Cheers and Jeers
Sportswriter Steve Tietz will use this blog to try to duly reward the great, praise heartily the hard-working, uncover the unsung, and take to task the spoilsport, the foul-mouth and the crass in the local prep sports scene. He'll try to remember that kids are just kids and that coaches aren't in it for the money. He'll try to gently remind parents that the kids are playing for fun, not for profit and that the officials, though occasionally human and therefore prone to error, are there to ensure fair play and not out to get anyone.
State championship-level performances should abound at Homestead track sectional
The northwest Milwaukee area Division I track sectional has been the 800-pound Gorilla in the room for Wisconsin thinclad fans for many years now as state champions both individual and team have been almost as numerous as grains of sand.
Last year did not disappoint as Arrowhead and Menomonee Falls finished one-two in the state boys team team standings.
Look for something similar this time out in what promises to be a red-hot WIAA sectional qualifier on Thursday at Homestead (4:15 p.m.start). The top three in each event advance to the WIAA State meet in La Crosse, June 4 and 5.
The girls competition alone has in the works a minimum of four red-hot races beginning with a rematch between returning state 100-meter hurdle champion Marissa Savitch of Homestead and Sherice Hewett of Vincent who are currently one-two in the event on the state honor roll.
Savitch beat Hewitt on a chilly afternoon a few weeks ago on this same track at the Highlander Invitational but both look to be in good form as both posted sub-15 second times in regional competition on Monday.
But Savitch will have to fly if she wants to make another trip to state in the 300 low hurdles as Hewitt (45.68), Germantown freshman Sammie Gassner (45.88) and Kelly Koier of Menomonee Falls (46.47) have all posted regional times faster than Savitch's best of 46.77 and are in the state's top 10. Look for possible extra qualifiers coming out of this race. Gassner took up the event just a month ago and has improved her time every race out.
Then there is the stacked open 800. 2008 state champion Megan Palmer of Whitefish Bay has rounded her way back into top form again after an illness-plagued 2009. She beat 2009 state runner-up Liz Wendt for the North Shore Conference championship in this event last week after taking the lead at the start of the second lap. Wendt got caught up in traffic, but was closing hard at the finish.
The rematch should be delicious, but should either of the pair falter, there's a plethora of 2:23-or less runners capable of stepping in including Germantown's Andrea Sielicki and Homestead's Keali Bjork. Bjork, a musical wonder who belongs to three choirs at Homestead, has a knack for the big race, as she turned in several top performances at the North Shore Conference Relays two weeks ago.
But as exciting as that race may be, the best is saved for last on the girls' program, because as in every sectional, there are events people crowd toward or run away from depending on need. The girls' 1,600 relay is drawing teams like a fallen ice cream cone draws ants on a hot summer's day.
Three teams from the Grafton regional (Nicolet, Bay and Riverside) all ran 4:05 or better, while if a team didn't run 4:04 or better like Germantown, Watertown, Falls and Oconomowoc did on Monday at Falls, they were out of luck.
Arrowhead, a traditional state finalist in the event, could not make it out of that Falls' regional despite an otherwise fast 4:05 clocking. The possibility of extra qualifiers is high in this race if the weather cooperates.
The drama should be just as good on the boys side.
It starts with a relay team that hasn't even been on the state honor roll since the indoor campaign, but anyone who knows anything about state track knows that the Homestead 3,200 relay team will not stay hidden for long. Anchored by 1:51-capable 800 runner Gabe Genovesi and with two other 1:57 runners in Doug Mueller and Nate Routhier, look for the Highlanders to post a state best time, likely well under eight minutes.
Genovesi and Mueller, along with Andrew Holtorf and Mike Collins, showed that they're ready to have some fun in the 1,600 relay, as the unit posted its second state best 3:19 time of the season.
"We just wanted to stretch our legs and see what we could do," Collins said.
Homestead assistant coach Todd Brawner will not say how fast the relay can go, but he coached a state championship Germantown relay in 2006 that turned in a 3:17 clocking. You have to believe Brawner is thinking that this crew can go after Nicolet's 20-year old state mark of 3:16.
Another race that was looking for some leadership and got it was the 800 relay, as the Menomonee Falls crew of Brad Tietyen, Matt Christensen, Travis Townsend and Matt Widule turned in a smoking state best of 1:28.57. It is the second straight season that the Indians find themselves atop the state leaderboard after regionals.
Last season, the Indians lowered their bests in the event into top three all-time state-best territory with 1:27 times in both the sectional and state preliminaries, but foul weather hampered them in state finals and left them in second. You know that this senior-dominated team (only Christensen is an underclassman) is looking for some redemption.
In 2009, a total of five 800 relays qualified out of the Homestead sectional. That possibility is there again, as both Arrowhead and Vincent are in the 1:29-range and Whitefish Bay and Homestead both recorded 1:30-plus clockings.
Homestead, which has not lost to a Wisconsin team this season, will look to put the hammer down in the open 800 as Genovesi and Mueller look to go one-two against a field that features six sub-two minute runners including 2009 state qualifier Stewart Van Horne of Falls.
And then there is the neighborhood mutual admiration society that is the rivalry of 2009 state high hurdle champion Widule of Falls and Dexter Schleis of Germantown. The good friends and rivals have met several times this season. Widule edged Schleis in the highs at regionals while Schleis took the 300 intermediates.
The pair have dominated the state honor roll for most of the season.
Last week, Widule turned in an all-time state best of 13.96 in the high hurdles at the Greater Metro Conference outdoor meet. A videocam viewing of the nearly perfect race is available from Falls assistant Jim Geisthardt. Widule is looking to ramp up his form to the level that won him 2009 Gatorade State Track Athlete of the Year honors while Schleis would like to join his brother Adam (high hurdles in 2005) in the state championship circle.
Anyway their races turn out, they should be among a cavalcade of performances from athletes from this sectional who should have little trouble mounting the awards' podium in La Crosse frequently next week at state.
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