LA CROSSE – Whether it was on the football field, the basketball court, the baseball field or the track the past few years, this crop of Edgar seniors built a legacy of talent and success that will be hard to match.
That legacy was cemented on the track at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Thursday at the WIAA Division 3 state track and field championshipsas the Wildcats won titles in three relay events.
Those titles helped Edgar finish in second place in the boys team standings with 45 points, outscored by only Aquinas(54).
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“We’ve been playing sports together since I got here in fifth grade, these guys a little bit longer,” Drew Guden said. “We just kind of bonded from the start. Worked our butts off in the weight room, on the track, on the baseball field, on the football field, everywhere. To get down here after maybe a little bit disappointing baseball season and not having track last year, we just kind of ran angry and it went well for us.”
Edgar won the 800-meter relay with the team of Guden, Konnor Wolf, AydenWeisenberger and Kyle Brewster in a time of 1 minute, 31.06 seconds. Manawa was second in 1:32.87
The team of Austin Dahlke, Wolf, Guden and Brewster followed with a victory in the 400 relay in 43.44 seconds to edge Aquinas (:43.48).
And the team of Kohlbe Weisenberger, Guden, Ayden Weisenberger and Dahlke capped the relay title trifecta by winning the 1,600 in 3:28.89.
Dahlke, Wolf, Guden and Brewster are seniors. Ayden Weisenberger is a junior and Kohlbe Weisenberger is a freshman.
“A couple years ago my cousin, me and him were having a conversation, and he told me you can’t beat a team full of best friends and I think we’re just that right there,” Wolf said. “Just a bunch of best friends that come out and love to compete. It’s just a great feeling.”
Brewster held off a late charge from Lukas Beck of Aquinas to bring home the gold for Edgar in the 400 relay.
“I heard him coming from behind and I knew that I had to give it all I could seeing it was my last race as a Edgar Wildcat, so I just pushed through the tough wind and ended up edging it out there at the end,” Brewster said.
Dahlke took the baton for the final leg of the 1,600 relay in second place about 10 yards behind the leader, but quickly made up the gap and brought home the title.
“I just trusted our team the whole way,” Dahlke said. “I told everyone to just do their best and give it their all and they all did. I told Ayden right before he was running to get in first or second and I would finish it. He did what he needed to do and I finished it.”
Dahlke also placed second in the 200 in 23.23 seconds behind Beck (:22.93) and fifth in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 5 inches.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything else these last four years playing with my teammates and my brothers beside me,” Dahlke said. “It was an experience of a lifetime, to say the least.”
The Wildcats were disappointed to not win the team title, but weren’t hanging their heads about a senior year that included a 9-0 record in football, a trip to the state tournament in basketball and a trip to the sectional final in baseball.
“All you can really ask is to do your best and everyone did their job and the rest will take care of itself,” Dahlke said. “If we came up a little short that’s just the way it is, but I’m proud of every one of our guys for giving it their all today.”
Decker vaults to title
Caden Decker prefers to let his performance do the talking, and it said a lot Thursday.
The Athens junior won the state title in the pole vault with a leap of 13 feet, 9 inches. Bill Soda of Princeton/Green Lake was second at 13-6.
Decker said he didn’t know what to expect coming into the state meet.
“The past few meets I haven’t been doing too good. Now was the time to do it,” he said. “I just felt relieved.”
Contact Mike Sherry at (920) 996-7244 or msherry@postcrescent.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeSherry14.
