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Boys track team takes first at Regionals

The Trucker boys track team will send 13 events to Sectionals, as the team placed first at Regionals for the second year in a row on Monday, May 23.

Regional Results

100 Meter Dash: Dominic Masiarchin

800 Meter Run: Nathan Poppe

1600 Meter Run: Tyler Sawall

110 Meter Hurdles: Trenten Gauthier

300 Meter Hurdles: Trenten Gauthier

4×100 Relay: Dominic Masiarchin, Cody Zuehl, Juan Hernandez, AJ Russell, alternates Jesse Mayek, Colin Moon

4×200 Relay: Dominic Masiarchin, Cody Zuehl, Trenten Gauthier, AJ Russell, alternates Juan Hernandez, Colin Moon

4×800 Relay: Nathan Poppe, Tyler Sawall, Kyle Weid, Connor Gerke, alternates Brady Persha and Dylan Dohr

Pole Vault: Colin Moon

Long Jump: AJ Russell

Triple Jump: AJ Russell

Shot Put: Kyle Petermann

Discus: Kyle Petermann

Conference Meet

A tough conference traditionally won in alternating years by either Little Chute or Freedom, the Truckers followed the recipe that most teams do for conference: maximize the number of individual events of your star athletes, and keep your relays competitive enough to still place near the top. Clintonville called upon two of its stars, Tyler Sawall and Dominic Masiarchin, to do just that. Sawall, a strong 3,200m runner, usually runs in a competitive 4×800 relay, before running the 1,600 and the 3,200 later in the meet. Knowing that the 4×800 would still finish near the top without Sawall, although not quite as high, Sawall was asked to run the longest distance possible at a track meet. Sawall ran the 1,600, the 800 followed shortly by the 3,200.

“Tyler accepted the challenge, confidently saying that it is what the best do, and if he wants to be the best, and if he wants to help out the team score, he would be more than happy to be a team player in attempt to try for a conference championship,” said Reese.

Dominic Masiarchin, a valuable cog in the boys 4×200 and 4×100 relays, has the elite speed to win any event he runs in, although his favorite and usual race is the 100 meter dash. Masiarchin was asked try to win the “triple crown” by running the 100, 400 and 200 meter dashes during the meet. Clintonville’s deepest position on the boys team is the boys sprints.

“If a track meet had a relay that had six legs, we would win it every meet. Not many teams have six sprinters as fast as we do. Maybe they have two or three, but they aren’t six deep like we are,” said Reese. “We knew that we could still be near the top of the conference in both relays if we made some changes, because of our depth, and because we knew that powerhouses like Freedom and Little Chute were going to do the same to try to get more team points from using the depth in open events instead of just on relays. If you are going to be the best, you have to take some gambles and sacrifice somewhere to try to get points elsewhere. I don’t know how our ‘stacked relay’ that we will run for the state tournament would have fared. Our conference is pretty tough. Five sprint relays that were on the medal stand at state last year are from our conference. We could have been anywhere from first to fourth-it would come down to starts, handoffs, the little things. Our conference is that good. As a coaching staff we felt even shuffling our deck, we would place third through fifth, and therefore we could get more points in other areas.”

“Dominic hates the 400, but ran it to help the team. You can tell he is inexperienced running it, he sort of jogs the backstretch before blowing by everyone on the home stretch,” said Reese. “He has no idea how fast he really is. Thinking he could win all three races was not wishful thinking; I honestly think he could win all three and make it to state in all three. It was a tough task, but he has the ability to do it.”

Masiarchin ended up blowing by the rest of the field to win the 400 meter dash, earning Clintonville’s only male first team all-conference honor.

The 4×100 relay that followed false started, costing the team valuable points, and probably costing the team one place in a closely contested third or fourth place finish. “False starts happen at big meets, with tensions high. We expected to finish in the top four getting at least five team points, but ended up with none,” said Reese. “I feel bad for the guys; it would have been a good race. False starts happen, it’s just too bad it had to be to us.”

Masiarchin capped his night by running the 200, finishing seventh in the event and watching his Winneconne nemesis break another meet record. “He wasn’t recovered from the 400 yet, he hadn’t run the two in the same meet before. He had been scheduled to, but either weather or injury prevented it. It was still a pretty good night at the track. He was asked to do a pretty tough feat, and tried his best,” commented Reese. “I am proud of his willingness to help the team and the effort he put forth. He helped our team score.”

As a team Clintonville finished fourth with 92 points, missing out on third place to Winneconne’s 94.5 team points.

Freedom topped defending champion Little Chute for first place. First team all-conference honors went to Masiarchin in the 400 meter dash. In addition to Masiarchin’s second team all-conference status in the 100 meter dash, also earning second team all-conference honors were defending champion and conference (and school) record holder AJ Russell. Russell also placed second in the triple jump event. Sophomore Kyle Petermann bettered his school record of 147′ 5″ by tossing 151′ 7″ discus effort to earn second team honors, narrowly missing first place to Freedom Senior Aaron Keiker who has won the discus event for four years straight, this year by throwing 153′ 11″. In addition to Sawall’s two third team all-conference efforts in both the 800 and 3,200, Trenten Gauthier got the medal he had been desperately seeking by placing third in the 300 Hurdles.

Conference Meet Results

100m: Dominic Masiarchin, 2nd; 11.05; Cody Zuehl, 8th; 11.61

200m: Dominic Masiarchin, 7th; 23.40

400m: Dominic Masiarchin, 1st; 51.42; Nathan Poppe, 8th; 54.66

800m: Tyler Sawall, 3rd; 2:03.33; Nathan Poppe, 6th; 2:07.49

1,600m: Tyler Sawall, 4th; 4:38.03

3,200m: Tyler Sawall, 3rd; 10:12.49

110m hurdles: Trenten Gauthier, 4th; 16.37

300m hurdles: Trenten Gauthier, 3rd; 43.43

4x200m relay: AJ Russell, Juan Hernandez, Trenten Gauthier, Jesse Mayek, 4th; 1:36.10

4x400m relay: Conor Gehrke, Travis Eanone, Jesse Mayek, Colin Moon, 8th; 4:06.16

4x800m relay: Nathan Poppe, Kyle Wied, Jacob Decleene, Conor Gehrke, 5th; 8:51.59

Shot put: Kyle Petermann, 7th; 43’2″

Discus: Kyle Petermann, 2nd; 151’7″

Pole vault: Colin Moon, 7th; 10’6″; Kraig Knaup, 8th; 10′

Long jump: AJ Russell, 2nd; 20’4.75″

Triple jump: AJ Russell, 2nd; 41’5.75″

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