Story originally printed in the Holmen Courier or online at www.holmencourier.com
Published - Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Girls track ready to take shot at Logan
Longtime Holmen High School girls track and field coach Paul Berge has talked all season about Logan likely being beyond his team's reach in the team chase at Tuesday's Mississippi Valley Conference meet at Logan. Holmen seemingly enters the meet with the sprinting and hurdling depth to stick with the Rangers, but likely will need strong performances in some of the field events to keep up with Logan.
“I hope we can finish second,” Berge said. “I'd be delighted with that.”
The Vikings return three champions from last year's meet, Hanna Niccum in the 300-meter hurdles, the 4X200 relay team of Jessica Wakefield, Leah Jagodzinski, Whitney Croell and Tabor Holmes, and the 4X400 relay team of Cathryn Helmers, Niccum, Holmes and Lauren Hicke. Hicke also is the top returning underclassmen from a year ago in the high jump.
Helmers and Croell may possess the top chances to win events for HHS this year, however. Helmers is coming off a time of 25.84 seconds in the 200 at the April 29 Tomah triangular, the fourth-best time in the state thus far this season entering the week.
Croell won the 100 hurdles that same day in 16.04 seconds, the 14th-best time in the state thus far this season entering the week. Add Jen Buchner in the shot put and discus to the list of possible Holmen champions.
“First is going to be hard spot for any of our girls to get,” Berge said. “There are a lot of state-level runners in the distances and jumpers.”
Top competition for Helmers should come from Logan's Stephanie Henry and Emily Worden, and possibly from Onalaska's Jami Hill in the 400. An event-winning time of 1 minute, .44 seconds for Helmers in the 400 at Tomah was good for the 18th-best in the state thus far this season entering the week.
“Logan definitely has the big guns for the huge points and Onalaska should surprise with a lot of points,” Berge said. “I'm hoping we can score some points in the distance events. We're going to need a lot of third- through sixth-place finishes because we don't have any superstars.
“A lot will depend on where the other teams put their people, but I'm hoping we can do well in the relays. This area has more superstars right now than I've seen in a long time.”
Others to count as possible superstars include Onalaska's Maddie Hibshman and Central's Hannah Sleznikow in the distance events, and Worden, Logan's Emily Betz and Tomah's Emily Haines in the horizontal jumps.
If Holmen is to challenge Logan by scoring some in the field events, some of those points may need to come from Emma Waffenschmidt, Sara Niccum in the pole vault and Kristi Kamprud in the throws. Waffenschmidt scored in both the pole vault and triple jump at last year's league meet.
In addition to Helmers, the Vikings got points in the open sprints from Jagodzinski and Hicke last spring. Jesse Heiden and Michaela Miller provided the HHS points to counter Onalaska's distance strength a year ago.
With Tuesday's Dick Fredrickson Invitational at Arcadia and Friday's Hanson Relays at Central both rained out, the final tune-up for many of Holmen's top athletes came in Tomah. Among that days highlights were Croell going under 50 seconds in the 300 hurdles and freshman Angela Berkley clearing 4-10 in the high jump, Berge said.
All stories copyright 2006 Holmen Courier and other attributed sources.