LA CROSSE — Entering the postseason, Monroe coach Scott Mosher lined up his boys track and field squad to get not just the most athletes to state — but for those on their way to have as high of success as possible. The team did just that, scoring a WIAA Division 2 state championship in one relay race, while breaking the school record in another.

“We had a successful state meet and met or exceeded many of the goals that the team set going into the postseason,” Mosher said after the WIAA state meet, held June 3-4. Monroe’s 800-meter relay team finished as state champions, and the 400-meter relay team set a new program record. “I’m incredibly proud of the boys, especially the seniors, and the way they capped off their careers. Not only do they leave with school records, gold medals, 3-for-3 in conference and regional championships, but they also built upon the tradition of success for Monroe Track and Field and passed that mentality down to the lower grades.”

“With state being a 2-day event it’s important to not look too far ahead and really focus on Friday and the preliminary races,” Mosher said.

Monroe had four events the first day, and Mosher said the goal was to make it to the finals in each one.

Senior Jason Carpenter, a Vanderbilt commit, made the finals in the 110-meter hurdles. Then the 800-relay took care of business, advancing to the finals as the 3-seed.

Mosher said the first real surprise of the meet came with the 400-relay squad.

“They qualified with the second fastest time and set the school record. This was a little unexpected because we felt the 4x200 was the better event for us,” Mosher said. “The 4x100 school record is also the stronger of the two relay records, so we didn’t know if it was a realistic goal. But the team took nearly a second off their sectional time and beat the school by nearly .25 seconds (which is a lot more time than it seems for a sprint relay).”

Mosher said the previous record was set in 2018, and prior to that it dated back to the early 1990s.  

“Everyone was happy to qualify after the 4x200, but setting the record in the 4x100 gave the guys the confidence that they were ready to run fast and that they were peaking at the right time,” Mosher said.

The Cheesemakers also ran the 1,600-meter relay on June 3. Seeded 15th in the preliminary round, things didn’t look promising to start, according to Mosher.

“But Jakar Broitzman ran an amazing leg and put Lucas Sathoff in position to get into the top 10. Lucas then passed 3-4 teams in the home stretch and we qualified as the eighth seed. This meant that they made finals in all four events to run on Saturday,” Mosher said.

To open Day 2, Carpenter clipped the first hurdle early in his 110-meter race and finished at 16.14 seconds, with Lodi’s Lucas Heyroth taking the championship at 14.90. 

“Jason knew that he had to be perfect if he wanted to make Top-6 and get on the podium,” Mosher said. “Unfortunately, he clipped a hurdle early in the race, which put him out of contention. He finished strong, but when racing against the top hurdlers in the state he just couldn’t come back and finished 10th.”

Mosher said the 800-meter relay team, which included Carpenter, came into the finals riding high from the day before. Part of that excitement came from the fact that senior Lucas Flom, who had tweaked his hamstring at regionals a week and a half earlier, was able to participate.

“We didn’t know if he would be able to compete at all until Wednesday. I think having him in there was definitely a boost for the team,” Mosher said. 

Junior Charlie Wiegel took the baton from Flom on the second leg of the race, and promptly ate up two runners. Wiegel then handed off to Sathoff, a senior, who was neck-and-neck with defending champion Ellsworth.

“Lucas went stride for stride and handed to JT Seagreaves at nearly the same time as the Ellsworth anchor. They battled down the home stretch, and JT pulled away at the end,” Mosher said.

Monroe’s finals time of 1:30.04 was 35/100ths of a second ahead of Ellsworth, with Two Rivers finishing third. 

“We won gold in 2018 as well so to win it with a completely different group of runners that close together is pretty neat and shows the depth and sustained success of our sprinters,” Mosher said.

Wiegel, Sathoff, Seagreaves and Egor Sereda finished fourth (43.60) in the 400-relay. Ellsworth (43.21) was first, with Aquinas (43.50) second and Catholic Memorial (43.55) third.

In the 1,600-relay, Shorewood (3:24.16) was first, with Osceola (3:25.84) second. Monroe, made up of Carpenter, Broitzman, Seagreaves and Sathoff, finished seventh (3:29.84).

“We thought if we ran well, we had a chance to get a Top 6 medal. Unfortunately, they finished just one place shy,” Mosher said. “Considering we snuck into the meet as the 14th of 16th it’s pretty impressive that they were able to outperform their seed time by so much.”

Sugar River sophomore Carter Scholey finished eighth in the 3,200 (9.27.68). In the high jump, sophomore Lawrence Vasquez was eighth overall at 6-feet, 2-inches. The Raiders’ 800-meter relay team of DJ Donnell, Jack Erickson, Demarcus Conner, and Adrix DeVoe was ninth in the preliminaries with a time of 1:31.84, and then took ninth again in the finals at 1:33.55. 

Shorewood was the Division 2 state champion, scoring 46 points — one more than second-place Lodi.