Rieck earns state bid as Hornets host sectionals
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Colby Hornets track and field team had a pair of postseason meets last week, traveling to Gilman last Tuesday for their WIAA Division 3 regional meet before hosting the sectional meet on Friday.
Colby Sectionals
For a third straight season, Hornets thrower Daelyn Rieck will be competing in the state tournament held in La Crosse after qualifying for the meet at the sectional meet held in Colby. The junior put together the best performances of her career on Friday to seal her spots at state in both the discus and the shot put.
Through the first three rounds, Rieck found herself in second place, her throw of 126 feet, eight inches putting her behind only Avery Hetfeld of Webster. In the finals, Hetfeld retained her top spot through the first two throws, but in the last round, both Shelby Meyer of Clear Lake and Sy’Rih Hartwig of Athens registered their best attempts of the day, both supplanting Hetfeld.
But Rieck too had not only her best throw of the day, but also of her career in the final round. Unleashing a throw of 141 feet, three inches, she topped Meyer’s throw by five and a half feet to take the top spot in the event. By beating out her own personal best, Rieck also set a new school record, as she has held the mark to beat in the event since 2023.
By the time the junior had won the discus, she had already punched her ticket to La Crosse. Earlier in the afternoon, Rieck had taken second place in the shot put competition, using another personal best performance to take second place.
After scratching on her first two attempts of the day, Rieck needed to make sure her third throw registered to make it into the finals. It was more than enough to do so, as the toss of 39 feet, 1.75 inches supplanted all but Hartwig’s and catapulted her into second place. The pair battled at the top of the standings, with Rieck passing up Hartwig in each of the first two rounds of the finals only for Hartwig to retake her top spot by mere inches. In the end, the Bluejays thrower held the slight advantage, Rieck’s best throw of 41 feet, one inch just three inches less than Hartwig’s furthest attempt.
The girls team also notched points in their other two sectional events. The girls 4x800meter relay team of Ali Adams, Veronica Mateer, Isabelle Kloth and Annamarie Schmitt grabbed a sixth place finish in the event, posting a time of 10:55.99. The girls held on to the sixth place spot for the majority of the race, briefly passing the Grantsburg relay to take fifth but never quite being able to push into the top-four needed to qualify for state. Prairie Farm was able to secure that final spot after ending with a time of 10:32.31. The Phillips relay grabbed the top spot with a time of 10:00.98.
Schmitt also competed later in the evening, taking sixth in the 3200-meter run. After getting caught up in the middle of the main pack after the first 400 meters, Schmitt was able to pull into fourth by the quarterway point. While Unity’s Ava Muller was able to distance herself from the field, Schmitt kept pace with the front pack behind Muller for much of the race, putting herself in position to take one of the three spots be-
See COLBY SECTIONALS/ Page 15
LA CROSSE-WORTHY THROW - Daelyn Rieck unleashes a toss that would cement her spot in her third straight state track meet. The junior placed second place in the shot put at sectionals. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD Colby sectionals
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hind the Unity sophomore heading into the final lap. In a furious race to the finish, the Hornets junior came up just short of one of the top-four spots, finishing with a time of 12:13.93.
With their 24 team points, the girls placed 13th out of 42 schools who had athletes at the meet.
The boys team had three different events at the sectional meet. Sophomore Rolyn Hopperdietzel competed in a pair of field events, earning the boys top finish of the day in the long jump, taking seventh place overall.
His final jump of the preliminaries of 19 feet, 9.75 inches was enough to give him seventh place at the time and move him into the finals. While the two competitors behind him were not able to pass him up and Hopperdietzel beat out his top jump from the prelims with a leap of 20 feet, one half inch on his last attempt of the finals, he was not quite able to surpass the top jump of sixth place Brody Tarman of Turtle Lake/Clayton to move up in the standings. Still, the performance earned him two team points, the only that the boys would score on Friday.
