LA CROSSE — Albany senior Libby Beck closed out her prep career with a fourth-place finish in the Division 3 shot put competition at the annual WIAA State Championships at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse May 31-June 1.
Beck qualified in both the shot put and the discus. While her 14th place finish in the discus was less than ideal — her mark of 97 feet, 6 inches was more than 15 feet shorter than her sectional toss — Beck made up for it in the shot put.
After a first throw of 37-09.75, Beck had a foul and needed to regroup. She then tossed a 40-08.25 on her third throw, which ended up being her furthest of the meet. The toss was also three inches deeper than her sectional championship toss May 23 in Bangor.
“Libby was disappointed in her discus event, but she knew shot put was her primary event,” Albany coach Tony Brewer said.
Beck holds the school record in the shot put and will compete on scholarship next year at Minnesota State.
Libby was disappointed in her discus event, but she knew shot put was her primary event.Albany coach Tony Brewer
Aubrey Schoeneman, a junior from Mercer, won the event with a toss of 43-03.75. Colby’s Mackenzie Huber (42-02.50) was second and Algoma’s Bobbi Blahnik (41-06.50) was third. Darlington junior Marissa Gould was eighth (36-10.85).
Monticello sent four runners to the state meet for the 800-meter relay, while one of the runners, senior Alyssen Noriega, also qualified to run in the 200-meter dash. Noriega would run the slowest time of the 200 during the preliminary heats (27.40) and did not advance to the finals.
The Ponies quartet finished seventh in the preliminary rounds. In the championship race on Saturday, June 1, the Monticello team of anchor Noriega and freshman Hannah Clark and juniors Ali Risley and Maggie Bak, ran to a season-best time of 1 minute, 47.17 seconds, which was good enough for fifth to reach the podium. The four Ponies came home to a fire truck escort around the town.
Aquinas’s four-some of Andrea White, Grace Gyllander, Courtney Becker and basketball standout Lexi Donarski won the race with a time of 1:44.49. Aquinas also won the team title.
Darlington was also a state qualifier in the 800-relay. The Redbirds team of seniors Roxi Reuter and Kathleen Mathias, junior Lizzie Schwartz and sophomore Sydney Beasley finished ninth in the prelims (1:48.59) and reached the podium with a sixth-place finals time of (1:47.26). Mathias, the anchor, was just a full step behind Noriega at the finish line.
Schwartz was ninth in the 300-meter hurdles prelims and finals. Schwartz’s finals time of 49.97 was nearly two seconds slower than her sectional final qualifying time a week prior.
Albany’s 1,600-meter relay team of seniors Megan Anderson and Kaitlyn Trow, freshman Payton Wachholz and junior Kristin O’Bel finished 12th in the prelims with a time of 4:15.13. Fennimore went on to win the finals (4:03.78).
