Monthly Archives: June 2012

Middle Border, Big Rivers conferences made major impacts in spring sports

Posted on by
Reply

If you look for spots around Wisconsin that produced the best high school sports in the state this spring, our area would rank among the best.
Between the Middle Border and Big Rivers conferences, there was a huge amount of success accomplished this spring.
Start with four WIAA state championship teams, plus a runner-up team. Add in a state individual champion golfer, four WIAA track state titles and enough state qualifiers to fill a cruise ship and you start to understand everything that these 15 area high school athletic programs accomplished.
Start with the fact that our area produced two of the four state championship teams. Chippewa Falls earned gold in Division 1 and Baldwin-Woodville reached the pinnacle in Division 2.
Then there’s baseball, where Prescott earned the Division 3 state team championship and Ellsworth took second place in Division 2.
Girls track teams from the Middle Border Conference also stood out. Four of the eight MBC track teams produced top 20 team finishes at the 2012 WIAA state meet. New Richmond’s girls placed 10th in Division 1. Osceola led the MBC girls in Division 2 with a fifth place finish. Somerset and Ellsworth both ranked among the top 20 teams in Division 2 as well.
The state track champions in the area begin with both Division 2 discus champions. Amery’s Ryan Johnson won the boys event with a throw of 171 feet, 10 inches. Ellsworth’s Abbey Ristow matched that accomplishment, winning the girls event with a throw of 129 feet, 4 inches.
Osceola’s female sprinters, anchored by Aimee Rice-Strand, set a Division 2 state record in winning the 400 meter relay. Rice-Strand also took second place in the 100 and 200 meter dashes.
Rice Lake’s Wally Ellenson captivated the state crowd with his attempt to break the state record in the high jump. He finished with a winning height of 6 feet, 10 inches.
Menomonie’s Stefani Friedenfels was one of the bigger surprises of the state meet. She improved her triple jump distance from sectionals by more than three feet to win the state event with a leap of 38 feet, 6 inches.
Our 15 schools produced 24 state medalists, meaning they placed in the top six in their state events.
As long as there are Danielsons in Osceola, there’s likely to be a state championship trophy placed in the Chieftains’ trophy case at the end of the season. Charlie Danielson earned his second Division 2 state championship this season. He had to defeat Madison Edgewood’s Johnny Decker in a two-hole playoff after they both shot rounds of 148 in the state tournament. The Danielson family has now produced nine WIAA state championships. Lindsay earned four state titles before taking her golf career to UW-Madison. Younger sister Casey has won three straight championships heading into her senior season this fall.
The River Falls boys golfers were also competing at state, finishing eighth among the Division 1 entries.
Our area produced seven state tennis singles qualifiers, along with eight doubles teams that advanced to state. The Eau Claire Memorial boys reached the semifinals of the Division 1 team state competition.
What does this say about our conferences? Pretty clearly, it shows that the strong overall talent in both conferences pushes individuals and teams to achieve greater things. There are expectations to succeed and every school tries to carry its weight in making each conference highly successful.

Middle Border Conference girls stand out in state track meet

Posted on by
Reply

Wow, finally a few seconds to gather my thoughts after the state track meet and the sectional baseball tournament.
The state track meet is like sports nirvana, but there is so much activity that also borders on sports sensory overload. Everywhere you turn, there are elite athletes performing, and every one of them is a story.
Several of the stories that rang out loudest to me were performances by athletes from Middle Border Conference girls teams. One of the favorite stories is Ellsworth senior Abbey Ristow. She suffered a knee injury during the basketball season. Ristow placed second at state in the discus throw last year, but the injury made it appear that she’d be lucky to compete at all the season. Give her credit for some amazing self-motivation. She got a late start to the season, but by the conference meet she was throwing around 120 feet. She threw well enough in the regional and sectional meets to get back to state.
She saved her best for last. Ristow was in second place behind the defending state champion when Ristow took her final attempt. She launched the discus 129 feet, 4 inches, the best throw of her career, which lifted her to first place in the event.
Another MBC senior who gave an amazing performance in the state meet was New Richmond sprinter Kat Keller. Competing in Division 1, Keller was racing against the fastest sprinters in the state. This is nothing new for her, she’s earned three state medals in the sprints during the past two years. Keller showed again why she was recruited to run at the University of Minnesota this year. She took second place in the 100 meters, then third place in the 400 meters and fourth place in the 200 meters.
Keller took on an extra challenge this year by starting to compete in the 400 meters. There is a high percentage of sprinters who never make that step. The 400 is out of their comfort zone, too grueling for many sprinters to try. Keller not only took it on, she conquered it.
Keller wasn’t the only MBC sprinter to make big news. Osceola’s Aimee Rice-Strand took second place in the Division 2 100 and 200 meter dashes. Her crowning achievement was leading the Chieftain 400 meter relay team to a state championship and a state record time.
Somerset’s Natalie Broome may have received as little recognition as any three-event sprinter who qualified for state. Running in the same conference as Keller and Rice-Strand caused her case of anonymity, but at state she proved she was an elite level sprinter in her own right. She placed fifth in the 200 meters at state, but her best performance may have been running the anchor leg in the Spartans’ 400 meter relay, where she pulled the team up to fourth place by the team she reached the finish line.
One of the most entertaining events at state was the boys Division 1 110 high hurdles and the main entertainment came from Wisconsin Rapids senior Vince Biegel. Biegel is a huge specimen who looks like he should be wearing a cape and leaping tall buildings. In the hurdles Biegel didn’t seem real concerned about leaping over the hurdles. He pretty much charged through every hurdle, but he still was good enough to take second place in the state finals.
Any sports fan who has never attended a state track meet should put a trip to La Crosse for this event on their bucket list. It is a spectacle that is unmatched in excitement and pure athletic ability on display.