Hopperdietzel also competed in the high jump for the Hornets. There he reached a height of five feet, eight inches, registering just one fault along the way. However, he could not get past the five foot, 10 inch mark to continue his day, earning ninth place just behind Gilman’s Sawyer Winger and ahead of Neillsville’s Micah Ziebell, both of whom also dropped out after clearing the height of five feet, eight inches.
The boys 4x200-meter relay team of Hopperdietzel, Chase Heeg, Dany Nunez and Xander Buchanan was the final Colby boys event to compete. The quartet posted a time of 1:39.79, besting their time from the regional meet and taking 11th overall in the event. They finished seven-tenths of a second behind the 10th place Neillsville squad and six seconds ahead of 12th place Washburn.
Gilman Regionals
The Hornets opened their postseason with a trip to Gilman for the regional meet last Tuesday afternoon. The girls team took eighth overall with a score of 44 points while the boys placed ninth with a score of 27 points.
Owen-Withee took the top spot in the boys competition, the Blackhawks topping Neillsville by five to take the regional title with 108 points. Cadott topped the Owen-Withee girls team for the top spot, finishing with 106 points to the Blackhawks’ 97.
Three first place finishes highlighted Colby’s performances in Gilman. The girls 4x800-meter relay team of Ali Adams, Veronica Mateer, Isabelle Kloth and Annamarie Schmitt started the track events with a victory for the Hornets, edging out Owen-Withee for the top spot in the event. They finished with a time of 11:01.50 to come in a second ahead of their opponents.
Schmitt also notched another win for the Hornets in the 3200-meter run. There she posted a time of 12:29.64 to defeat Athens’ Brianna Sheahan by a second and a half and take the top spot in the event.
The final victory for Colby came in the field events, where Daelyn Rieck had the best throw of the day in the discus. Her event-winning attempt measured 130 feet, four inches, putting her seven feet ahead of second place Haley Mathison
See COLBY SECTIONALS/ Page 20 Colby sectionals
Continued from page 15 of Cadott. Rieck also picked up a second place finish, taking the runner-up spot in the shot put. Her best throw of 40 feet, 7.5 inches trailed only Athens’ Sy’Rih Hartwig on Tuesday.
Rolyn Hopperdietzel added a pair of top-three finishes for the Hornets. He grabbed second place in the high jump, tying with Neillsville’s Micah Ziebell for the spot by reaching a height of five feet, eight inches. Abbotsford’s Chase Boller won the event as the only athlete to clear a height of five feet, 10 inches. Hopperdietzel also had a third place finish in the long jump, posting a leap of 19 feet, 11.25 inches in the event.
The boys 4x200-meter relay team of Hopperdietzel, Chase Heeg, Danny Nunez and Xander Buchanan was the final entry to qualify for sectionals for Colby after taking fourth at the regional meet. The quartet of sprinters easily captured their spot by defeating Cadott’s fifth place relay by nearly 10 seconds, finishing with a time of 1:40.72.
Buchanan, Mateer, and Jacob Raatz all had sixth place finishes in Gilman. Buchanan’s came in the triple jump, where he posted an attempt of 34 feet, 4.75 inches. Mateer picked up another in the girls 100-meter hurdles, where she had a time of 20.07 seconds in the finals. Raatz’s sixth came in the 3200-meter run, where he had a time of 12:40.62. He also scored for the Hornets in the 1600-meter run, where his time of 5:25.68 earned him eighth place.
Other scoring performances for the Hornets included a seventh place finish for Adams in the girls 1600-meter run with a time of 6:21.57, a seventh place finish for Heeg in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.45 seconds and an eighth place finish for Isabelle Kloth in the 800-meter run, where she had a time of 2:50.40.
CURVING OVER THE BAR - Rolyn Hopperdietzel snakes himself over the bar at the five foot, six inch height during the sectional meet in Colby. He eventually reached a height of five feet, eight inches and took ninth overall in the competition.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
