Marathon highlights gold day for Marawood

LA CROSSE - The Marathon boys track team might have to share the trophy this time, but the Raiders are still champions.

Devin Mathwich won the shot put and teammate Bryce Seubert was seventh in the event, and the Raiders' 400-meter relay team was second Saturday as the Raiders finished in a three-way tie with Coleman and Wild Rose for the Division 3 championship during the WIAA state track meet at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. All three teams finished with 39 points.

Marathon, which has won two championships and finished second two other times since 2012, could have won the title outright by finishing at least seventh in the final event of the meet, the 1,600 relay. The Raiders took eighth and  looked a bit disappointed as they took the podium as a team.

"For what this team has gone through this season with knee injuries and hamstring injuries, where we have lost top-notch kids. For them to battle through today and yesterday, 'Hey, we are back-to-back state champs. You can't take that away from us,'" Marathon coach EJ Otto said. "I don't care if we tied with 10 other teams here. I'm very proud of these guys.

"They're upset (with sharing) and I understand it. I would have been the same way," Otto said. "Time heals all wounds and it's going to be OK. Things are going to be alright. These guys have won regionals and sectionals five years in a row and now they're back-to-back state champs."

The Raiders championship highlighted a golden day for the Marawood Conference overall.

Newman Catholic senior Jake Gajewski won Division 3 boys titles in both the 100 and 200 and also anchored the Cardinals' state championship 400 relay team in a race in which Marathon and Edgar finished second and third, respectively.

Gajewski finished second in both individual events at last year's state meet

"It felt great. I didn't want to be second anymore," said Gajewski, about being on top of the podium this year. "I can say first feels a lot better."

The Cardinals finished fourth as a team in Division 3.

Athens' senior Autumn Wickman also won the Division 3 girls 400 and was second in the 200. Wickman finished fourth in both events last year at state and her time of 56.45 in the 400 finals is the fastest of her career.

"Last year I didn't really know how well I was going to place (at state) and this year I had my eyes set on the gold," said Wickman, who also was part of the Bluejays' 800 relay team that placed fifth.. "It just feels great to achieve my goal."

Witt-Birn girls relay sets state mark again

Wittenberg-Birnamwood set a Division 2 state record in the 1,600 relay preliminaries on Friday.

The Chargers were even better on Saturday.

The team of Paige Norrbom, Kyle Linke, Emily Norrbom and Maddy Pietz won the state championship in 3:56.66, nearly a second better than the time the team posted in the prelims.

"It's definitely a surreal feeling to break it again," Pietz said. "It's definitely a lot more special (than an individual event) because it's the four of us, and it's really exciting to bring the gold home to Wittenberg."

Pietz finished second in the 100 and 200 earlier in the day, the second straight year she has been the runner-up in both events.

"It's a little bit frustrating but just all the more reason to work a little more harder to hopefully get on top (of the podium) next year," Pietz said.

Division 2-3 state-place performances

• Edgar's Macey Wirkus finished fourth in the Division 3 girls 300 hurdles in 46.11. 

Other Division 2-3 state performances

• Newman Catholic's Mariah Whalen finished eighth in the Division 3 girls discus with a throw of 119-3. Marathon's Katelyn Schmidt was 16th with a throw of 75-5. Teammate  Karina McGucken was ninth in the  pole vault as she cleared 9-0. 
• Edgar's Kamryn Butt finished ninth in the Division 3 triple jump with a leap of 35-5. Edgar also finished eighth in the 800 relay in 1:48.04. 
• Wittenberg-Birnamwood's Paige Norrbom finished 10th in the Division 2 girls hurdles in 48.39. 
• Marathon's Xavier Lechleitner finished ninth in the Division 3 high jump as he cleared 6-4. Teammate Jordan Balz finished 14th in the 3,200 in 10:22.36. 
• Athens finished 15th in the Division 3 boys 3,200 in 8:40.13. 

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