Port hosts first track and field meet in at least a decade

The deeper teams dominated the North Shore Conference relays on May 4, but Port Washington High School came away with one victory.

It hosted the 10-team track and field meet.

Port hadn’t hosted a meet in more than a decade, boys’ coach Mark Pasten said.

“The track did get resurfaced last year, but that wasn’t the main reason that we haven’t hosted a varsity meet in over a decade. With only six lanes, it takes longer to host meets because it requires mores heats to be run on the track,” he said.

“Now that the WIAA has made the NSC a 10-team conference, it doesn’t really matter which team hosts the relay meet. The eight lanes only help in the hurdle races in which the individual times are added together.”

When it came to competition, Hartford won the boys’ meet with 103 points. Then came Homestead, 84; Whitefish Bay, 60; West Bend East, 59.5; Cedarburg, 53; West Bend West and Slinger, 52 each; Grafton, 49; Port, 47.5; and Nicolet, 17.

“This year’s team is lacking depth, and it showed in our ninth place finish out of the 10 teams in our conference,” Pasten said.

“A few key injuries made a large impact on our team’s ability to compete at the level that we were hoping to. Matt Esselmann injured his back while competing in the pole vault and Diego Armendariz was attempting to compete on a sprained ankle.”

Pirate highlights included the pole vault relay that took second. Kaiden Schumacher cleared a season-best 11 feet. Mason Deheck had 10-6, and Matt Esselmann had 10-0.

The 6,400 relay finished third. Nate Meeks, Gabe Pasten, Austin Rinke and Mason Raasch finished in 19 minutes, 15.23 seconds.

The distance medley relay of Pasten, Jake Meier, Nate Meeks and Raasch was fourth in 11:04.85. Pasten ran the 1,200, Meier the 400, Meeks the 800 and Raasch the 1,600.

“By the time Mason received the baton we were in sixth place. He was able to catch the runners from Nicolet and Whitefish Bay on the first lap, and then he just focused on holding them off as the top three teams were too far ahead to catch,” coach Pasten said.

The sprint medley relay of Ja’Quel Miller, Zach Cox, Eli Perez and Judah Meeks was fifth in 1:40.13. Meeks had a personal best and “did an outstanding job competing,” Pasten said.

The shot put finished seventh. Landon Reisimer had a personal record of 39-6. Nolan Voeller had 36-8.5, and Hewitt Dekker had 36-4.

Grafton coach Jason Meinen said his team lacks depth to compete in every event.

“We held our own in certain events,” he said.

The long jump of Zack Schmidt (19-2), Jacob Gehrke (18-8.25) and Keymonta Cook (17-11.75) won.

The 800 relay of Schmidt, Gehrke, Matt Schirger and Cook was second in 1:34.07. The same group in the 400 relay was fourth in a season-best 45.08.

The 1,600 relay of Chris Kalies, Taylor Holmes, Schirger and Cook was third in 3:39.35. The 800 sprint medley relay of Schmidt, Silvio Lanza, Gehrke and Kalies was third in 1:38.78.

The high jump of Jared Sudbrink (5-8), Jake Timm (5-6) and Noah Gain (5-3) was fourth. The discus of Ben Dobberfuhl (111-8), Jackson Heinle (105-2) and Nathan Teat (104-3) was fourth.

Whitefish Bay scored 104 points and edged Hartford’s 102.5 for the girls’ title. Then it was West Bend West, 79; Slinger, 54.33; Hartford, 51.33; Nicolet, 45.833; Grafton, 45.5; Cedarburg, 42; West Bend East, 25; and Port, 22.5.

For the Black Hawks, the 400 relay of Natalie Manuel, Ava Wilmanns, Grace Viesselmann and Gwen Grumley was second in 50.94, “but their time is currently ranked No. 1 in Division 2 according to MileSplit,” Meinen said.

The high jump of Viesselmann (5-0), Camille Mirek (4-10) and Wilmanns (4-8) won.

The shot put of Bryanna Mursch (31-7.5) Tatum Wiedenhaft (31-3) and Kayla Schopbach (25-2) tied for fourth.

The triple jump of Josie Gasser (33-1.5), Manuel (32-3.5) and Abby Gibson (30-09) was third.

The long jump of Gasser (15-7), Wilmanns (15-6) and Gehrke (14-3) was fourth. The discus of Hailey Bault (87-11), Mursch (87-9) and Sofia Salko (68-9) was fifth.

For Port, the 6,400 relay of Audyn Setzer, Abbey Lotz, Clare Woods and Braeya Thomas was third in 23:51.88. The 3,200 relay of Setzer, Toni Walters, Lotz and Thomas was fourth in 10:47.4.

Port and Grafton were to compete Wednesday in an invite at Hart Park, Friday at a Grafton invite and Tuesday, May 17, at the NSC meet in Grafton.