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Holmen High School's girls track and field had all sorts of opportunities to advance one of its three relay teams or three individual qualifiers to the finals of their events at last weekend's Division 1 state track and field meet at UW-La Crosse. Two of Holmen's relay teams were seeded in the top eight based on their sectional times, while Vikings head coach Paul Berge thought the remaining relay and each of the individuals had a chance to reach the finals. But just two of the six HHS entrants even finished in the top half of their fields, shutting Holmen out of sending a team to the finals in an event.

Hanna Niccum came the closest to advancing by place in the 300-meter hurdles, with her 11th-place preliminary time of 47.52 seconds .33 of a second behind ninth-place Sydney Malanaphy of Hudson. Niccum was the only Vikings team or individual to surpass her pre-meet seed.

“She ran well the first five hurdles, but faltered a little bit on the last three, which is a little bit uncharacteristic for her,” Berge said. “But she had a great career.”

The closest one of the relay teams came to advancing was the 4X100 team of Jessica Wakefield, Whitney Croell, Lauren Hicke and Leah Jagodzinski, who took 12th in 50.26 seconds, three-tenths of a second behind ninth-place Green Bay Southwest. All but Hicke are eligible to return next season to a team who reset the school record in the event.

“We didn't think the Milwaukee area would have quite the firepower they did,” Berge said. “Tomah (eighth) also was a surprise in that event. The sprints at state this year were much more competitive than they were a year ago.”

Individually, Croell finished 13th in the 100 hurdles in 16.22 seconds. The sophomore was .26 of a second behind ninth-place Jennifer Lehman of Waukesha South.

“She needed a good race, but she faltered a little bit,” Berge said of Croell. “She needs to work on improving her strength in the weight room, but she's got the technique down. If she can get a little faster she can get to where she wants to go.”

Those three events seemed to mark an unofficial cutoff for the HHS group that were within striking distance of reaching the finals. Holmen's 4X200 team of Wakefield, Niccum, Hicke and Jagodzinski were 14th in their preliminary in 1 minute, 46.29 seconds, 1.28 seconds behind ninth-place Watertown.

“We were hoping to get at least one of the relay teams through to the finals,” Berge said. “They all ran O.K. when they needed to run really well.”

The Vikings 4X400 team of Croell, Martha Dibb, Hicke and Taber Holmes were 15th with their prelim time of 4:07.96. Middleton was ninth in the prelims in 4:03.62.

Holmes ran on the relay after Cathryn Helmers re-aggravated a calf injury about 40 meters from the finish line in her open 400 preliminary. Helmers was able to complete the race, but her 21st-place time of 1:03.01 was 3.66 seconds behind the ninth-place time of Sauk Prairie's Nicole Ballweg.

“She was running well until she re-popped it,” Berge said. “It was great for all of our underclassmen to get to state, and we're happy with our overall season, but hopefully this also will make them hungrier for next year.”

While HHS will return more than half of its state contingent next spring with Croell, Helmers, Wakefield, Jagodzinski and Dibb, they lose Hicke, Niccum and Holmes to graduation. Hicke is a part of school-record teams on the 4X1, 4X2 and 4X4 relays, including teaming with Joanna Schultz, Helmers and Jane Clark for a time of 4:00.78 in the 4X4 in 2006.

“Lauren has been the most successful relay runner we've had as far as consistency,” Berge said. “Tabor wasn't our fastest runner, but she is very opportunistic. We're going to miss her great utility-type skill of being able to run anything from the 4X1 to the 4X8.”

At least one graduating senior, distance runner Michaela Miller, will continue with running in college, Berge said.