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La Follette dominates Big Eight boys track meet

Dennis Semrau  —  5/14/2008 9:09 am

Andy Buchanan began the school year as a key member of the Madison La Follette boys cross country team that won repeat Big Eight Conference and Division 1 state titles.

The Lancers' senior distance runner got a good start Tuesday night on capping his high school career as a conference and state champion in track and field, too.

Buchanan won the 800- and 1,600-meter runs to pace the Lancers to the Big Eight Conference boys track and field championship on their home track at Lussier Stadium.

"The seniors all thought it was really special to have the home crowd here to see us in our last meet at home," said Buchanan, who led La Follette to its second straight Big Eight title and its second consecutive WIAA Division 1 state championship in cross country last fall. "To go out and win the conference title is something special."

The Lancers recorded 17 top-three finishes and scored points in 17 of the 18 events to amass an amazing total of 195 points en route to winning the Big Eight title. Madison Memorial, which got titles from six individuals and two relays, was a distant second with 115 points.

Competing on its home track for the final time this season, La Follette dominated the distance events, placing three runners in the top four in the 3,200, three in the top five in the 1,600 and three in the top six in the 800 along with winning the 3,200 relay.

"The distance runners are certainly the firepower of this team," La Follette coach John Neumann said. "They set the tone and are a great example. But it's the depth of this team across the board which is our strength."

La Follette also fared well in the field events, starting with Tyler Knight, who won the triple jump and placed second in the long jump. He also was second in the 200 and fifth in the 400.

"That's a lot of depth, scoring 195 points," Knight said. "You know that every group was involved. It was expected that we were going to come in and do some damage. But 195 points, wow, that was unexpected."

Other top performers for La Follette included: Chris Redman, who was second in the high jump and third in the long jump; Dayton Sheppard, who was runner-up in the pole vault; and Wesley Seay, who also earned points for the Lancers in the discus with a fifth-place finish.

"We wanted to carry over that competitiveness from cross country, and we were competitive across the board," Buchanan said. "We wanted to go out winners, and this is a good first step. Now we need to keep it rolling."

The relays also got into the act with La Follette earning runner-up finishes in the 400, 800 and 1,600 relays to go along with its championship 3,200 relay of Trevor Scharnke, Abou Seye, Thor Laack-Veeder and John Prusynski, who also won the individual 3,200 race.

"This was a lot of fun, winning the Big Eight championship," said senior Jamison Vacek, who ran a leg on all three runner-up relays and plans to play football next fall at UW-Eau Claire.

Vacek, who was a member of La Follette's Big Eight co-championship football team last fall, added a sixth-place finish in the pole vault. He admitted being happy to be part of the Lancers' winning tradition.

"The coaches encourage you to go out for other sports so I'm glad I went out for track," said Vacek, who started at defensive back in football. "With talent, some hard work and teamwork, we scored 195 points tonight. That's impressive."

Caleb Krueger added a runner-up finish in the 300 hurdles and a fourth-place finish in the 110 hurdles for La Follette. Alex Brill was second in the 1,600 and fourth in the 800, while Garrett Eklof was third and Abdou Seye was fourth in the 3,200.

Madison Memorial got victories from Derek Nkemnji in the 100, Quentin Badger in the 200 and its 400 and 800 relays, which included both Nkemnji and Badger. Devin Mahaffey also swept the shot put and discus titles, while Lechein Neblett won both the 110-meter high and 300 intermediate hurdles titles for the Spartans.

Nkemnji, who will play basketball at Edgewood College this fall, didn't compete in track for the Spartans until this spring. But he battled strong winds to win the 100 in 11.81 seconds and hold off Madison La Follette's Dominique Sanders, who was runner-up in 11.86.

"With all this wind it was tough to run but I just tried to push through it," said Nkemnji, who tried out for track as a freshman but eventually opted to play AAU basketball in the spring until this year. "I credit my teammates for pushing me hard in practice and having confidence in me. Winning three events at conference, I'm speechless. But it feels real good to win."

Nkemnji ran the second leg on the Spartans' winning 400 and 800 relays. He combined with Doug Wise, Emmanuel Jacobs and Badger in the 400 relay and with Wise, Antonio Thomas and Badger in the 800 relay.

"We've been trying to get Derek out for track for three years," Wise said. "He's really getting better every practice and every meet. It took a while to get our timing down on the hand-offs. But we're getting better all the time."

Other area champions included Madison West's Armani Davis in the 400 and Sun Prairie's 1,600 relay of Tommy Kurutz, Bart Mestelle, Anthony Burchette and Matt Waldon.

But it was La Follette that dominated the meet from the beginning until the end.

"For us tonight, it was about competition and competing for place and to win the title," Neumann said. "It was good to be here in front of friends and family and performing. Winning a conference title is special.

"But getting your spots, scoring your points, beating the guy next to you and doing your best, was what it was about tonight. It was kind of what we thought it would be. Now the fun is we see what we have tonight and get ready for the state tournament series and see what we can do."

Team scores

Madison La Follette 195.5, Madison Memorial 115, Janesville Parker 75, Sun Prairie 74, Madison West 63, Janesville Craig 57.5, Middleton 51.5, Madison East 49.5, Beloit Memorial 21.

