Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Sunday, April 27, 2008
Boys and girls track second in evenly matched triangular
If Tomah High School boys and girls track & field coaches Bruce Luebke and Eric Eswein wanted to create the closest possible triangular meet, they couldn’t have done a better job.
Tomah, Wausau West and Wisconsin Dells came close to an even three-way split at the Tomah Triangular Tuesday at E.J. McKean Field. The triangular replaced the April 18 Earl Gatzke Invitational, which was cancelled due to heavy rain. Another triangular in Tomah has been scheduled for April 29 with Holmen and Mauston.
Girls coach Bruce Luebke was happy that four teams agreed to a pair of quickly arranged triangulars.
“Without these triangulars, our seniors would have gone the entire year without competing at home,” Luebke said. “It’s kind of nice to get back to some of these traditional triangulars and duals. We’ve gotten away from that with all the big invitationals.”
Both Tomah teams finished second behind Wausau West. Wisconsin Dells was a close third in both meets.
Derek Storkel was Tomah’s only double winner, but instead of running his normal 1,600- and 3,200-meter races, he ran the 800 and 1600. His 800 race was close, but he still pulled out a victory by 1.2 seconds with a time of 2:11.41. The 1600 race wasn’t close. Storkel’s time of 4:25.82 was 23 seconds better than the runnerup.
Tomah’s boys also did well in the jumping pits. Rhett Monroe won the long jump with a mark of 18 feet, 4 3/4 inches., while Matt Ferry won the triple jump in 40-9. The triple jump was Tomah’s best event with Zach Johnson finishing second in 38-10 1/2.
The Timberwolves’ other winners were Reed Griffin in the 110 high hurdles (:17.42) and the 800 relay team (1:35.7)
Team scores: Wausau West 66, Tomah 60, Wisconsin Dells 58.
The highlight on the girls side was Tomah’s 400-meter relay team, which posted the 10th fastest time in school history. The quartet of Melissa Moravec, Amy Gasser, Lauren Patterson and Emily Haines won the race in :51.96.
Tomah’s biggest harvest of points came in the 100 hurdles and triple jump. Tayler Westpfahl and Kristin Schuster were one-two in the 100 hurdles with times of :17.18 and :17.79. Haines won the triple jump in 34-7, while Moravec was second in 32-7.
The Timberwolves’ other win came in the 800 relay, where Westpfahl, Abby Schoonover, Patterson and Gasser finished in 1:53.1.
In the discus, Caitlin Sweet finished second with a season-best throw of 98-0 1/2.
Team scores: Wausau West 67, Tomah 64.5, Wisconsin Dells 53.5.
Tomah heads to the Baraboo Relays Friday in a 3:45 p.m. start at Baraboo High School.
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.