Lopez breaks through in 200 dash, qualifies for state meet

WIAA DIV. 3 TRACK & FIELD

Rib Lake junior Olivia Lopez had competed in six sectional events during her first two years in the school’s track and field program and, in her third sectional Thursday, she broke through in one of her two events by qualifying for state in the 200-meter dash at the WIAA Division 3 meet held at Marathon High School.

A top-four finish in each event was needed to advance and fourth place was what Lopez got in the 200-meter final late in Thursday’s meet. Early on, Lopez qualified for the final by placing fourth in the preliminaries at 27.6 seconds. In the final, she held that position and lowered her time to 27.35 seconds, holding off Loyal’s Leah Scherer by 0.03 seconds to get the last state spot.

Lopez will join the other three sectional qualifiers – Edgar’s Morgan Schnelle (26.49), Loyal’s Addysen Wolf (26.71) and Sevastopol’s Kylee Duessler (27.01) in competing in the 200-meter preliminaries Friday afternoon at the WIAA Division 3 state championships at UW-La Crosse. The two heat winners plus the next best eight times out of the 16 preliminary entrants will advance to Saturday afternoon’s championship race.

Lopez will have her work cut out for her as the 16th-seeded sprinter, but getting to her first state meet certainly is a big hurdle cleared for the leader of Rib Lake’s girls squad. Her time Thursday was just off her regional time of 27.29 seconds, which was her season-best.

Lopez also competed in the triple jump Thursday and, unfortunately, didn’t have her best day there. She took 13th out of 16 entrants with a best jump of 29 feet, 10 inches, well off the 31-10 she hit at the May 22 Stratford regional. Avery Kauth of Valders won the event at 34-8.5, while Kallie Volk of Three Lakes (34-8.25), Katlyn Schreiner of Athens (33-9.5) and Natalie Brenner of Newman Catholic (33-3.75) advanced to state.

Lopez competed in three different relays for Rib Lake in the 2021 and 2022 sectionals as well as the 100-meter dash in 2021 and the long and triple jumps in 2022, where she finished seventh and ninth.

Rib Lake had four entries in Thursday’s boys meet. The closest to get to state was senior Dominick Classen, who just missed in the 400-meter dash. He placed fifth in a time of 52.6 seconds, leaving him 0.7 seconds behind fourth-place qualifier Nolyn Lindner of Newman Catholic. Classen qualified for the sectional with a regional time of 51.76 seconds. Rosholt freshman Alex Wierzba won the race in 51.16 seconds, while Stratford’s Conner Weigel (51.42) and Green Bay NEW Lutheran’s Zach Wendland (51.56) also advanced to state.

The 1,600-meter relay team of Classen, Theo Robisch, Jack Regier and Kaleb Scott was Rib Lake’s last hope late in the meet. The team gave it a solid run, but its time of 3:41.13 fell a little short and was good for sixth place. Marathon got fourth in 3:34 and Newman Catholic was fifth at 3:37. Manawa won the race in 3:32.68, while Edgar (3:32.69) and Stratford (3:33.93) also advanced. Rib Lake’s time was just off its regional time of 3:40.1.

The 3,200-meter relay team of Ryan Buehler, Classen, Regier and Scott placed eighth with its time of 8:47.63 after qualifying from the regional at 8:40.63. Gillett was the sectional champion at 8:15.85, while Stevens Point Pacelli (8:18.52), Iola-Scandinavia (8:19.08) and Auburndale (8:33.99) pushed their teams through to state.

Robisch, a senior, also competed individually in the high jump. After hitting a personal-record 5 feet, 11 inches in the regional, Robisch was part of a four-way tie for ninth place at 5-8. State qualifiers were Emmitt Kietlinski of Gresham-Bowler (6-6), Wendland (6-0), Karter Schroeder of Bonduel (6-0) and Bennett Schmidt of Shiocton (5-10).

The boys scored eight team points to tie Valders and Reedsville for 25th place in the team standings. Stratford won the team championship plaque with 71 points, while Shiocton (65), Iola-Scandinavia (57), Athens (49) and Pacelli (31) rounded out the top five.

Lopez’s fourth-place finish in the 200 gave Rib Lake five points in the girls competition, good for a 30th-place tie with Auburndale and Algoma. Shiocton (61.2) won the team title, followed by Loyal (51.2), Newman Catholic (46), Rosholt (45), Phillips (43) and Valders (43).