SPORTS

Relay teams make final statement on weekend

Tim Johnson
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Maddy Pietz, of Wittenberg-Birnamwood, reacts after running the anchor leg of the Divison 2 girls 1,600-meter relay during the WIAA state track meet Saturday.

WAUSAU - Two relay teams. Two state championships. Two state records.

And it all happened minutes apart Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The Wittenberg-Birnamwood and Wausau West girls 1,600 meter relay teams put together back-to-back electric performances near the end of an already notable WIAA state track meet weekend in which Wausau area athletes across Divsions 1, 2  or 3 combined to win state titles in six individual events and three relays. Marathon also shared the Division 3 boys team championship, the second straight the Raiders have captured.

The West and Wittenberg-Birnamwood girls relay teams were the final championships for the local area, and the Chargers' girls title was also a notable one for the program.

"I've been coaching the girls for 15 years now and they're the first state champs I've head," Wittenberg-Birnamwood girls track coach Mike Balliett said. "I've had some other girls down there who have medaled (at state), but nobody has done what they have done. Then, besides that, to set a state record? It's something that hasn't really even sunk in yet."

The Chargers team of Paige Norrbom, Kylie Linke, Emily Norrbom and Maddy Pietz, all of whom are sophomores, broke the Division 2 state meet mark twice over the weekend. Wittenberg-Birnamwood set the mark with a time of 3 minutes, 57.64 seconds in the 1,600 preliminaries Friday.

The quartet eclipsed that mark with a time of 3:56.66 in the finals and finished more than two seconds ahead of second-place Big Foot.

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Linke ran the second leg of the relay in about 59 seconds, the first time in the spring she has been under a minute and about two seconds faster than what she posted in the preliminaries. Linke was the only member of the Chargers group who was not part of the 1,600 relay team that finished second at sate last season. She replaced the graduated Mikayla King on the team, and also got her shot on the relay after an injury to another Wittenberg-Birnamwood athlete earlier in the spring.

"The special thing for me was how the girls were able to step up and perform at that level in that situation," Balliett said. "Maybe there is a meet somewhere during a year where they would be able to run a 3:56 or a 3:57, but to do it (at state) and do it on back-to-back days, that is pretty remarkable."

Brooke Jaworski, of Wausau West, crosses the finish line during the Divison 1 girls 1,600-meter relay Saturday.

The same could be said for the West team of Ana Presa, Caitlin Deaton, Alyssa Faucett and Brooke Jaworski in the Division 1 race that began minutes after Wittenberg-Birnamwood won the Division 2 title. The team posted a mark of 3:50.75 to win the race by more than a second over Arrowhead.

"I was talking to one of the West coaches and said, 'Thanks for giving us the spotlight for at least five minutes.' They came in and ran just a great time," Balliett said of the Warriors.

Arrowhead and third-place Hamilton also surpassed the previous state-record time of 3:52.82 that was set by Milwaukee Riverside in 2013.

The current lineup of the West relay was established after the Wisconsin Valley Conference meet and the team set a program record in finishing first in the WIAA Division 1 regional meet (3:59.95). That mark lasted three days as it was eclipsed as West won the finals in the sectional meet (3:55.74).

West lowered it in Friday's preliminaries with a time of 3:55.72 before knocking off basically five seconds in Saturday's finals.

"We were so excited (about the time). We knew we had it in us. We just had to run our race," Faucett said after the final. "It was awesome competition and we're so thankful that we had competition like that to run with. That's what got us the time that we got."

Tim Johnson: 715-845-0731, or timothy.johnson@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter@timmyjo11