By Jennifer Eisenbart
Sports Editor
While the weather Saturday in La Crosse may have been cloudy and occasionally rainy, the Catholic Central High School track and field team didn’t seem to mind much.
The Hilltoppers brought home seven medals from Saturday’s finals – four individual medals and three relay medals in the Division 3 field.
The CCHS boys finished 12th in the Division 3 team race with 18 points, while the girls were 17th with 17.
Senior Carson Meinholz capped a fine career for Catholic Central by finishing fourth in the 400-meter run in 50.10, and then led off CCHS’s third-place 4×400 relay team.
That squad of Meinholz, Hertel Novasic, Gavin Foote and Tyler Burzawa crossed the line in 3:27.60 – nearly three seconds faster than the time CCHS ran at the sectional meet and more than two seconds faster than the team’s preliminary time on Friday.
Fellow senior Calvin Kempken, who threw a personal best at sectionals, also medaled for the Hilltoppers. Kempken threw the shot 50 feet, 9 inches, good enough for fifth.
The other individual medal on the boys side came from freshman Novasic, who finished sixth in the 800-meter run in 2:01.34.
Running in timed finals on Saturday, Novasic finished fifth in his heat after coming in seeded seventh overall in the event.
CCHS had one other boys finalist on Saturday, as the 4×100 relay of Zach Frederick, Foote, Ethan Sobbe and Burzawa finished ninth in 45.75.
Meinholz also qualified for state in the 200-meter dash, but finished 12th in prelims (23.62) and did not qualify for finals.
On the girls side of the meet, junior Megan Wadsworth won her first individual medal in three trips to state in the 100-meter dash.
Wadsworth tied for fifth in prelims, and then ran a 13.08 in finals to finish fourth.
She was the only individual at state for CCHS girls, but the Lady ’Toppers had three relays earn points – and all four of CCHS’s relays were in finals on Saturday.
The 4×100 relay of Jacquie Fiorillo, Monica Litman, Shelby Frederick and Wadsworth took third in 51.09, while the 4×200 relay of Fiorillo, Frederick, Litman and Wadsworth took fourth in 1:47.74.
Sophie Foote was injured running in the relay prelims, and Fiorillo took her place in the 4×100 in finals and Litman her spot in the 4×200
The final points for the CCHS girls came from the 4×800 relay of Cassie Reesman, Jennifer Smith, Kourtney Mulhollon and Kathleen Straude, which took eighth in 10:07.96.
That time was a significant season best for the team, and moved CCHS up from its 10th seed.
The final competing relay was in the 4×400, where Ashley Reesman, Shelby Frederick, Kathleen Straube and Jacquie Fiorillo took 10th in 4:18.83. Straube got tangled with another runner late in the race, and fell, resulting in the last-place finish.
Straube had moved up to third before the fall.
Editor’s note: Kempken was inadvertently excluded from the print edition of the story. A correct will run in next week’s edition of the Standard Press.
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