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La Follette sweeps titles at City track meet

Dennis Semrau  —  5/07/2008 5:48 pm

Madison La Follette's boys and girls track and field teams took advantage of a beautiful spring day to accomplish what they set out to do Tuesday afternoon at the annual City Outdoor meet at Mansfield Stadium.

With the Big Eight Conference meet just a week away, the Lancers wanted to use Tuesday's competition as a springboard to the upcoming tournament season.

In sweeping the boys and girls titles by margins of 80 and 42 points, respectively, La Follette met its goals and more.

"It was probably the best day to run all spring," said senior John Prusynski, who erased an 11-year-old meet record in the boys 3,200-meter run and helped lead La Follette to a 148-68 margin of victory over runner-up Madison Memorial.

"It wasn't absolutely necessary to get off to a good start but this helps with the conference, regional, sectional and state meets coming up. It really helps with the momentum to get off to a good start. But we can perform better than we did here."

Prusynski's time of 9 minutes, 27.9 seconds broke the previous record of 9:32.1 set by Madison East's Gabe Jennings in 1997. Prusynski also finished 1 second off his personal-best time that he set last week at the Hartland Arrowhead Invitational.

"You never know what's going to happen during the race," Prusynski said of his record-setting run. "I just wanted to see how fast I could run in that circumstance."

La Follette also swept the 3,200 with Prusynski and fellow seniors Garrett Eklof and Brently Bohn finishing 1-2-3.

Lancers' senior Andy Buchanan did his part in helping cap a strong performance by the squad's distance runners when he won the 800 and 1,600 and anchored the winning 1,600-meter relay.

Other multiple event winners in the boys meet included: La Follette's Chris Redman, who won the high jump and long jump titles; Memorial's Devin Mahaffey, who swept the shot put and discus events; and West's Armani Davis, who won the 100 and 400 dashes.

Memorial's boys' winning 800 relay broke the meet's oldest record when the quartet of Doug Wise, Derek Nkemnji, Antonio Thomas and Quentin Badger finished in a time of 1:30.9.

That surpassed the previous record set 62 years ago by Madison West's Bob Boiler, Ramon Hollis, Ralph Lee and Bob Mansfield in a hand time of 1:31.6 and equaled in 2004 by La Follett's Andy Koch, Matt Rosas, Anthony Carter and Tom Collins in an electronic time of 1:31.85.

Badger, who anchored the winning 800 relay, also won the 200-meter dash.

Memorial coach Mike Harris was ecstatic over the Spartans' record-setting performance.

"They had a great week of practice and really worked hard on their handoffs," Harris said of the quartet, which ran a 1:34.9 at a triple dual meet last Tuesday and then trimmed 3 seconds off its time at last Friday's Spartan Invitational. "It was a great team effort. They deserved the record."

Tiffany Jones didn't set any records in the girls competition.

But the Memorial senior deserved a long rest after having a busy day. Jones, who will attend the University of Wisconsin next fall and hopes to compete in track for the Badgers, swept all four events she entered, winning the 100, 200, 400 and long jump titles.

"It was a very busy day. They had me running all over the place but it was a fun day," Jones said. "I might do it again at conference so it was good practice in case I do."

Jones said after a miserable spring, in which the Spartans had three meets canceled, it was a joy to run in the warm sunshine.

"It's been so frustrating because they rarely reschedule track meets," she said. "When it's warm, you just know you're going to have a good day because your muscles get warmed up easily and you just can't wait to run."

The La Follette girls also had a great day, outlasting Memorial 142-100 for the team title. The Lancers won the 400 and 800 relays with Elvera Woller leading off and Siettah Parks anchoring both relays.

La Follette got individual titles from Samia Taylor (triple jump), Tamara Wade (shot put), Erica Troia (100 high hurdles), Nicolle Hill (300 low hurdles), Sarah Baltisberger (1,600) and Sara Monson (3,200).

Taylor was second in the 400 and long jump, while Baltisberger added a runner-up finish in the 800 for the Lancers. Tiffany Wade, Tamara's twin sister, took second in the shot put and third in the discus.

Jones said while she is looking forward to the Big Eight Conference meet next Tuesday, she was also sad that her final days competing in high school are in sight.

"The regional meet will be at Mansfield, which will be my last home meet and that's a bit sad," Jones said. "I just want to go out with a bang and do my best. This was a great start."

dsemrau@madison.com

BOYS

Team scores: La Follette 148; Memorial 68; East 60; West 54; Edgewood 22.

