May 30, 2023 at 7:13 a.m.
Track: Buchmann qualifies for state in discus
Bergman's school-record effort not enough in 300 hurdles
Track: Buchmann qualifies for state in discus
Libbey Buchmann is moving on to La Crosse after placing fourth in the discus on Thursday. Freshman Aila Bergman's season came to an end with a fifth-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles, but not before she set a school record of 46.87 seconds in the event.
Those were the highlights for the Hodags, who tied for 23rd in the girls' division and were 26th in the boys' division of a 34-team sectional in southwestern Wisconsin.
"Anytime you get into a high-level track meet, it doesn't matter what division it is, there are always going to be very difficult tests of overcome. The athletes at the top level are very similar, division to the division," Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said. "We had a good experience today. It was a good chance to get out and see some schools we don't normally see, get out to a different part of the state and made the trip down close to La Crosse, so we got to have that feeling already with Libbey going to state this upcoming week."
Buchmann will compete this coming Friday morning in the WIAA state meet at UW-La Crosse. She put herself in position to qualify early in the discus preliminaries as her first throw went 116 feet, 3 inches. That ended up being good enough to keep her in second place through the preliminary rounds, two inches ahead of Osceola's Stacia Kneath.
Buchmann was unable to better than mark in her first of three throws in the finals and followed with a pair of throws that she and Kraemer estimated were both in excess of 120 feet, but landed out of bounds.
Two throwers, Ruby Goldstein of Somerset and Daelyn Rieck of Colby, were able to edge past Buchmann on their final attempt, but Kneath only mustered a toss of 113-10 in her final effort as Buchmann held on to the fourth and final qualifying spot.
"I was really excited but I was also really nervous because I had competed against some of those girls already and I knew what they were capable of, but I also knew what I was capable of and I knew I could do better," Buchmann said. "I was very proud of my throws today."
"We're really happy for her and, as a freshman, it's an unbelievable feat to make it to the state meet," Kraemer said. "And, like I told her mom, once you get there one time, you never want to stop going. You want to keep getting back there."
Bergman wound up 0.54 seconds away from joining Buchmann at state as she took fifth in the 200-meter hurdles. Still, that performance was 0.38 seconds faster than her regional-championship effort on Monday.
Kraemer said he was hopeful that Bergman's time would be fast enough to earn a special qualifier to state, as one of the top eight sectional times in Division 2 statewide, but that ended up not being the case as her time ended up being 11th-fastest overall.
Bergman added a ninth-place finish in the 100 hurdles (17.45).
"We thought as fast as she ran there was a possibility, but you can't take anything away from the kid, as a freshman, running two of the most difficult races in the whole darn thing - the 100 hurdles and the 300 hurdles," Kraemer said. "She's been a rock all year in those places and she's going add that third event in the next year and be a 30-pointer, 40-pointer for us as the years go on."
The Hodags had one other near miss on the day as sophomore Truman Lamers took sixth in the high jump, settling for a height of 5 feet, 10 inches. Four jumpers cleared 6 feet - the height Lamers cleared in a regional-championship effort on Monday - to take the four qualifying positions.
"It was hard to watch the season end for him like that. He has been peaking and coming on really, really strong at the end of the season," Kraemer said. "It didn't quite happen, but he's a young kid and he's got some more years to do it. He took it with a smile and he's going to be back next year stronger and faster. I can't wait to see what he'll do as a junior and senior."
Sophomore Greyson Gremban scored an eighth-place finish in the 3,200 meters. Though he ended nearly 21 seconds off state-qualifying pace, he hung around the lead pack for much of the first half of the race and dropped nearly 18 seconds from his runner-up performance at regionals on Monday, clocking in at 10:08.23.
"He was out in the flash. At the 1600, he was still in the 4s, 4:50 I think he was at. He said he was pretty much waving to the crowd and saying that's all I got after that," Kraemer said. "But he went out fast and held on and had a big PR. That's all you can ask at the sectional meet. You want to have your best race. Sometimes it's good enough, sometimes it's not, but in Greyson's case that's a huge drop of time."
Four seniors wrapped up their RHS careers on Thursday. Cody Ruetz finished ninth in the boys' 400 meters (53.78), while Kaleb Winter took 10th in the pole vault (11-6). Gussie Gruett was 11th in the girls' 400 (1:04.69). Daniel Gillingham was part of the boys' 4x200-meter relay team that took 11th with Payton Campbell, Connor Dumpprope and Jackson Fuss (1:35.35).
Ruetz, Winter and Gillingham were all part of a 12th-place finish with Fuss in the boys' 4x400 (3:36.61). Gruett was on the girls' 4x400 that took 13th with Reese Gehrig, Bergman and Luna Grage (4:26.20).
Ruetz was also part of a 15th-place finish in the boys 4x800 with Gremban, Olin Slette and Shawn Denis (9:13.18).
"I'm extremely excited for all of our seniors as they go forward for the rest of their lives, college careers and whatever they choose to do," Kraemer said. "They're going to do great things because they're great people."
Rhinelander added a 14th-place finish with the team of Gehrig, Lexi Bishop, Millie Gruett and Violet Biolo in the girls' 4x100 (54.32), Buchmann took 15th in the girls' shot put (30-9), Bo Stott was 15th in the boys' shot put (39-8 1/2) and Eva Heck did not place in the girls' high jump after failing to clear the starting height.
Overall, Kraemer said the experience of a sectional meet was a benefit for a relatively young squad.
"Just being together with their team at the sectional meet and knowing they're representing our team at the highest level before state, that's something special they're going to carry on," he said. "Some people, all it takes is just to get to the sectional and you start to get really, really hungry to want to get to state or get back to the sectional and have a chance to get there."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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