Individual results

100 dash: 1, Nkemnji, Madison Memorial, :11.81; 2, Sanders, Madison La Follette, :11.86; 3, Trinh, Beloit Memorial, :11.89; 4, Davis, Madison West, :11.92; 5, Jacobs, Madison Memorial, :12.08; 6, Field, Madison East, :12.18. 200: 1, Badger, Madison Memorial, :23.54; 2, Knight, Madison La Follette, :23.92; 3, Sanders, Madison La Follette, :23.96; 4, Jacobs, Madison Memorial, :24.07; 5, Perez, Janesville Parker, :24.21; 6, Kinkade, Janesville Craig, :24.24. 400: 1, Davis, Madison West, :51.18; 2, Fisher, Middleton, :51.42; 3, Kennedy, Janesville Craig, :51.71; 4, Perez, Janesville Parker, :52.28; 5, Knight, Madison La Follette, :52.68; 6, DeVriendt, Madison West, :53.52. 800: 1, Buchanan, Madison La Follette, 2:01.74; 2, Fisher, Middleton, 2:02.34; 3, Noltemeyer, Madison Memorial, 2:02.38; 4, Brill, Madison La Follette, 2:02.81; 5, Williams, Madison West, 2:03.95; 6, Scharnke, Madison La Follette, 2:04.30. 1,600: 1, Buchanan, Madison La Follette, 4:22.97; 2, Brill, Madison La Follette, 4:23.37; 3, Noltemeyer, Madison Memorial, 4:26.57; 4, Torres, Sun Prairie, 4:32.27; 5, Bohn, Madison La Follette, 4:33.86; 6, Ahrens, Janesville Craig, 4:33.91. 3,200: 1, Prusynski, Madison La Follette, 9:26.55; 2, Kelly, Madison West, 9:37.10; 3, Eklof, Madison La Follette, 9:52.67; 4, Seye, Madison La Follette, 10:05.55; 5, Houk, Sun Prairie, 10:17.93; 6, Naden, Middleton, 10:27.29.

110 high hurdles: 1, Neblett, Madison Memorial, :15.35; 2, Hopkins, Madison East, :15.63; 3, Mestelle, Sun Prairie, :15.66; 4, Krueger, Madison La Follette, :15.96; 5, Werling, Beloit Memorial, :16.61; 6, Li, Madison Memorial, :16.63. 300 intermediate hurdles: 1, Neblett, Madison Memorial, :40.66; 2, Krueger, Madison La Follette, :40.70; 3, Mestelle, Sun Prairie, :41.11; 4, Sample, Madison West, :41.66; 5, Kracht, Middleton, :42.58; 6, Hopkins, Madison East, :42.74.

400 relay: 1, Madison Memorial (Wise, Nkemnji, Jacobs, Badger), :44.14; 2, Madison La Follette, :44.27; 3, Beloit Memorial, :44.40; 4, Janesville Parker, :45.06; 5, Janesville Craig, :45.10; 6, Middleton, :45.21. 800 relay: 1, Madison Memorial (Wise, Nkemnji, Thomas, Badger), 1:31.91; 2, Madison La Follette, 1:32.77; 3, Janesville Parker, 1:32.98; 4, Sun Prairie, 1:33.61; 5, Middleton, 1:34.73; 6, Beloit Memorial, 1:34.81. 1,600 relay: 1, Sun Prairie (Kurutz, Mestelle, Burchette, Waldon), 3:31.72; 2, Madison La Follette, 3:33.79; 3, Madison West, 3:36.57; 4, Madison Memorial, 3:37.97; 5, Madison East, 3:38.28; 6, Janesville Parker, 3:41.83. 3,200 relay: 1, Madison La Follette (Scharnke, Seye, Laack-Veeder, Prusynski), 8:11.23; 2, Madison East, 8:13.36; 3, Middleton, 8:15.54; 4, Janesville Craig, 8:18.19; 5, Madison Memorial, 8:29.15; 6, Madison West, 8:31.38.

Pole vault: 1, Speaker, Janesville Parker, 13-6; 2, Sheppard, Madison La Follette, 13-3; 3, Simeon, Madison East, 12-9; 4, Rucinski, Janesville Parker, 12-0; 5, Yazumbek, Janesville Craig, 10-6; 6, Vacek, Madison La Follette, 10-6. Discus: 1, Mahaffey, Madison Memorial, 143-10; 2, Miller, Madison East, 138-7; 3, Parton, Middleton, 135-10; 4, Walsh, Sun Prairie, 133-1; 5, Seay, Madison La Follette, 133-0; 6, Feist, Middleton, 132-6. Shot put: 1, Mahaffey, Madison Memorial, 52-8.25; 2, Pederson, Janesville Craig, 52-1.25; 3, Holbrook, Janesville Parker, 47-10 .25; 4, Harper, Sun Prairie, 46-2.5; 5, Aguayo, Madison East, 45-2.25; 6, Nauer, Janesville Parker, 43-10.25. High jump: 1, Grafft, Janesville Parker, 6-6; 2, Redman, Madison La Follette, 6-6; 3, Pregont, Janesville Craig, 6-0; 4, Waldon, Sun Prairie, 5-10; 5, Park, Madison East and Breese, Madison La Follette, 5-8. Long jump: 1, Pregont, Janesville Craig, 21-4; 2, Knight, Madison La Follette, 20-8.25; 3, Redman, Madison La Follette, 20-6.75; 4, Scheidegger, Sun Prairie, 20-1.25; 5, Pearson, Madison West, 19-10.5; 6, Cahill, Janesville Parker, 19-7.25. Triple jump: 1, Knight, Madison La Follette, 44-5; 2, Pearson, Madison West, 41-8; 3, Johnson, Sun Prairie, 41-0.5; 4, Cahill, Janesville Parker, 41-0.5; 5, Krueger, Madison La Follette, 40-10; 6, Pregont, Janesville Craig, 40-8.

Dennis Semrau  —  5/14/2008 9:09 am