SportsSports

Sports Section — Barron News-Shield — Wednesday, May 30

Athletes advance to State Track and Field Meet!

(See Golden Girls page 2)

Kari Knutson no-hits Hayward in playoff win

Sauve swings to Colfax Sectional

Local WIAA Tournament Update

May 29 Regional Semifi nalsDivision 2

Bloomer 1, Ellsworth 0Rice Lake 13, Ashland 2 (5I)Northwestern 6, Barron 2

Division 3Chequamegon 4, Ladysmith 0Grantsburg 3, Cumberland 1Frederic/Luck 9, Chetek-Weyer. 4

Division 4Shell Lake 16, Bruce 4 (5I)Clear Lake 13, Birchwood 5Northwood 11, Mellen 1 (5I)

May 31 Regional FinalsDivision 2

Bloomer at Baldwin-WoodvilleNorthwestern at Rice Lake

Division 4Clear Lake at Shell LakeDrummond at Northwood

Softball BaseballMay 29 Regional Semifi nals

Division 2Hayward 3, Rice Lake 0Spooner 9, Ashland 2Osceola 6, Barron 2

Division 3Grantsburg 5, Cameron 0Cumberland 2, Turtle Lake/Clayton 1Chequamegon 13, Ladysmith 8

Division 4Bruce 9, Northwood 2Shell Lake 11, Prairie Farm 4

May 30 Regional FinalsDivision 2

Spooner at HaywardDivision 3

Cumberland at GrantsburgDivision 4

Shell Lake at Bruce

Look for more details in next week’s News-Shield

Kari Knutson whirled a fi ve-inning no-hitter as Barron (11-8) cruised past Hayward (2-19) in the fi rst round of the WIAA Div. 2 playoffs, 10-0.

“Kari had a fi ve-inning no-hit-ter with seven strikeouts and three walks, with no errors for the girls on defense,” coach Andrea Podpes-kar said. “We played solid defense and Kari was on. Her change up was amazing and caught lots of batters tonight.”

The Golden Girls missed a scoring opportunity in the fi rst inning, when Sarah Nichols and Holly Knutson singled with one out, but cashed in during the second frame.

“We had a fi ve-run second inning, all with two outs,” the coach said.

Kelsa Wirth and Amber Hogan started the rally with back-to-back singles, then Kari Knutson drove in a run with a base knock. Sarah Nichols walked and Hayward had to pull the starting pitcher. It didn’t work. Holly Knutson singled in a pair of runs and Nichols raced home on a passed ball for a 4-0 lead. Roland walked and Amber Misselt beat out an RBI in-fi eld single to lead by fi ve.

With the big lead, Knutson contin-ued to dazzle from the pitching rub-ber. She faced just 13 batters through the fi rst four innings, just one over the minimum.

The defense made an unusual dou-ble play to end the fourth inning. Af-ter a one-out walk, the next batter put down a sac bunt. Kari Knutson bare handed the ball and threw to fi rst for the second out. The runner rounded second base, stumbled and got caught in a pickle that ended with Misselt slapping on a tag at third base.

Meanwhile, Barron kept growing the lead.

“In the fourth inning, Sarah Nich-ols led off with a hard hit grounder, which the shortstop misplayed, and reached on an error,” coach Podpes-kar said.

Holly Knutson singled and Roland had an RBI single. When Knutson raced home on a passed ball, Barron lead 7-0.

“Holly scored twice on passed balls,” the coach noted. “We were aggressive and smart on the base paths.”

Kari Knutson and the Barron de-fense went back to work in the top of the fi fth, quickly working around a walk. The Golden Girls came up in the bottom of the frame knowing three runs ended the game and gave their senior hurler a no-hitter.

“Amber Hogan led off with her second hit of the night,” the coach said. “Nichols had a big double to bring in Hogan, then Holly got her

fourth single of the night in four at bats.”

The score now 9-0, Misselt singled and Tara Church, who came in after Caitlin Survilla took a pitch to her hand in the fourth inning, drew a walk to juice the bases.

“The bases were loaded and we pinch hit Karia Severude,” the coach said. “The second pitch went past the catcher and Holly scored the 10th run of the game.

“It was a great all around game. Everyone got in and participated, in-cluding freshman Caitlyn Severson. She was a courtesy runner for Kari Knutson and scored a run in the sec-ond inning.”

Barron was hosting Northwestern (12-9) Tuesday in a regional semifi -

The Cameron golf team participat-ed in the Chippewa Falls McDonell Div. 3 Regional Tournament on Tuesday, May 22, placing sixth and advancing one golfer to the Colfax Sectional.

Freshman Ryan Sauve led the Comets, posting a 96 with a pair of 48s on the front and back nine holes.