100: 1, Davis, W, 11.1; 2, Sanders, LF, 11.2; 3, Jacobs, M, 11.3. 200: 1, Badger, M, 22.2; 2, Sanders, LF, 22.8; 3, Knight, LF, 23.2. 400: 1, Davis, W, 50.0; 2, Schwellinger, E, 50.1; 3, Vacek, LF, 52.6. 800: 1, Buchanan, LF, 1:58.2; 2, Olson, E, 1:59.3; 3, Williams, W, 2:00.3. 1,600: 1, Buchanan, LF, 4:22.0; 2, Brill, LF, 4:23.1; 3, Kelly, W, 4:26.0. 3,200: 1, Prusynski, LF, 9:27.9 (meet record); 2, Eklof, LF, 9:29.4; 3, Bohn, LF, 10:02.5. 110 high hurdles: 1, Neblett, M, 15.2; 2, Krueger, LF, 15.5; 3, Hopkins, E, 15.9. 300 intermediate hurdles: 1, Krueger, LF, 39.8; 2, Neblett, MM, 39.9; 3, Sample, W, 41.2.

400 relay: 1, Memorial (Wise, Nkemnji, Kunor, Badger), 44.7; 2, La Follette, 45.3; 3, Edgewood, 45.5. 800 relay: 1, Memorial (Wise, Nkemnji, Thomas, Badger), 1:30.9 (meet record); 2, West, 1:35.0; 3, Edgewood, 1:37.6. 1,600 relay: 1, La Follette (Scharnke, Krueger, Vacek, Buchanan), 3:30.0; 2, East, 3:30.5; 3, West, 3:33.7.

High Jump: 1, Redman, LF, 6-2; 2, Park, E, 6-0; 3, Breese, LF, 5-10. Long Jump: 1, Redman, LF, 22-0.5; 2, Knight, LF, 21-0.5; 3, Pearson, W, 20-7. Triple jump: 1, Knight, LF, 46-1.5; 2, Pearson, W, 42-7.5; 3, Jalloh, E, 41-11. Pole Vault: 1, Sheppard, LF, 12-6; 2, Simeon, E, 12-0; 3, Blair, E, 11-0. Shot put: 1, Mahaffey, M, 51-4.5; 2, Aguayo, E, 41-11; 3, Seay, LF, 41-6. Discus: 1, Mahaffey, M, 158-2; 2, Miller, E, 128-2; 3, Wolfe, E, 123-10.

GIRLS

Team scores: La Follette 142; Memorial 100; West 55; East 32; Edgewood 25.

100: 1, Jones, M, 12.6; 2, Woller, LF, 13.5; 3, Alexander, W, 13.6. 200: 1, Jones, M, 25.8; 2, Gehring, E, 26.4; 3, Taylor, LF, 27.2. 400: 1, Jones, M, 59.5; 2, Taylor, LF, 1:01.3; 3, Wiedholz, M, 1:02.0. 800: 1, Keepman, W, 2:27.7; 2, Baltisberger, LF, 2:28.3; 3, Davis, W, 2:29.9. 1,600: 1, Baltisberger, LF, 5:27.5; 2, Ohm, W, 5:29.5; 3, Brickson, E, 5:39.0. 3,200: 1, Monson, LF, 12:27.9; 2, Crawford, M, 12:38.3; 3, Shogren, E, 12:39.2. 110 high hurdles: 1, Troia, LF, 16.8; 2, Imse, LF, 17.3; 3, Volin, W, 17.6. 300 intermediate hurdles: 1, Hill, LF, 48.5; 2, Bertun, E, 49.7; 3, Doyle, W, 49.8.

400 relay: 1, La Follette (Woller, Jahnke, Mines, Parks), 53.0; 2, Memorial, 53.1; 3, West, 54.8. 800 relay: 1, La Follette (Woller, Koroma, Hill, Parks), 1:50.5; 2, Memorial, 1:54.5; 3, East, 1:55.4. 1,600 relay: 1, West (Keepman, Davis, Volin, Doyle), 4:18.1; 2, La Follette, 4:21.2; 3, East, 4:21.7.

High Jump: 1, Olson, M, 4-10; 2, Snider, E, 4-10; 3, Koroma, LF, 4-8. Long Jump: 1, Jones, M, 18-2; 2, Taylor, LF, 17-2; 3, Gloede, LF, 16-3.75. Triple jump: 1, Taylor, LF, 35-3; 2, Alexander, W, 33-8; 3, Gloede, LF, 33-4. Pole Vault: 1, Heller, M, 10-6; 2, Blair, E, 10-0; 3, Parker, E, 9-6. Shot put: 1, Tamara Wade, LF, 35-11; 2, Tiffany Wade, LF, 33-0; 3, Brown, M, 32-0. Discus: 1, Raab, M, 124-9; 2, Brown, M, 119-0; 3, Tiffany Wade, LF, 106-7.

At Mansfield Stadium, Madison.

Dennis Semrau  —  5/07/2008 5:48 pm