WIAA STATE T&F: MEDFORD - Stokes keeps moving up, earns 6th-place medal

Of the six field events contested at the WIAA state track and field championships, one could argue there isn’t one more dependent on a perfect technique than the discus throw.

Medford junior Rivalee Stokes, in her state debut, fouled on two attempts during the Division 2 girls competition Friday, but three of the four other throws certainly could be classified as complete successes.

After getting on the board on her second throw, which went 118 feet, 4 inches, Stokes –– the 12th seed out of 16 qualifiers –– put herself into the finals with a throw of 125-9 that broke her own school record 123 feet. She didn’t stop there, uncorking a throw of 129-10 on her second attempt of the finals that shot her up to fifth place at the time.

She wound up settling for a sixth-place and the last spot on the awards podium.

“Honestly it’s just such a blessing that I got here,” Stokes said. “It’s definitely not how I saw my season. It was a great group of girls to compete against. They really pushed me. That Amherst girl (Alexis Wierzba), she’s a sophomore. She threw 129 and I was like, ‘I’ve gotta one-up her’ and then I came up with a 129. It was just super cool.”

Her final attempt of the day, a 125-2, also would’ve broken her previous record set in the May 22 Great Northern Conference meet.

Overall, the competition wound up being pretty tight with the top eight finishers being separated by just 4 feet, 7 inches. Ellsworth senior Maleah Petersen won at 133-11. The top seed coming in with a sectional throw of 137-5, Kayla Landerud of McFarland, was 2 feet behind at 131-11 to place second and Oostburg’s Kennedy Kneser was third at 131-6, 2 inches ahead of Lodi’s Izzy Bahe. Osceola’s Leanna Boettcher took fifth, 15 inches better than Stokes.

Stokes said she was able to settle her nerves pretty quickly even with a foul on her first preliminary throw.

“I woke up this morning pretty nervous and I’m usually pretty nervous until I get my first warm-up throw,” she said. “Then when I get my first actual throw in, it usually kind of chills out a little bit. All around I think the nerves were OK. (The first foul) was not a big deal. You have two other ones. All it takes is that one big throw.”

The 125-9 on the third and final preliminary throw certainly was a big one.

“It was a great throw,” Stoke said. “I came in with a 123 as a PR and then I threw that 125 and I was like, ‘I’ve still gotta give ‘er. I have more in the tank.’ It was a pretty good throw. I knew it might just be enough, maybe, just enough, and it was.”

Stokes ranked eighth after the prelims, putting her in the finals field of 10. She fouled on her first throw. Then, right after Wierzba threw one 129-6 to jump into sixth, Stokes got off her perfect throw.

“When you start off a throw, you’re getting all of your adjustments, getting your feet right, putting your hand on your disc, getting that placement,” Stokes said. “All of those things that are routine, it felt good. Once I released it, I was like, ‘that’s close, that’s going to be a close one.’ It was still coming off a little bit wobbly. I fixed that release. Once that one came off, I was like, ‘there it is. There’s my best of the season to end the season.’” With her sixth-place finish, Stokes scored three team points for Medford. That tied for 48th place among the Division 2 programs that scored in the meet.

Now ranking as one of the state’s best in Division 2, Stokes said it won’t take much to get herself motivated for next spring.

“I just want to keep going,” Stokes said. “I started off throwing 111 and then I ended up on 129 so hopefully it just keeps going from there. That’s my goal. Just keep going, keep climbing.”

Boys results

Medford also had two state entries on the boys side of the state competition at UW-La Crosse.

Senior Erich Moretz completed a successful first and only season in the program with a 13th-place finish in the boys shot put. In the preliminary round Friday morning, Moretz’s first throw went 44-1.5. He then got off a good-looking second throw of 47-5.75, his second-best distance of the season behind his throw of 50-11.25 at the sectional. His third throw carried 45-5.25.

Brady Jackman of St. Croix Central got the last spot in the finals at 49-11.75. In the finals, defending state champion James Flanigan of Green Bay Notre Dame, who was third after the prelims, won another state title with a throw of 59-7. Columbus junior Wyatt Graffin was second at 58-2.5 and senior Christian Pyles of Two Rivers was third at 57-8.5.

In the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, junior Will Daniels came into state hoping to build off his personal-best time of 40.31 seconds from the sectional meet. But things didn’t fully click for him in Friday’s preliminary round as he finished 14th at 41.59 seconds. He was eighth out of nine runners in heat. Hayward junior Lucas Hansen won the final on Saturday in a Division 2 state-record time of 37.79 seconds. He edged Blake Thiry of Prairie du Chien by 0.21 seconds. Thiry, an Indiana football recruit, was gunning for his fourth state title of the weekend in that race. He personally put Prairie du Chien in the third place in the team standings with his 38 points.

Notre Dame edged Winneconne 4442.5 to win the boys team championship in Division 2. Freedom snuck past University School of Milwaukee 40-37 to win the girls team title.