PRAIRIE DU CHIEN — The Cheesemakers won the girls WIAA Division 2 Prairie du Chien Regional title May 20 with a couple of blistering performances. It was the third straight year Monroe has won its regional.
“An overwhelmingly positive regional meet,” Monroe coach Eric Jubeck said. “The girls took care of business.”
Monroe scored 138.33 points, with Platteville (102.5) taking second. Sugar River (88.75) was fifth of the eight teams in competition.
Faith Koester qualified for sectionals in all four events she competed in — the lone Cheesemaker to do so. Koester qualified in the triple jump with a mark of 32 feet, 10.25 inches, which was good enough for third place. She also was a part of the 400- and 800-meter relay teams. For the first time this year, Koester reached 5 feet, 2 inches in the high jump, a height that tied Mount Horeb’s Elise Goetzinger atop the leaderboard.
“(She’s) positioning herself for a huge sectional meet that is loaded in this event,” Jubeck said of the high jump.
Joining Koester on the third-place 400-relay team were Sabina Gonzalez, Megan Benzschawel and Emma Sanders. The regional-title winning 800-relay team included Sanders, Cassi Gersbach and Cammi Ganshert, with Jubeck saying that their PR time of 1 minute, 48.69 seconds is in line to qualify for state.
“The 4x1 team had a few less than desirable hand-offs, and will need to be perfect to have a chance on Thursday of getting in the top four,” Jubeck said.
Ganshert also won the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.75 seconds, as well as the 200-meter dash (26.74).
“Cammi Ganshert looked healthy and ready to get back to state for her senior year. She’s had an incredible career and we are looking forward to see how she caps it off,” Jubeck said.
Gersbach won the 100-meter hurdles (16.00) and the 300-meter hurdles (48.89).
“(She) looked great in both the 100-hurdles and 300-hurdles,” Jubeck said. “If she can take another step forward, she has a good chance to get to state. She made it last year in the 100-hurdles, and has been running very well in the 300-hurdles as well.”
Another clear bright spot for the Cheesemakers was in the throws, as Chloe Bunker and Riley Hartwig both had impressive performances. Bunker won the shot put (37-03) with Hartwig taking third (36-11). Bunker was also third in the discus (117-05).
“Chloe Bunker had another big meet in the throws, and has been consistent in the discus which has been neat to see her put the time in to improve. She made it to state last year in the shot, and her goal is to make it in both the shot and disc this year,” Jubeck said. “Riley Hartwig has been throwing very well over the past several weeks. As a freshman, she took sixth at sectionals, and no one wants it more than her to make it for La Crosse. I am very excited for her to have a chance to achieve her goal.”
Monroe’s Bri Lambert (1:07.03) and Grace Mathiason (1:07.39) both advanced in the 400, and Abby Price and Kajen Medenwaldt are moving on in the pole vault. Price finished second with a mark of 8-06, while Medenwaldt was fourth at 8-03.
“Individually, it was great to see a few athletes get through to extend their season,” Jubeck said. “It’s great to see athletes that work hard and do the right thing have the opportunity to be part of a sectional track meet.”
The sectional meet was scheduled for May 23 at East Troy.
Elsewhere at the Prairie du Chien Regional, Kiara Donnell is moving on for the Sugar River Raiders. Donnell was second to Ganshert in both the 100 (12.91) and 200 (27.51).
The Raiders’ 400-relay team of Heidi Wegehaupt, Ava Foley, Jade Halvensleben and Donnell were regional champions with a time of 52.43, beating Madison Edgewood by just 3/100ths of a second.
Kyla Jerome tied Price in the pole vault with an 8-06. Foley won the long jump (15-08.75) by just over three inches, and was the triple jump champ (35-00.25) by over 18 inches. Haiden Zimmerman was second in the shot put (121-00).
