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Sports

Whitnall Triple Jumper Second at State Meet

Rachel Stave headlines successful first day of the meet for Whitnall, Greenfield.

La Crosse – After a tight timetable hindered her performances at the WIAA State Track and Field Meet last year, Whitnall’s Rachel Stave wanted to rebound this year.

If Friday was a sign of things to come, the sophomore will have quite the collection of medals by the time she graduates.

Stave took home the silver medal in the triple jump at this year's state meet on Friday after landing a distance of 37 feet, 6 1/2 inches, nearly a foot farther than her qualifying mark.

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“It’s pretty amazing,” Stave said. “I wasn’t really expecting it and I’m pretty happy, excited. It was a ‘PR’ for me.

“(Last year) I did pretty bad. I had to run my 400 and then go triple jump and I was really tired and I just jumped really bad. Today, the weather was really nice for jumping though. We had the wind at our back and you didn’t have to worry about being cold so it was really nice.”

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Stave also competed in the 400-meter and 1,600 relay preliminaries Friday, finishing 21st and 18th, respectively.

Whitnall, however, wasn’t just a one-person team in La Crosse on Friday. Senior Mary Erickson placed third in the 1,600 in 5 minutes, 6.21 seconds, just over a second behind Sun Praire’s Liz Berkholtz for first place.

“Mary Erickson was amazing,” Stave said. “Taking third place in the mile, she did so much better than her seed time. She just did awesome and worked so hard.”

Erickson also competed in the 800, finishing in 2:18.99, good enough for 13th.

Greenfield also had a successful day, headlined by junior Michelle Garner.

The Hustlin' Hawks’ leader qualified for Saturday’s finals in both the 100 and 300 hurdles, finishing sixth in the 100 and second in the 300.

For the Greenfield boys, the Hawks' 800 relay team finished 22nd, while junior Ryan Manzuk also took 22nd in the 300 hurdles.

Saturday’s field events are set to begin at 9:30 a.m., with the track portion of the day starting at 10:30.

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