LA CROSSE – The 2026 WIAA state girls track and field season concluded Saturday, June 6 with the state meet at Veterans Memorial Complex on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
The event schedule was altered due to lightning and rain toward the end of competition Friday that resulted in some Division 2 and 3 events, along with the wheelchair shot-put competitions, pushing to Saturday.
Here’s a recap of Day 2 action, including 15 state champions crowned from the Milwaukee area. Arrowhead also won its third straight Division 1 state team title in dominating fashion, becoming the first team since Milwaukee Bradley Tech from 2009-11 to three-peat in the state’s biggest division.
Arrowhead’s trio of Bott, Eicher and Schroeder bring home four titles and relay win
Before the Myrhum Invitational in May, Arrowhead boys track and field coach Chris Herriot said this version of the girls team might be the best unit in program history.
Four individual titles and a relay title later, and Herriot may have been correct in his analysis of the back-to-back-to-back D1 state team champion.
Arrowhead’s charge to 70 points was sparked by its talented trident of Avery Bott, Payton Eicher and Elise Schroeder. Bott captured the 400 meters after finishing second as a junior. Eicher won the long and triple jump double, while Schroeder shattered the D1 pole vault state meet record of 12 feet 9 inches by going 13-6 for her third straight title. Eicher and Schroeder added a relay title and 10 more team points with fellow seniors Josie Bularz and Giselle Huggett in the 400 relay(46.52 seconds).
“It’s really exciting,” Eicher said. “We’ve been running relays together since freshman year, so, like, getting to this point where we’re still, we’re able to be so confident in our abilities that we can just have fun with it and feel relaxed and do our best.”
It was a bittersweet day for the Warhawks in a final adieu to the program for its core group of seniors.
“It’s been a year of gratitude,” Huggett said. “Standing on the line, it felt like we were all sad. I was crying at the starting line. We’ve just been through it all together as a team. We were second in the 4×1 last year and winning it after last year for us was really special.”
Brookfield Central’s Rinkam does the sprint double despite scary tumble
One of the weekend’s biggest gasps from the crowd at Roger Harring Stadium came at the end of the D1 100 final that saw Brookfield Central junior Kyenret Rinkam repeat as champion. Rinkam became the first back-to-back champion in the event since Dezerea Bryant from Milwaukee Bradley Tech in 2010 and 2011.
But Rinkam took a hard stumble across the finish line that made many worry for a moment. Despite some cuts to her left shoulder and skin coming off her chin, Rinkam rolled over without missing a beat into her arms raised to signal the repeat had been completed. She got bandaged up, won the 200 final and also helped the Lancers make the podium in the 1,600 relay final with a fifth-place finish.
“It was really cool,” Rinkam said with a giant smile on the win despite the fall.
“But I don’t think I realize … I didn’t notice my shoulder was all banged up, so someone just told me, ‘Kenny, your shoulder!’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ It was a lot worse than I thought it was. It’s definitely a little sore. The top layer of my skin isn’t there, so it’s not the greatest situation, but overall, the muscles are perfectly fine.”
Dominican’s Knautz ends career with three medals
Dominican senior sprinter Sydney Knautz’s mentality heading into her final day with the Knights program was simple: run to win.
The UW-Parkside commit broke the D3 100 meet record in the preliminary heats and then broke her own record to win the final in 11.94 in a dead heat with Madison Country’s Batteh Doumbya.
“Run to win,” Knautz said. “I wanted to come out here and win. I’ve dreamed of being here and winning a state title for so long. This was amazing.”
Knautz came within 0.04 of a second of Mishicot’s Juliana Doerner in another epic battle to the line in the 200. But three medals, including a sixth-place medal in the 400 relay with Laylah Bly, Alaya Scott and Flynn Martin-Burd Aronin, capped a strong showing.
“I wouldn’t be here without my coaches,” Knautz said. “They’ve always had the belief in me to do great things and I wouldn’t be here without them. They push me to be great.”
New Berlin West three-peats as D2 800 relay champ
Death, taxes and New Berlin West winning relay titles.
For the third straight year, the Vikings won the D2 800 relay, breaking their meet record with a time of 1:40.25. They became the first school since Catholic Memorial from 2016-18 to three-peat in the 800 in any division.
“We’ve ran together for the past four years, we’ve broken this record together three times,” Caroline Gerovac said. “I’m grateful for every second, every moment. I’m really gonna miss this group.”
Gerovac, along with Aubrey Lane and Ashley Babcock, have been the foundation of the team during their three-year dominance. The faces have changed three times with the graduating Natalie Leupi, sophomore Raquel Gerovac and freshman Harmony Billups joining the quartet this season, but the beat goes on.
