La Follette boys blaze to regional win (with photo gallery)

Dennis Semrau  —  5/20/2008 6:48 am

John Prusynski wasn't concerned with winning the 3,200-meter run Monday night.

The Madison La Follette senior knew his mission for the evening was to run a solid race and secure one of the top four places in the event to qualify for Thursday's sectional track and field competition.

But as Prusynski approached the final 200 meters of the race on the cool, spring evening, he just couldn't resist going for the win. Prusynski out-kicked teammate Garrett Eklof down the stretch to win the spirited race by 39/100ths of a second.

"John's my buddy and we're best friends so I'm happy he won," said Eklof, an Iowa State recruit. "When it comes down to winning, neither one of us is going to give in. But John always has that extra gear. He always has that."

Prusynski flashed a huge grin before he deflected his teammate's praise.

"There have been plenty of times he's had that extra gear, this year, last year and every time. It was exciting," Prusynski said of the competition, which drew a roar of approval from an appreciative crowd of spectators and competitors at the finish line.

"But when it comes down to it, it's your teammate. It's friendly competitiveness. It's the last 200; it wasn't going to drain you physically. We just went for it."

Prusynski's individual title was one of nine first-place finishes for La Follette, which used last week's Big Eight Conference title as a springboard to dominate the field at Monday's WIAA Division 1 regional track and field meet at Mansfield Stadium. The Lancers scored 173 points to nearly total as many points as runner-up Monona Grove (89) and third-place Madison Memorial (86.33) combined.

More important than the team title, though, was that La Follette advanced 13 individual performers and all four of its relays to Thursday's sectional meet at Holmen. That included the top three finishers in the 3,200 with Lancers senior Brently Bohn nipping top-seeded Madison West junior Brett Kelly at the finish line for third place.

"It's just awesome. It's a dream come true doing it," Bohn said of La Follette's performance in the 3,200. "We did it last year, too, so it was cool. But I haven't had a great senior year until the past few meets. The main thing was I wanted to get to Holmen because it's a cool track and I wanted to go on the coach bus and do all that fun stuff with the team and experience much more."

Columbia University recruit Andy Buchanan, who along with the 3,200 trio ran on the Lancers' Division 1 cross country championship team last fall, continued his impressive spring on the track. Buchanan won the 800 and 1,600 and also anchored the winning 3,200 relay, which included Trevor Scharnke, Abdou Seye and Alex Brill.

Lancers senior Caleb Krueger won the 300 intermediate hurdles title and joined with Tyler Knight, Jamison Vacek and Dominique Sanders to win the 800 relay. But Krueger didn't run the 110 high hurdles, opting instead to help his team by running on the runner-up 1,600 relay.

"It feels good to win regionals, but we're aiming at the bigger picture, which is getting to state. We want to get as many individuals to state as we can," said Krueger, who is looking for his third straight trip to La Crosse. "We're looking for bodies, which is what brings the points up at state. But we not only want to have the people get to state but also have the times that will score points at state."

The Lancers performed well in the field events, too. Chris Redman won the high jump and was runner-up in the long jump; Dayton Sheppard set a personal best in winning the pole vault with 13 feet, 6 inches; and Knight added a third title in the field events, winning the triple jump.

Other top performers who advanced to Thursday's sectional meet included: DeForest's Drew Simmons, who swept the 200 and 400 dash titles and ran a leg on the winning 1,600 relay; Madison West's Armani Davis, who won the 100 and was runner-up in the 400; and Monona Grove's Nick Grosso, who won the discus and was runner-up in the shot put.

After winning back-to-back cross country team state titles, Pruszynski is eager to end his prep career with a team championship in track and field, too.

"To make it to La Crosse in track is just like making it to state in cross country. We want to do really well," said Prusynski, who will attend the University of Wisconsin this fall and is being encouraged by his teammates to walk on with the Badgers. "When you're a team, you want every one to do really well. You're cheering everybody on because you want to make sure all of us get to that next level. We got past regionals today. Now we need to do our best at sectionals on Thursday so we can all go to state together."

