Hudson track teams sweep at ECM, Rice Lake

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The Raider track and field teams show no signs of letting up heading into the stretch run of the season.

Both the boys’ and girls’ teams took first at both the Eau Claire Memorial Invitational and the Rice Lake Invitational last week. The teams will compete at the New Richmond Relays this Friday, May 4, and the Rochester Mayo Invitational Saturday, May 5, before preparing for the Big Rivers Conference Championships Tuesday, May 15, at Eau Claire North.

“We have a few great meets coming up this week and the athletes have been doing well,” girls’ coach Jami Holum said. “Spring is a really busy time for students, and the teams are coming together and looking really great in competition.”

Last Friday at the 7-team Rice Lake Invite, Hudson’s girls had the top three finishers in the 3200 meter run and the boys swept the top two spots in the 200 meter dash to highlight a dominating performance by the Raiders.

Sadie Kroll won the girls’ 3200 with a time of 11 minutes, 42.8 seconds while Ellen Snyder and Erin Wetzstein finished just one-hundredth of a second apart to finish second and third. Snyder was second in 11:44.76 while Wetzstein took third in 11:44.77. All three Raiders turned in personal best times.

In the boys’ 200, Brandon D’Andrea clocked in with a first place time of 23.13 seconds while Tucker Malecha was second in 23.29.

Hudson’s boys took three of the top four spots in the 110 meter high hurdles. Brett DuCharme led the way with a first-place time of 16.99 seconds and Sam Somerville was third in 17.5 while Wade Malecha finished fourth in 17.89.

In the 300 meter intermediate hurdles, Nick Jorgenson finished first in 42.34 seconds, DuCharme was third in 43.15 and Wade Malecha sixth in 45.25.

Ryan Kromer led three Raiders in the top eighth in the boys’ 3200 meter run, winning with a time of 9:36.59. Don Clark was sixth in 10:26.41 while Grant Starr placed eighth in 10:31.28.

The Raider boys also had three of the top seven finishers in the shot put, with Bryan Caffin throwing a first place 53-feet, Jared Johnson fourth with 42-10.5, and Alex Burgess seventh with 40-9.5.

Hudson’s girls swept the top two spots in the shot put. Taylor Steffen took first with a throw of 39-1 and Ashley Akey was second with 34-8.5. Akey won the discus with a throw of 103-4 and Steffen placed third with 93-8 while Mackenzie Gerads was fourth with 92-4.

In the girls’ pole vault, Casey Fall cleared 10-6 to take first while Sarah Krier was fifth at 8-6 and McKenna Daulton tied for sixth with 8-0.

Katie Wetzstein set a new senior school record in the 1600 meter run, winning with a time of 5:04.73, while Mary Knutson finished sixth in 5:47.07.

Last Tuesday at the Eau Claire Memorial Invite, Sam Somerville won both the long jump and triple jump, and took second to teammate DuCharme in the 110 high hurdles, to help the Raider boys to a first place team finish.

Somerville cleared 18-8 in the long jump and 38-5 in the triple jump while posting a time of 17.21 seconds in the 110 hurdles, second to DuCharme’s time of 16.44.

Jorgenson won the 300 hurdles with a time of 42.37 seconds and DuCharme was third in 42.94, while Caffin took first in the shot put with a throw of 47-8 and Johnson was first in the discus with 137-5.

On the girls’ side, Steffen won both the shot put and discus with throws of 39-2.5 and 104-3, respectively, while Akey was second in both events with 34-8.5 and 95-7. Racheal Knoke added a first-place time of 17.69 seconds in the 100 hurdles.

Tags: sports, track, raiders, prep