“His consistent scoring allows Ryan to advance to the Div. 3 Sec-tional at Colfax on Wednesday, May 30,” coach Brett Sauve said.

The Comets posted a score of 404 at Lake Wissota Golf, while East Lakeland Champion Bruce posted a 338 to win the nine-team tourney. Chequamegon (346), Phillips (378) and Hurley (379) also advanced to the sectional meet.

Chequamegon’s Kevin Jean posted a 74 for medalist honors. Moving on as individuals are Sam Vandehaar (86) and Josh McIlquam (90), both of McDonell, Cody Darling of Birch-wood (92) and Sauve.

Other Comet golfers on the region-al tournament team included Jared Harm and Cody Pumala with identi-cal 50-47 scores of 97, Brett St. Au-bin shot a 59-55 for a total of 114 and Abram Linton posted a 62-61 total of 123.

UnhittableKari Knutson delivered another strike Friday afternoon at Barron as she whirled a no-hitter in a 10-0 fi ve-inning fi rst round playoff win over Hayward. With the help of sold defensive play, the senior hurler faced just 17 batters over fi ve innings while issuing three free passes. Barron’s season came to an end Tuesday night with a 6-2 loss to Northwestern. Look for details on that game in next week’s issue. See more game photos at www.news-shield.com.

“Senior Mitch Nelson is capping off his excellent senior season and track career with a return trip to the State Meet in La Crosse,” Barron track coach Dave Seis was happy to report this week.

Jumping at the Div. 2 Medford Sectional that stretched late into the night Thursday after daylong storms, Nelson qualifi ed for the State Meet in two events and captured the long jump sectional title.

“Nelson jumped 43’1”, breaking his own school record and fi nishing second to advance to the state meet in the triple jump,” the coach said. “It was incredibly windy, with a bit of a crosswind at the start of the meet. Mitch stepped up and jumped right away and had his best jump right off the bat.

“You need to fi nish in the top four at sectionals to advance to the State Meet. Mitch took the pressure off right away by nailing a big jump on his fi rst attempt. He used the same strategy on the long jump as well. After a two-hour rain and lightning delay, Nelson returned to the runway to try to double up on his trip to La Crosse.

“The huge winds from earlier in the meet would have been a nice tailwind for the long jump, however, after the rain passed it died down,” the coach said. “It was cold and wet, but Nelson never lost focus and again produced a huge jump on his fi rst attempt.

“No one was able to catch his jump of 21’10.25” and Nelson nailed fi rst place to earn his trip back to the State Meet.”

Nelson won the long jump by over two feet, while his triple jump of 43’1” lost out to Ellsworth junior Alex Campbell by three inches.

“Nelson is seeded eighth for the triple jump and third for the long jump going in to the State Meet,” coach Seis said. “The top 10 places are all really close at this level of competition and we are hoping Mitch has a little left in him. We wish him the best.”

Nelson will compete in the triple

jump on Friday and in the long jump Saturday at UW-La Crosse.

“He wasn’t our only jumper to have a nice night at the sectional meet,” the Barron coach said. “Junior Ca-leb Sinclair narrowly missed out on joining Nelson at La Crosse. Sinclair jumped a personal best of 42’ in the triple and fi nished fi fth. He was set to move on until a jumper from Amery pulled out a personal improvement of over a foot and bumped Caleb down to fi fth.

“Sinclair said he is going to use this minor disappointment for fuel for next season.”

Sinclair also qualifi ed for the sec-tional meet in the 100M and 400M, placing 13th and 11th.

Sophomore Weston Hargis placed eighth in the long jump with a leap of 19’2.5”.

“Hargis is a young athlete who has struggled with sore knees all season,” the coach said. “He is still trying to fi gure out which events he is going to focus on. We are looking forward to seeing what a healthy Weston Hargis can do.”

Hargis also qualifi ed for sectionals in the 300M hurdles, placing 13th, while Elliott Borgen was 12th in the 200M dash.

“On the ladies side, sophomore Afton Kuehndorf was able to make the fi nals in the 200M and placed eighth with a time of 28.05 seconds,” the coach said. “Kuehndorf had also qualifi ed for sectionals in the 100M and 4x100M relay. She had already run three races by the time the 200M fi nals came up, so if she was fresh, she probably could have done even better.”

She fi nished 14th in the 100M and the 4X100 team also came in 14th. Joining Kuehndorf were freshman Aaliyah Williams, sophomore Cassie Balts and senior Abby Mickelson. Mickelson also participated in the discus, taking 16th.

Sophomore Amber Kraft was 13th in the 400M at Medford and senior Gianna Zappa made the sectional in the pole vault.

Nelson leaps to sectional title

State of excitementPrairie Farm is sending three athletes to the Div. 3 State Meet Friday and Saturday at UW-La Crosse. Pictured are: (from left) Emily Hellendrung, coach Wendy Dallmann, Nathan Moen and Kaira Tabor.

