EAST TROY — The Monroe girls finished third as a team at the WIAA Division 2 East Troy Sectional May 23. Lodi won the meet and Viroqua’s co-op finished second.
The Cheesemakers advanced to state in eight events. The 2019 WIAA State Championships will take place May 31-June 1 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in La Crosse.
“(A) great team achievement, taking third out of 32 teams in our sectional for the second year in a row,” Monroe coach Eric Jubeck said. “The goal of this meet is to perform at our best and send as many kids to state as possible, and we achieved both of those.”
Cammi Ganshert, a senior, advanced both the 100- (12.82 seconds, fourth place) and the 200-meter dashes (26.35, second place).
“Cammi is returning to state for the third time in the 100 and second time in the 200. She is in a position to make the finals yet again in both,” Jubeck said.
Junior Cassi Gersbach moves on after a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles (15.82) and a third-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles (48.15).
“Cassi Gersbach looked great in both 100-hurdles and 300-hurdles,” Jubeck said. “And after finishing 11th in the 100-hurdles as a sophomore, (I’m) super excited for her to take the next step to make the finals this year.”
Senior Faith Koester finished third in the high jump (5 feet, 2 inches) to advance to state. Koester also joined Gersbach, Ganshert and senior Emma Sanders on the second-place 800-meter relay team that punched its ticket to La Crosse. The quartet of Cheesemakers finished with a time of 1 minute, 47.54 seconds, just 36/100ths of a second out of first place.
“Our 4x2 ran a 1:47.52, which was over a second PR, and in ninth position going in to state,” Jubeck said, adding that the top 10 make the finals.
In the throws, junior Chloe Bunker reached the state meet in the discus with a toss of 115-10, which was good enough for fourth place. Bunker was fifth in the shot put (36-05.25), just missing out on an automatic bid. Sophomore teammate Riley Hartwig, however, was fourth in the shot put (36-09.5) and will throw at La Crosse.
“We have three new qualifiers in field events,” Jubeck said of Koester, Bunker and Hartwig. “Taking eight athletes is a great accomplishment — with a relay and seven individual qualifications. It is neat to see that every athlete truly has a chance to make it into the finals, which makes for an exciting two days at La Crosse.”
Also reaching state in Division 2 included Sugar River’s Kiara Donnell, who was fourth in both the 100 (12.72) and the 200 (26.72). Raiders teammate Ava Foley, a freshman, was fourth in the triple jump (35-00). Sugar River senior Haiden Zimmerman was third in the discus (119-02).
Sophomore Madelynn McIntrye advances to state in the 3,200 with a third-place finish (11:42.33). She was fifth in the 1,600 (5:23.77), less than four seconds off the pace to reach La Crosse.
Brodhead-Juda senior Rhianna Teubert just missed out on reaching state in a couple of events. She was fifth in the 100 (16.34) and fifth in the 300-hurdles (49.11)
Sugar River’s 400-meter relay team of Foley, junior Heidi Wegehaupt and seniors Jade Halvensleben and Donnell were fifth and missed out on qualifying by finishing just 3/100ths of a second behind Edgewood (51.47).
