WIAA Track: North Shore Teams Take La Crosse By Storm

North Shore track athletes took La Crosse by storm Saturday.

The combination of Whitefish Bay, Nicolet, Shorewood and Dominican’s track teams did extremely well at the WIAA State Track Meet Friday and Saturday, earning a combined seven medals on a day that saw countless records fall.

Whitefish Bay boys kicked things off when James Stecker took sixth in the 100 with a time of 11.06.

The junior didn’t have much time to relax, though, as he quickly had to compete in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays.

Apparently Stecker works just fine under a lot of pressure, as the Blue Dukes took first place in both events despite being seeded fourth in both.

“That was kind of my goal coming in,” Stecker said of the three medals. “I knew our relays had a great opportunity to make the podium. We’ve been in the top times posted on (website) ‘WisSports’ all year.

“The 100 was a more personal goal of mine. I got sixth overall, which was good enough for me at that point. Hopefully I’ll be able to do something similar next year.”

Nicolet got into the action on the men’s side, as senior Jeff Pigg ran an incredible 1 minute, 52.99 seconds in the 800 meter, good enough for second place as he was edged out just at the last second by Janesville Craig’s Tommy Meister (1:52.92).

“(The race) felt great, he just snuck up on me,” an exhausted Pigg said after the race. “He (Meister) ran great too. I’m mad I lost, but it was fun.”

On the girls side of the track, Deysha Smith-Jenkins continued to dominate every event she takes on.

After admitting to taking it a little easier in Friday’s preliminaries, Smith-Jenkins lit up the record boards in the 200 by posting a time of 24.64, besting Milwaukee North’s Tasha Allen’s mark of 24.79 from 2008.

After defending her title in the 200, the junior knocked off defending state champ Eileen Gehring (Madison Edgewood) in the 100 to take her second gold of the day.

Smith-Jenkins also took third in the 400 with a time of 57.34, falling just behind Wrightstown’s Bonnie Draxler (56.28) and Gehring (56.45).

Shorewood’s girls competed admirably on Saturday as well, taking seventh in the 4x400 relay and tenth in the 4x800.

Sophomore Haley Holan also finished tenth in the 3200.

“Overall, the day was pretty good,” Shorewood sprint coach Eric Mathews said. “The girls ran their guts out, ran so hard and came so far. That’s the biggest thing. From where we started at the beginning of the season to where they ended today, the development was amazing.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Senior Kenzie Vicker finished seventh and tenth in the 3200 and 1600 races, respectively, for Whitefish Bay.

Nicolet’s girls relay team finished seventh in the highly-competitive 4x200 with a time of 1 minute, 45.32 seconds.

In all, Dominican’s girls team finished the highest of all the area schools with 26 points overall, good enough for fifth place in division 2.

Whitefish Bay boys also placed high, taking seventh in D1 with 23 points.