Cochrane-Fountain City’s track and field team continued its dominance in the distance events, with three sectional championships and four state-qualifying finishes at Thursday’s WIAA Division 3 meet in Lancaster.
Senior Wesley Pronschinske won the 3,200-meter run with a time of 9 minutes, 47.99 seconds and placed second in the 1,600 at 4:28.09, just shy of Riverdale senior Nick Stitzer’s 4:26.82.
Pronschinske’s time in the 1,600 was 0.09 seconds shy of the schools’ nearly 40-year old record.
This is the third time Pronschinske has qualified for the state track meet in his career, with his freshman season cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. He finished as a runner-up in the 3,200 as a sophomore and placed third in the 3,200 at last year’s meet.
The Pirates’ other state qualifier will be a first-time participant, as freshman Addy Duellman won the 1,600 at 4:58.17 and the 3,200 at 11:19.57.
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Duellman broke her own 1,600 record with that time, after setting the mark at 5:00.88 earlier this month.
Host Lancaster won both the boys and girls section titles, scoring 81 in the girls and 69 for the boys.
C-FC’s girls finished in the top 10 of the team standings, scoring 34 points in ninth place out of 32 teams, and the boys placed 15th out of 39 teams with 20 points.
Pronschinske and Duellman will be back in action at state on June 2-3 at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex on the campus of UW-La Crosse.
Division 2G-E-T was in action at a Division 2 sectional meet in Arcadia, and the Red Hawks had one athlete qualify for state.
Senior Jordan Stanislowski finished third in the triple jump with a leap of 33 feet, 9¾ inches, earning her first state meet trip.
Big 9 Conference championship
Winona hosted the Big 9 Conference title meet, and after no Winhawks won championships last spring, a trio of athletes won events with five additional all-conference performances.
Junior Shay Berlin-Burns won the shot put by the narrowest of margins, throwing 37 feet, 1½ inches to beat Northfield sophomore Alaina French’s 37 feet, 1¼ inches by one-quarter inch. Winona’s junior also earned all-conference in the discus, finishing third with a throw of 125-10.
The Winhawks’ most recent conference champions came in the 2021 meet, including Shay Berlin-Burns’ older sister Marquetta Berlin-Burns’ 100-meter dash title.
Sophomore Adriana Brenengen also picked up a Big 9 title, winning the 200 with a time of 25.89-seconds. Brenengen earned all-conference in the 100 as well, finishing third at 12.82.
Sophomore Chloe Fratzke rounded out the girls’ all-conference honorees, taking second in the high jump at 5 feet, 1 inch.
Senior Brayden Draheim picked up the boys’ first conference win since 2019, taking first in the 400 with a time of 49.61. Fellow senior Xavier Schultz earned all-conference in the 400 as well, finishing fifth at 51.13.
That duo teamed up to earn two more all-conference accolades as part of a pair of relay teams.
The 4x400 relay squad was the conference runner-up, finishing at 3:28.11 with senior Jared Loos and junior Evan Bucknam joining Draheim and Schultz.
In the 4x200 relay, senior Aiden Kronebusch and senior Caleb Reed joined up to place fourth with a time of 1:31.23.
As a team, the girls placed fourth in the 12-team standings and the boys finished eighth. Owatonna was the boys winner, while Mankato East was first on the girls leaderboard.
COLLEGE
Division II National Championship
The Winona State women’s team got started with a bang on the first session of the three-day national title meet in Pueblo, Colo. with junior Lindsay Cunningham winning a championship in the 10,000-meter run.
Cunningham finished with a time of 33:55.79, beating Adams State sophomore Brianna Robles’ time of 34:08.25. It was her first national title in outdoor track, placing fourth in the 5,000 last spring.
The Warriors junior will also compete in this year’s 5,000 on Saturday, where she is a favorite to claim a second title. Cunningham is the only runner with a sub-16 minute time, with a season-best of 15:45.91, with West Texas A&M junior 16:07.13 as the second-best.
Two more Warriors had strong preliminary performances.
Senior Shereen Vallabouy had the top time in the 400, finishing at 52.86, ahead of Azusa Pacific sophomore Alayna Verner’s 52.89. Vallabouy is looking to defend her title in the event from last spring this Saturday.
Junior Kaylee Beyer placed fourth in the 1,500 preliminary, finishing at 4:28.82. Lee senior Celine Ritter had the top time at 4:27.88. Beyer placed sixth in the finals of the 1,500 last season and will aim to improve on that in Saturday’s finals.
Vallabouy will be in action Friday, joined by Brooklyn Schyvinck, Alyssa Larson and Regan Feit for the 4x400 relay prelims.