Facing the cream of the crop in any state tournament brings a whole new challenge for even the best of teams.
The JWP track teams have dominated all season and earned some valuable experience at the state tournament on Thursday, June 6, and Friday, June 7 at St. Michael-Albertville High School in the northwest Twin Cities metro area. The boys and girls sent four relay teams and three individuals to the state tournament: the boys’ 4×200 relay, the girls’ 4×100, 4×200, and 4×400 relays; and individuals Lilly Strauss in the long jump, MaKenzie Westphal in the 800, and Ryan Kronbach in the long, triple, and high jumps.
On the first day of the tournament, the relay teams took part in the preliminaries. The 4×100 team of Brielle Bure, Nevaeh Weimert, Katie Olson, and Lilly Strauss placed 14th out of 17 teams. The boys’ 4×200 relay team of Dylan McWaters, Isaiah Berndt, Daulton Bauer, and Ryan Kronbach also placed 14th out of 17 teams. The 4×200 girls’ team of Weimert, Olson, Strauss, and Westphal faced 21 teams and placed 16th. Lastly, the 4×400 relay team of Weimert, Olson, Ashlynn Wolff, and Westphal placed 16th out of 17 teams.
Individually, the teams had some better results, with two getting their medals that day. Preliminaries weren’t needed for Strauss in the long jump and Kronbach in the triple jump. Kronbach placed fourth while Strauss took ninth. MaKenzie Westphal was one of 16 runners and placed 15th.
Kronbach stuck around for the second day of the tournament to participate in the long and high jump. He made it as far as the second to final round of the high jump, but passing 6’6” was a hard ask and would have required him to break his own record of 6’5” one last time. However, he still made the top five with a fifth-place finish in the high jump while taking eighth in the long jump.
Two top-five finishes and another top-ten finish at state marked the end of Kronbach’s high school career. Not too shabby, Ryan. Strauss also deserves some praise, as it was her second time making it to state in the long jump, and this time, she made it to the awards podium. And of course, JWP’s relay teams made up most of the team’s representation at state for another consecutive year.
While the motto for the JWP track program may be, “It’s a great day to be a track athlete,” this season was especially a great one to be a JWP track member. Several records were broken so often that personal bests became records, and every week, someone broke some new record.
This season will see seniors Caitlin Kleve, Lauren White, Ryan Kronbach, Dylan McWaters, Memphis James, Alex James, and Kaden Baker leave the team. Nearly all of them (if not all of them) collected a first at some point and were important athletes who regularly contributed. It will take some time to replace these seven, but if the past few years are any indication, there will be many athletes up to the task.