The Vikings added one more relay title for good measure, storming through the staggered start in Lane 1 to bring home another gold medal in the 1,600 with Caroline’s sister Raquel joining the team with Babcock and Lane.
“Being with three seniors, I just put my heart into it and get behind them and do whatever they can do,” Billups said. “I just try my best to keep up with them.”
Pius XI Catholic rolls to 400 relay title with senior-less lineup
No seniors, no problem for Pius XI Catholic’s 400 relay unit.
Pius’ group of TyJah Horton, Samara Crowley, Nyomi Seals-Presti and Alanna Loyd couldn’t dethrone New Berlin West in the 800 final, but a crown resides on their heads after setting a meet record in the D2 400 relay final in 47.76.
“Really practicing hard and keeping our stamina up to do these relays back-to-back like this,” Horton said on what’s been the secret to their success.
“We check up on each other and make sure we’re all good. We’re really going for it all,” Seals-Presti added.
The group has two juniors in Seals-Presti and Loyd, but with sophomore Horton and a freshman in Crowley, the sky’s the limit fmoving into next season.
“The flow of the relay, the communication with everybody, that plays such a crucial role,” Loyd said. “If there’s bad communication, it’s not gonna go how you want it to go. But if the communication’s good with us, it’s going to be smooth every single time.”
Whitefish Bay’s McCabe overcomes stress fracture to win 3,200 title
Missing six weeks with a stress fracture in your foot isn’t the most ideal way to start your high school athletic career, but for Whitefish Bay freshman Karstin McCabe, she’s not just any other freshman.
It took some recovery time, patience and belief she could return from the foot injury to a high level, and that setback set up for a true comeback. Not only did McCabe return from the injury to finish third in the D1 state cross-country meet this past fall, she’s now a state track champion after cruising to a 3,200 title in her first appearance in La Crosse.
“A really big tool that I used was an anti-gravity treadmill,” McCabe said about the recovery process. “I feel like I learned a lot of things from that and I learned a lot of things about myself and what my body can and cannot do. It was a really big learning experience for me.”
McCabe had been one of the top 3,200 runners in the state all season and proved it in the final, racing to a time of 10:24.22, almost 13 seconds ahead of second place.
“I felt super happy,” McCabe said when she stepped to the top step on the podium. “I was thinking back at all those times I was in the boot during cross-country season and just dreaming about times like this. I was really, really happy about it.”
Other Milwaukee-area champions
Slinger freshman Lucy Rate had a wonderful debut at state, capturing titles in the 100 and 400 wheelchair events. Rate was a one-woman show, capturing the wheelchair division’s runner-up trophy with 31 points across four events.
Mukwonago’s 800 relay of Rileigh Black, Libby Gnewuch, Emma Craig and Laela Presendofer won the D1 title in 1:39.39, leading a 1-2-3 finish for the area with Arrowhead in second (1:40.52) and Germantown third (1:41.504). Presendofer took home three medals to conclude her career with a third in the 100 and a fourth in the 200.
West Bend West senior Rylee Faehling had been the top 300 hurdler in the state all season and she capped her career with a state title. Faehling went 42 seconds flat in the D1 event, her third medal of the day after finishing third in the 100 hurdles and running the anchor leg on the Spartans’ fifth-place 800 relay team.
Other area athletes with podium finishes
Top 10 team finishers across each division
Division 1: 1. Arrowhead 70, 2. Neenah 42, 3. Appleton North 38, 4. Menomonie 30, 5. Oshkosh West 29, 6. Mukwonago 28, 7. Slinger 27, 8. Holmen 26, 9. West Bend West 25, T-10. Brookfield Central 21, Germantown 21.
Division 2: 1. Bloomer 56, 2. Kettle Moraine Lutheran 37, 3. Xavier 36, T-4. Osecola 35, New Berlin West 35, T-6. Pius XI Catholic 34, Hayward, 8. Mount Horeb, 33.5, 9. Berlin 27, 10. Edgewood 21.
Division 3: 1. Ladysmith 34.5, 2. Assumption 34, T-3. Cameron 33, Cochrane-Fountain City 33, 5. Deerfield 27, 6. Kickapoo/La Farge 24, 7. Randolph-Cambria-Friesland 23, 8. St. Mary Catholic 22, 9. Dominican 21, 10. Mishicot 20.5.
Wheelchair: 1. Sun Prairie East 52, 2. Slinger 31, T-3. Viroqua 24, Greenwood 34, T-5. Chippewa Falls 6, Brookfield East 6, 7. Wauwatosa East 5, 8. Kenosha St. Joseph 3.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 15 Milwaukee-area champions crowned on Day 2 of WIAA state girls track
Reporting by Michael Whitlow, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Michael Whitlow, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