BOYS

Team scores

Madison La Follette 173, Monona Grove 89, Madison Memorial 86.33, Madison West 79, Waunakee 67.5, DeForest 63.33, Madison East 62.5, Middleton 43.5, Sauk Prairie 36.83.

Individual results

100 meters -- 1, Davis, MW, :11.23; 2, Nkemnji, MM, :11.44; 3, Jacobs, MM, :11.54; 4, Lawless, MG, :11.56.

200 -- 1, Simmons, D, :22.36; 2, Badger, MM, :22.54; 3, McDonough, W, :23.19; 4, Sanders, ML, :23.31.

400 -- 1, Simmons, D, :50.04; 2, Davis, MW, :51.09; 3, Samz, SP, :51.24; 4, Schwellinger, ME, :51.26.

800 -- 1, Buchanan, ML, 1:57.28; 2, Olson, ME, 1:59.18; 3, Noltemeyer, MM, 1:59.36; 4, Fisher, MID, 2:00.55.

1,600 -- 1, Buchanan, ML, 4:26.35; 2, Brill, ML, 4:26.71; 3, Reilly, W, 4:27.25; 4, Williams, MW, 4:27.43.

3,200 -- 1, Prusynski, ML, 9:43.29; 2, Eklof, ML, 9:43.68; 3, Bohn, ML, 9:48.00; 4, Kelly, MW, 9:48.04.

110 high hurdles -- 1, Smith, MG, :14.79; 2, Neblett, MM, :15.27; 3, Fosler, D, :15.34; 4, Hopkins, ME, :15.80.

300 intermediate hurdles -- 1, Krueger, ML, :40.61; 2, Neblett, MM, :40.65; 3, Sample, MW, :41.49; 4, Ta. Scharnke, ML, :42.47.

400 relay -- 1, Waunakee (Radel, McDonough, Weber, Johnson), :44.17; 2, Madison Memorial, :44.40; 3, Madison La Follette, :44.46; 4, Middleton, :44.70.

800 relay -- 1, Madison La Follette (Krueger, Vacek, Sanders, Knight), 1:31.20; 2, Madison Memorial, 1:31.73; 3, Waunakee, 1:32.40; 4, Monona Grove, 1:33.80.

1,600 relay -- 1, DeForest (Fosler, Knuteson, Hedberg, Simmons), 3:28.60; 2, Madison La Follette, 3:30.68; 3, Middleton, 3:30.70; 4, Madison West 3:31.25.

3,200 relay -- 1, Madison La Follette (Tre. Scharnke, Seye, Brill, Buchanan), 8:00.60; 2, Sauk Prairie, 8:02.09; 3, Madison East, 8:08.19; 4, Madison Memorial, 8:10.95

Pole vault -- 1, Sheppard, ML, 13-6; 2, Simeon, ME, 12-0; 3, tie, Kessenich, SP, and Furbee, W, 11-6.

High jump -- 1, Redman, ML, 6-6; 2, Morehouse, MG, 6-4; 3, Schwarz, SP, 6-0; 4, Maly, W, 6-0.

Long jump -- 1, Pearson, MW, 20-8.5; 2, Redman, ML, 20-6.5; 3, Radel, W, 20-6; 4, Hammonds, MG, 20-3.5.

Triple jump -- 1, Knight, ML, 45-1.25 2, Parrott, W, 43-7; 3, Smith, MG, 43-1; 4, Pearson, MW, 42-8.

Shot put -- 1, Mahaffey, MM, 53-1; 2, Grosso, MG, 51-11.5; 3, Aguayo, ME, 47-3; 4, Smith, MID, 45-11.

Discus -- 1, Grosso, MG, 162-2; 2, Reed, MG, 151-7; 3, Bakke, D, 144-2; 4, Mahaffey, MM, 139-7.

Dennis Semrau  —  5/20/2008 6:48 am