LA CROSSE – Eva Busch admits she may have been a little fatigued late in the second day of the WIAA state track and field competition.
The sophomore standout for Appleton North was competing in the 3,200-meter run, a true test of endurance that features eight trips around the track. It was even more daunting given the humid conditions throughout the day at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.
Busch soldiered on, however, and finished second in the event with a time of 10 minutes, 37.03 seconds. Whitefish Bay freshman Karstin McCabe won the event with a 10:24.22.
“I honestly was feeling tired before,” Busch said. “But I think it was really cool, because I went out there and tried to run with everyone to get my momentum to run.”
Busch was fourth after the first 800 but made her move over the next three laps, moving up to third and then second in the fifth lap. She had her strongest push in the final 400 meters, finishing with a 1:14.29 split.
“I think the last mile I was feeling good,” she said. “So when I was in second place, I just tried to hold that the whole time. And I knew in the last lap there were people coming, so I tried to hold on for as long as I could and just run the fastest I could in my last lap.”
Busch was also fifth in the 1,600 (4:53.32) on June 5 and North finished third overall with 38 points in the team competition.
Here are six other takeaways from this past weekend at the state meet.
Little Chute’s Effa caps career with silver
Little Chute’s Cooper Effa found a silver lining in an otherwise tough day. The senior placed second in the Division 2 300 hurdles with a time of 38.17 seconds. Hayward senior Lucas Hansen won the event (37.81).
Effa was the top seed in the 300 hurdles. He also finished ninth in the 110 hurdles (15.04) and finished tied for 10th in the high jump (6-2).
“It was a tough weekend for me,” he said. “I don’t know if it was the heat or something else, but I didn’t really run too good in my other events. And I was kind of getting down on myself, so I knew this was gonna be my last race and I said, ‘I need to just get one, one good one in.’ And I felt like I really did that on this race, which felt so satisfying.”
Effa had a rough start to his senior year, suffering a shoulder injury in Week 1 of the football season. A lengthy rehab followed and he was able to play in the second half of the basketball season and had no issues during the spring in track.
“I feel like basketball [acclimated] me to sports again,” he said. “And then track was kind of normal for me.”
Effa said he plans to attend the University of Wisconsin but not participate in sports. He plans to pursue a mechanical engineering degree.
Xavier girls 400 relay briefly breaks state meet record
Caroline Basehoar won the D2 girls pole vault June 5, but she was also a member of the Hawks’ 400 relay team that finished second with a time of 48.49 on June 6.
Basehoar was the third leg and lone senior of the group, with juniors Hailey Hafner and Bryce Hietpas and freshman Kayla Fournillier making up the rest of the quartet.
The Hawks ran a 48.03 in the prelims to win their heat and set the state record, which had been set by Edgerton (48.69) in 2017. Xavier’s reign as state record holder was brief, with Milwaukee Pius XI besting the Hawks’ time in the second heat with a 47.6. Pius would also win the final with a time of 47.76.
“Yeah, we held it for 30 seconds,” Basehoar said. “And then [Pius] broke it. For us it was totally fine because we PR’d by a second and we broke our school record in the process. We were still excited. And we knew [Pius] was very fast and we knew they were coming for it. So it was predictable.”
Basehoar joined Fournillier, Grace Hackl and Lauren Erickson in the 800 relay team that placed third (1:42.73).
“I was super happy with how they went,” Basehoar said of both relays. “Coming in, I don’t think we were seeded super-duper high. So we kind of went above our expectations. We broke our school records for both of them.”
All in the details for Shiocton’s Kuehn
Shiocton’s Paxton Kuehn had a solid day for the Chiefs, making podium in all three of his events. Kuehn was third in the long jump (22-2) and 100 (10.91) and fourth in the 200 (21.99).
“All glory to God. I owe it all to him,” Kuehn said. “It just feels great. Such a blessing being here. My coach is helping me get here. They’re amazing to work with and just follow what they tell me to do. It helps me get here.”
Kuehn said he doesn’t plan to continue his athletic career in college. His time will be spent growing his Fox Valley area mobile detailing business – Golden Mobile Detailing.