The Prairie Farm track and fi eld team advanced three athletes out of the Colfax Sectional Thursday and into the Div. 3 State Meet. Kaira Ta-bor, Emily Hellendrung and Nathan Moen will represent the Panthers at UW-La Crosse this Friday and Sat-urday.

“We are very excited to have three state qualifi ers this year!” Prai-rie Farm coach Wendy Dallmann said. “Each of these kids has had tremendous success throughout the regular track season and are ready for their state competition!”

Tabor, a junior, was the top Panther athlete, taking second place in the 100M hurdles. After fi nishing fi fth in the preliminaries, she moved into the top four to cement a berth into the State Meet, bettering her time from 17.93 to 17.19 seconds.

Tabor will compete Friday at La Crosse and enters the meet seeded 14th in the 16-athlete fi eld. She also qualifi ed for the sectional in the 300M hurdles, made the fi nals and placed eighth.

Hellendrung, a sophomore, fi n-ished fourth in the 400M dash at Col-fax to move on. Her time of 1:02.57

has her as the 15th seed at the State Meet. She will also run Friday after-noon.

Freshman Nathan Moen fi nished fourth in a very competitive high jump fi eld. The fi rst four jumpers all cleared an identical 5’8”, with Moen taking fourth based on the number of missed jumps. The fi fth through eighth place fi nishers all leaped 5’6”.

Moen will compete Saturday morning at La Crosse as the 15th seed out of 18 jumpers.

Junior Tristan Beyer missed a shot at state by just two spots. His throw of 40’5” in the sectional shot put competition was good for sixth place.

Senior Leland Schmitt fi nished seventh in the 1600M run with a time of 4:55.80, missing a trip to state by 11.49 seconds.

Other Prairie Farm sectional re-sults included:

• Denver Moen–11th in the 300M hurdles

• Denver Moen–12th in the 110M hurdles

• Kaira Tabor, Maggie Wright-Racette, Sabrina Ifkewitsch and Laia Bolea–13th in the 800M relay

Prairie Farm sends

3 to UW-La Crosse

Comets qualify in fi ve events

Cameron will be well represented at the State Track Meet Friday and Saturday at La Crosse.

The Comets set two school records, won a sectional title and advanced athletes to the Div. 2 State Meet in fi ve events with a great showing at the Medford Sectional Thursday.

All day storms pushed the meet late into the night, but the rain did little to dampen the speedy Comet girls. The squad of Molly Brion, Jodi Sila, Sam Gronski and Chloe Wanink edged out Medford Area to take the 800M relay in a school record time of 1:48.18, winning by four hundredths of a second.

The same squad fi nished third in the 400M relay in 51.91 seconds. The team will be competing in La Crosse on Friday in both events. It is seeded eighth out of 16 teams in the 800M and 15th in the 400M. Hope Foss will serve as the team’s alternate.

Hannah Bailey came in third in the 800M run and set a new Cameron record of 2:21.99. She will compete on Saturday afternoon at the State Meet and comes in as the 10th seed and second fastest freshman in the 16-person fi eld.

Junior Joe Koenecke narrowly missed out on a sectional title, losing by a hair to St. Croix Central senior Korey Jacobson despite fi nishing with the same time of 11.25 seconds. Koenecke was the fasted runner dur-ing the preliminaries.

He will run Friday at La Crosse and enters as the seventh seed.

Koenecke joined Justis Hagberg, Carlos Guerrero and Alex Almquist to pace fourth in the 800M relay at Medford and grab the fi nal state qual-ifying position. They will be joined by alternatives Zach St. Aubin and Marcus Brion. The squad is seeded 16th and will run Friday afternoon.

Just missing a trip to State was the relay team of Almquist, Hagberg, St. Aubin and Koenecke. The foursome took fi fth in the 400M relay, missing a berth into the State Meet by one spot and .11 seconds.

The girls 1600M relay team also just missed out with a fi fth place fi n-

ish. Jodi Sila, Bailey, Gronski and Brion fi nished .08 seconds behind the fourth place squad from Wittenberg-Birnamwood.

“Special thanks goes out to coach Lutz and coach Harriman, Sue Be-ranek for her great pictures all sea-son, parents, fans and bus driver and number one fan Dave Romsos, who had the best split time all night get-ting the team safely back to Camer-on,” coach David Martin said.

Other Cameron sectional results included:

• Jade Green–ninth in the 400M dash

Sectional champs–The Cameron 800M relay team topped the podium at Medford Thursday night after winning the sectional title. Pictured are: row one (from left), Chloe Wanink, Jodi Sila; row two, Sam Gronski and Molly Brion.

(See Comets page 2)