WATERLOO - The Monroe boys track and field team continued to flash its riches of depth in the relay events Thursday and received a couple key individual performances to boot in winning the eight-team Waterloo Invitational.
The Cheesemakers won three of the four relay events, got an impressive double from Ethan Moehn and received a promising hurdles effort from Blake Duffy in rolling to 157 points, easily topping second-place Wisconsin Heights (142).
The Monroe girls finished fourth with 87.5 points behind team champion Mayville (142.5).
Cheesemakers coach Curt Miller said the highlight for the boys was the 800 relay team of Alex Barenklau, Dakota Phillips, Forrest Klug-Hanson and Skyler Stingley that won in 1 minute, 32.7 seconds.
"That's as good of a 4x200 as Monroe has run in close to seven or eight years maybe," Miller said. "That was exciting.
"We've just had some people coming on in the 200 recently. A couple kids like Skyler and Alex, who normally are focusing a little more in the 400 area, have a lot of speed to come down and make that relay pretty competitive."
The 1,600 relay unit of Jake Hirsbrunner, Barenklau, Klug-Hanson and Nick Gross won in 3:35.3. Only Barenklau is a regular in the event.
"Three of our best (400) runners weren't on it tonight and to run a 3:35 ... a lot of teams would love to do that at this point in the season," Miller said.
Payton Hoesly, Steve Christiansen, Gross and Luke Peterson combined to win the 3,200 relay in 8:36.7.
"Not a single guy that ran (in the 3,200) at the Penn Relays was in that race," Miller said. "Once again, we're showing off our depth in the middle distances."
Moehn won the 800 in 2:00.8 less than an hour after finishing third in the 400 in 51.9 - eight-tenths of a second behind teammate and runner-up Matt Bush.
"That's one of the tougher doubles you can do in track and field, and Ethan looked excellent," Miller said. "He was waiting for a day like this to pop out a couple of great times."
Perhaps the most interesting development, Miller said, was Duffy's third-place finish in the 110 high hurdles in 17.4 - a time nearly two seconds faster that his previous best.
"We kind of put a challenge on Blake," Miller said. "He put in a real hard day of practice (Wednesday) really trying to figure out the high hurdles and ran an excellent race today. He went from maybe being entered in the (Badger) Conference meet to a potential place-winner."
In the girls meet, Tabitha Egli won the shot put and the 3,200 relay team finished first to lead Monroe.
Egli won with a heave of 31 feet, 7 inches.
"She's had about three good meets in a row now and is really starting to come on as a quality shot puter," Miller said. "That's a great accomplishment for her to go out and win an eight-team invitational."
Lizzy Dale, Alyssa Dale, Nicole Witt and Mollie Bazley combined for the 3,200 relay win in 10:40. The same group finished second in the 1,600 relay in 4:26.
"Right now, those are our top four in both of those relays," Miller said. "We kind of had a plan together to try and run some real quality times today and all four of them had a good day."
Maria Eberle had a solid day as well, finishing second in the 100 with a personal-best time of 12.9, anchoring the 400 relay team that posted a season-best 53.5 and going 15-6 1/2 in the long jump.
"We were trying her out in the long jump to see if she can score some points at conference and that was as good of a jump as we've had in a long time," Miller said.
Mary Kelly, Mackenzie Hesgard and Tre Voegeli joined Eberle on the 400 relay unit.
The Cheesemakers won three of the four relay events, got an impressive double from Ethan Moehn and received a promising hurdles effort from Blake Duffy in rolling to 157 points, easily topping second-place Wisconsin Heights (142).
The Monroe girls finished fourth with 87.5 points behind team champion Mayville (142.5).
Cheesemakers coach Curt Miller said the highlight for the boys was the 800 relay team of Alex Barenklau, Dakota Phillips, Forrest Klug-Hanson and Skyler Stingley that won in 1 minute, 32.7 seconds.
"That's as good of a 4x200 as Monroe has run in close to seven or eight years maybe," Miller said. "That was exciting.
"We've just had some people coming on in the 200 recently. A couple kids like Skyler and Alex, who normally are focusing a little more in the 400 area, have a lot of speed to come down and make that relay pretty competitive."
The 1,600 relay unit of Jake Hirsbrunner, Barenklau, Klug-Hanson and Nick Gross won in 3:35.3. Only Barenklau is a regular in the event.
"Three of our best (400) runners weren't on it tonight and to run a 3:35 ... a lot of teams would love to do that at this point in the season," Miller said.
Payton Hoesly, Steve Christiansen, Gross and Luke Peterson combined to win the 3,200 relay in 8:36.7.
"Not a single guy that ran (in the 3,200) at the Penn Relays was in that race," Miller said. "Once again, we're showing off our depth in the middle distances."
Moehn won the 800 in 2:00.8 less than an hour after finishing third in the 400 in 51.9 - eight-tenths of a second behind teammate and runner-up Matt Bush.
"That's one of the tougher doubles you can do in track and field, and Ethan looked excellent," Miller said. "He was waiting for a day like this to pop out a couple of great times."
Perhaps the most interesting development, Miller said, was Duffy's third-place finish in the 110 high hurdles in 17.4 - a time nearly two seconds faster that his previous best.
"We kind of put a challenge on Blake," Miller said. "He put in a real hard day of practice (Wednesday) really trying to figure out the high hurdles and ran an excellent race today. He went from maybe being entered in the (Badger) Conference meet to a potential place-winner."
In the girls meet, Tabitha Egli won the shot put and the 3,200 relay team finished first to lead Monroe.
Egli won with a heave of 31 feet, 7 inches.
"She's had about three good meets in a row now and is really starting to come on as a quality shot puter," Miller said. "That's a great accomplishment for her to go out and win an eight-team invitational."
Lizzy Dale, Alyssa Dale, Nicole Witt and Mollie Bazley combined for the 3,200 relay win in 10:40. The same group finished second in the 1,600 relay in 4:26.
"Right now, those are our top four in both of those relays," Miller said. "We kind of had a plan together to try and run some real quality times today and all four of them had a good day."
Maria Eberle had a solid day as well, finishing second in the 100 with a personal-best time of 12.9, anchoring the 400 relay team that posted a season-best 53.5 and going 15-6 1/2 in the long jump.
"We were trying her out in the long jump to see if she can score some points at conference and that was as good of a jump as we've had in a long time," Miller said.
Mary Kelly, Mackenzie Hesgard and Tre Voegeli joined Eberle on the 400 relay unit.