“I love cars and I always wanted to have a business,” he said. “I love helping people out. I wanna make my own money, work for myself, do what I want. I got inspired by watching somebody online. I have three employees working for me.”
Shiocton’s Hess, SMC’s relays pace other third-place winners
Five individuals and seven area relay teams placed third June 6.
Shiocton junior Wyatt Hess was third in both the D3 boys 110 hurdles (:14.71) and the 300 hurdles (:38.63). Little Chute senior Calvin Van Rossum was third in the D2 boys high jump and Freedom senior Nolan Phillips was third in the D2 boys 110 hurdles.
Little Chute senior Zuzanna Mosienska was also third in the D2 girls 100 hurdles (:14.41).
Also third were Appleton North’s D1 girls 400 relay (Isabel Parrish, Ashley Parrish, Jada Ellis, Emily Thompson) in :47.05; Appleton North’s D1 girls 3,200 relay (Audry Dehlinger, Elise Brazzale, Sophia Busch, Ava Helmbrecht) in 9:11.30; Xavier’s D2 girls 1,600 relay (Lauren Erickson, Bernice Geurts, Lily Renz, Grace Hackl) in 3:57.97 and Winneconne’s D2 boys 1,600 relay (Luke Fuller, Logan Wolf, Koltyn Kachur, Grant Wenzelow) in 3:22.55.
St. Mary Catholic had two of its girls relays place third: The 400 relay (Cora Epping, Autumn Crowe, Luci Nackers, Ellie Davel) :49.6, and the 800 relay (Davel, Crowe, Nackers, Claire Higgins) 1:43.6.
The Zephyrs return all four runners for both relays next season and that’s something Crowe said the team is looking forward to already.
“It’s obviously what we’ve been trying to do and we’ve just been getting better as we go,” she said. “We can break the 4-by-2[00] and 4-by-1[00] [school records] again. So looking forward to it.”
Said Nackers: “Yeah, that’s really exciting knowing that we can just even get better for next year in PRing again.”
Finishing fourth
Fox Valley Lutheran had three fourth-place finishers – senior Grant Wolfrath in the D2 110 hurdles (14.8), junior Jacoby Dobberstein in the 300 hurdles (38.95) and senior Tyler Dequaine in the long jump (22-8).
Other individual fourth-place finishers included Neenah’s Nate Kramp in the D1 shot put (54-1.75), Freedom’s Ashley Hietpas in the D2 girls 100 hurdles (14.43), and Weyauwega-Fremont’s Macy Fee in the D3 girls discus (128-9).
Area fourth-place relays teams were Winneconne in the D2 800 boys (Mason Mathe, Koltyn Kachur, Bryce Jones, Brody Schaffer) in 1:28.38 and Shiocton in the D3 girls 1,600 relay (Cordelia Monnot, Sophia Hess, Cally Presteen, Monica Young) in 4:02.87.
Also on the podium
Little Chute had three events take fifth: Zuzanna Mosienska in the D2 girls 300 hurdles (45.02); the girls 800 relay (Emily Mokrzycki, Brooklyn Jakubek, Mosienska, Hattie Grishaber) in 1:43.82 and the boys 400 relay (Andrew Davis, Casey Perz, William Goffard, Kaden Hoffman) in 42.74.
D1 individuals taking fifth included Appleton North’s Isabel Parrish in the 100 hurdles (14.71) and Kaukauna’s Jenna Kinas in the girls 300 hurdles (44.86). Neenah’s girls 400 relay team of Brynn Fox, Molly Snider, Kobi Meyer and Celia Gentile also took fifth in D1 (47.71).
Freedom’s Gabriella Hambel and Winneconne’s Carlee Hart were tied for fifth in the D2 girls pole vault (11-0).
Manawa freshman Penelope Ayala was fifth in the D3 girls 800 (2:14.81).
Xavier’s Hailey Hafner was sixth in the D2 girls 100 hurdles (14.7) and Manawa’s Jacob Kravetz was sixth in the D3 boys long jump (21-2.25).
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Appleton North’s Busch nets silver, plus other state track takeaways
Reporting by Ricardo Arguello, Appleton Post-Crescent / Appleton Post-Crescent
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ricardo Arguello, Appleton Post-Crescent | USA TODAY Network
