LA CROSSE − The showdown between the past two Division 1 state boys discus champions was decided surprisingly early Friday at the WIAA state track and field meet at Veterans Memorial Field Complex.
Waterford's Bryce Ruland and Hortonville's Ben Smith both broke the previous state record in the event on their first throws in the preliminaries with Ruland setting the state record with a heave of 212 feet, 1 inch and Smith right behind at 207-4.
That's how the competition would finish as continued attempts by both either fell short or ended up being scratches.
"The first couple of throws in preliminaries, the main focus was to get nice easy throws in to get to finals," Smith said. "Thankfully I hit 207, which ended up being my best throw and I was able to relax and try to throw farther. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t hit it today, but 207 is right up there with my season's best. I'm not too disappointed."
Smith fouled on three of his throws in the final with Ruland fouling on his first throw. Smith said he was able to risk getting an even bigger throw after securing his 207 attempt early.
"Just having that 207 throw I was able to just kind of go into finals trying to push it and throw far," Smith said. "That resulted in the scratches. It wasn’t anything intentional or me being nervous. It was just me trying to push it and throw farther. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to."
Ruland has the top two discus throws (213-0, 212-1) in the nation this season with Smith having the third and fourth best (208-11, 207-1) according to athletic.net.
Many of the throws on Friday would have won Division 1 discus titles in past years and Ruland said it's a positive that so many great throwers are competing this season.
"When you look back at it, it's just crazy. It's just so much fun," he said. "And I wouldn't want it any other way."
The Smith vs. Ruland rivalry isn't over. Smith said he plans on competing against Ruland at nationals as well as in college with Ruland heading to Iowa and Smith to Oregon.
"He's just a great discus thrower," Smith said. "He's definitely outstanding with those numbers but we still got nationals and we'll get to throw a little against each other. And we get to throw against each other in the Big Ten. I'm excited for it."
Fox Valley throwers shine in boys discus
The Fox Valley was heavily represented in the Division 1 discus, with Fond du Lac's Matthew Rusch finishing third (188-5), West De Pere’s Andrew Baumgart placing fourth (187-1) and Kimberly’s Hunter Sprangers taking fifth (181-2). The Papermakers' Sam McGivern just missed the podium, placing seventh (176-10).
Rusch, a senior, and Sprangers, a junior, were aware of the uphill battle they had to place high with the competition featuring two of the nation's best throwers.
"My PR is 195 and I threw 188 today," Rusch said. "It's kind of hard to compete with those two guys. It definitely hurts (not placing higher), but it does make you better. I probably wouldn't be throwing what I throw right now if these guys weren't throwing 212s and 213s."
Sprangers was trying to hit 190 and said he felt good in warmups and the prelims.
"I was feeling really confident that I might snap off what I was talking about on Varsity Roundtable,'' he said. "I just couldn't make it click. But I'm thankful for being here and it's still an awesome experience. Probably the best competition I'll have all in high school.
"It sucks to place where I'm at just because I know I'm going against the best in the country. I know at the end of the day I have to move on and understand the way I perform is excellent in any other year and I still have one year left and the shot put (on Saturday)."
Neenah's Gentile second in long jump
Neenah freshman Celia Gentile placed second in the D1 girls long jump after a slew of personal-best jumps got her within reach of the gold.
Gentile started slow, jumping only 14-4.75 in her first prelim jump. However, she quickly reversed course, reached the finals and recorded jumps of 19-0, 19-1.25 and 19-5.5 to get her to the top of the board.
Homestead's Anisa Barnett spoiled the fun, leaping 19-8 in her last jump of the finals to win the event and send Gentile to second place.
"I was pretty happy," she said. "It's state, so everyone is going to be competing as best as they can. I'm happy with any place. But second is pretty great.
"My last three jumps were all PRs. Before (state), my PR was 18-11. So I crushed that. So I'm pretty happy about that, too."
Barnett, a junior, led the field after leaping 19-4.5 in the final jump of the prelims. She said she was unaware Gentile had passed her in the final round.
"I didn't know. I just jumped," Barnett said. "And then afterwards they told me and I was like, 'Oh!' I was just jumping as far as I could. I was just trying to beat my last jump (19-4.5). And the (19-8) was my PR."
Rockets' Dietrich leads third-place finishers
Neenah's Rachel Dietrich had a pretty good idea where she would place coming into the D1 800 girls run.
A placement in the top three? That was definitely possible. And Dietrich made it happen, finishing with a time of 2 minutes, 16.07 seconds to finish third.
"I knew all the seed times were pretty close to my time at sectionals," she said. "So I was just going to go for it and try to hold on and see how I finish."
Cedarburg sophom*ore Charlize Trinity McKenzie won the event (2:08.2), with Mount Horeb's Abigail Sadler (2:10.13) placing second. Dietrich had to fend off Mukwonago's Grace Graczyk (2:16.4) in the second lap.
"That’s more of my strategy, so I can sit and kick," she said. "But I was doing the whole second lap trying to hold on and then kick at the end.
"I was really hoping for third, so happy I got that. Especially last year I got disqualified at sectionals and didn’t get a chance to run the (800) at state. It's an awesome feeling to come back and place third this year."
Reaching the finals
Two individuals and three relay teams advanced to Saturday's finals after Friday's prelims, paced by Kimberly's Alejandro Pagan Vega reaching the finals in the 100 (:11.26) and the 200 (:22.23).
Neenah's Grant Dean qualified for the finals in the 400 (:49.14) with the Rockets' 1,600 boys relay team of Charles Fredrickson, Alex Thayer, Owen Wise and Dean also qualifying with a time of 3:21.44.
Kaukauna's 400 and 800 relay team of Jenna Kinas, Emma Sippel, Amber Gerrits and Ava Hammen advanced with times of :48.69 and 1:42.92, respectively.
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This and that
There were three area finishers in the top 10, led by Neenah's Mazie Olkowski, who was seventh in the 1,600 girls run (5:01.65) and Hortonville's Ayden Smith, who was seventh in the shot put (40-6.5).
Kimberly's Logan Salzmann was 10th in the 3,200 (9:32.74).
