2012 Relays set New Richmond girls as favorites in MBC meet

• Aaron Daul

Tiger junior Aaron Daul takes off after receiving the baton from Allan Wollenberg in the 400 meter relay event at the New Richmond Relays.
• Nicole Hedlund

Nicole Hedlund was able to stretch beyond 15 feet in the long jump during Friday’s New Richmond Relays.

Talk about it

The New Richmond boys are the defending MBC track champions, but it looks like the Tiger girls are in the best position to make a run at a 2012 Middle Border Conference track title.

The 2012 MBC meet will be held next Tuesday at Osceola High School, beginning at 4 p.m.

New Richmond’s girls established themselves as a favorite for the MBC title by winning their first New Richmond Relays title in several years last Friday. The Tigers earned 94 points to top the 13-team field. Hudson was in second with 81 points.

The Tiger boys are the defending champions, but they are still searching for the depth to compete with Somerset, Osceola and Ellsworth at the MBC meet. The Tigers placed ninth in the 2012 Relays, scoring 27 points, after winning The Relays last year.

Tiger girls coach Judy Weiss said the goal for the conference meet, as it is every year, is to win the championship.

“We feel winning is a realistic goal for us. We will enter our strongest kids in open events to get the most points. Some kids will do three or four tough events,” Weiss said.

New Richmond, Osceola and Somerset appear to be the leading contenders for the 2012 girls title.

For the Tiger boys, team health will be a determining factor in how competitive they can be in the MBC meet. Two of the team’s leading scorers, Tyler Cran and Colton Simpson, are battling injuries and their availability for Tuesday is in question.

“Team health will be huge for us,” said boys coach Roger Reuvers. “Realistically, it will be a dogfight. It will be down to who can perform at the upper level.”

The boys meet is going to be highly competitive, with five teams having an honest chance for the title. Reuvers said he hoped the other teams’ strengths would cancel each other out and leave an opening for the Tigers to move to the top.

NR Relays

The exceptional depth of the Tiger girls carried the team to the 2012 New Richmond Relays title. The Tigers were champions in three events: the triple jump, the 800 relay and the 1600 relay. The balance of the talent on the team was the determining factor. The Tigers placed in the top three in 11 of the 15 events. The Tigers placed in all events but one.

The triple jump win was produced by Anna McShane, Nicole Hedlund and Erika Bohmke. They all went beyond 33 feet in their jumps and they nearly broke the longest-standing girls Relays record. They finished with a combined distance of 100 feet, 8.75 inches. That was six inches short of the record set by Brenda Isaac and the Walz sisters, Monica and Missy, in 1990.

The win in the 800 relay was produced by the team of Carley Brotzler, Peyton Olien, Anna McShane and Kat Keller. Their time of 1:46.76 is the sixth best time posted in the state this season.

The 1600 meter relay win was a great way to cap the team victory, even with the rain that roared in during the final stretch of the meet. The team of Olien, Keller and the Kelly sisters, Morgan and Maddie, won the event with a 4:08.33 that is the 10th best time in the state this season.

Two of the performances that had Weiss most excited were the second place finishes in the hurdle events. Weiss said the hurdlers have been making rapid progress and they could be a pivotal event in the conference meet. McShane, Hedlund and Serena Shilts were able to team up to take second in the hurdle races, finishing well below their seed times in both cases.

The Tiger boys only had three top four finishes. The highest finish was in the 3200 relay, where the Tigers placed second with the team of Eli Kelley, Alec Knox, Jack Utzman and Alex Charbonneau.

The team of Kelley, Charbonneau, Joey Miller and Gabe Harvieux took fourth in the sprint medley relay, but finished with the third best time in school history in the event.

Reuvers said he may have found another option for Kelley in the conference meet, because of the strong 800s he ran in meets last week.

Old Abe Invite

Relay successes were the common thread for the Tiger teams in the Old Abe Invitational at Eau Claire Memorial last Tuesday.

The Tiger girls won the five-team event while New Richmond’s boys ranked fourth in the team scoring.

The Tiger boys went with a conservative lineup, mainly loading up the relay events. The boys stood out there, winning the 800, 1600 and 3200 relays, with a third place finish in the 400 relay.

Travis Germain, Connor O’Loughlin, Harvieux and Kelley teamed up for the win in the 800 relay. Miller, Knox, Charbonneau and Kelley delivered the 1600 win. The 3200 relay win was produced by Charbonneau, Knox, Bryan Gaffer and Jack Utzman.

The Tiger girls scored two relay wins and five individual event wins.

The 400 and 800 relay teams motored to wins. Hedlund was a double winner, taking the top spot in the triple jump and tying for the win in the long jump.

The Kelly sisters each scored one win, Maddie in the 400 and Morgan in the 800. Keller was the champion in the 200 meters.

Tags: sports, tigers, track, prep