record in the 200 Meter Dash; Mason Gay became the new record holder in the 300 Meter Hurdles; Kendall Weiler bested her previous school record in the 300 Meter Hurdles; Colton Paczkowski became the new record holder in the 800 Meter run; and the team consisting of Mason Gay, Colton Paczkowski, Sam Wells, and Talon Mueller lowered their school record for the 4X800 Meter Relay.
The girls finished the meet with 23 team points, which placed them at 14th overall. The boys finished with an impressive 59 points, which earned them 2nd place overall. Owen-Withee will have 14 athletes traveling to the state competition to end their season at the largest stage possible! Congratulations to all the athletes who competed in the meet, and good luck to all the qualifying athletes which will compete at the State Track and Field Championship at UW-La Crosse on June 6th and 7th!