OREGON — For the first time in five seasons, the Monroe boys track and field team is Badger South Conference champions.

“We had a lot of great performances and the athletes stepped up when needed to,” Cheesemakers coach Scott Mosher said.

Monroe finished with 266 points, with Monona Grove taking second (242) and Oregon third (224). The Cheesemakers won four events — three of which were anchored by senior speedster Jordan Montgomery.

“Jordan Montgomery was our team MVP, scoring 24 points in individual events and then anchoring the winning 4x100 relay for another 10 points,” Mosher said. “He was fun to watch, even coaches from other teams were coming up to me saying how impressive he looked.”

Montgomery won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes as an individual, then closed out the title-winning 400-meter relay.

In the 100, Montgomery defeated Matt Kissling in the final with a time of 11.11 seconds. Kissling was second (11.33) while Monroe junior Nick Bansley was third (11.60). 

The 400-meter relay team, which consisted of Bansley in the first leg, then Lucas Flom and Camden Foesch before Montgomery, finished with a time of 44.25 seconds, less than a second ahead of Milton (44.92). 

“(We) don’t have a lot of seniors, but we relied heavily on two of them tonight,” Mosher said of Montgomery and Kyle Legler, who won the 3,200, was second in the 1,600 and was a part of a key relay event. 

Legler ran to the title in the 3,200 (9:55.79), setting a personal record in the race. He outpaced Madison Edgewood’s Leo Richardson (10:00.15) down the stretch.

“The 3,200 is the second to last event and we were very close to Monona Grove for the team score. Kyle heard his coaches yell during the race that we needed him to win, and he delivered with a monster kick with 300 meters to go. He ran his final 400 in 1:05,” Mosher said. “Kyle is incredibly hard working, running hundreds of miles every off season, so this success is well deserved. He also stepped up big when we needed it tonight.”

Elsewhere for Monroe, Jake Brower was second in the 800 (2:02.52), just 1.22 seconds behind champion Nathan Devault of Monona Grove. In the 1,600, Legler set a personal record with a 4:34.27, finishing a second behind Edgewood’s Matt Gilles. Monroe’s Dylan Fahrney was fourth (4:41.71).

In the hurdles, Monroe sophomore Trevor Rodebaugh continued to impress, taking second in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles (40.90), which was about a half of a second behind champion Dane Nelson of Milton. Nelson also won the 100-high hurdles (15.16), with teammate Ben Soergel (15.83) beating Rodebaugh by just 2/100ths of a second.

While the Cheesemakers didn’t register any results in the throwing events, the jumps were another area of strength for Monroe. Freshman JT Seagreaves tied Ty Jahnke of Watertown and Kraymer Gladem of Fort Atkinson in the high jump with a mark of 6 feet, 2 inches. Monroe sophomore Cade Meyer, who owns the school record at over 6 feet, 8 inches, finished fourth at the conference meet with a jump of 6-0.

Seagreaves was second in the long jump, setting a personal record in the process (20-09.5). Gladem won the event by two inches. Montgomery was fifth (19-10.25), which was also a personal record. Patrick Rielly tied three others in the pole vault at 10 feet even, 18 inches short of champion Leo Curatola of Monona Grove.

“JT Seagreaves had a big night,” Mosher said. “He now holds the freshman record in each of those three events (high jump, long jump, 200), which is incredibly impressive considering the long-term success of Monroe Track and Field, and the records that have been kept since the 1960s.”

Seagreaves was ninth (23.92) in the 200 finals, but set the school’s freshman mark with a time of 23.54 seconds in the preliminaries.

The Cheesemakers took third in the 1,600-relay (3:33.30), with Fort Atkinson (3:29.44) winning the event. In the 800-relay, Monroe was fourth (1:36.40), nine seconds behind champion Milton. The Cheesemakers added a fifth-place finish in the 3,200-relay (8:50.96), with Monona Grove (8:32.14) winning the race.

“There were so many athletes to step up tonight,” Mosher said. “It was really neat to see the athletes all cheering on their teammates and checking with coaches throughout the meet to see where we stood in the team standings. The kids worked hard all season for this, which makes it more special.”