By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Thursday night the Merrill boys and girls track teams traveled to the UWSP Fieldhouse for the Wisconsin Valley Conference indoor meet. The Jays didn’t have their best performance, finishing in last for boys and girls.
“This meet really shows what depth you have and it really shows your lack of depth in the final team score,” said Merrill head coach Guy Pawlicki, “On the girls side, our 4X800 ran by Elizabeth Schmidt, Claire Drew, Sadie Wakefield and Dalie Thomas finished third in the conference.” adds Pawlicki, “Thomas gutted it out at the finish to beat Wisconsin Rapids at the finish line. Dalie Thomas also finished third in the 400M. Freshman Elizabeth Schmidt did raise some eyebrows finishing third in the conference in the 800M.”
“For the boys side, pole vaulters Dominic Leistikow and Tyler Wolff finished seventh and eighth respectively.” said Pawlicki, “Our 4×800 team of Dominic Laufenberg, Kurtis Schulz, David Genrich and Kyle Stellingworth finished sixth. Taron Gutowski finished 8th in the 400M. Dominic Laufenberg finished seventh in the 3200M. The highlight for the boys would be the fifth place finish of the 4×400 relay ran by James Pawlicki, Wolff, Taron Gutowski and Nik Zastrow.”
“Overall, we competed hard.” adds coach Pawlicki, “Just about every one of our competitors improved their times and marks, and that is the measuring stick I use to see if we are getting better. I give our kids a lot of credit to stand up and compete with schools much bigger than ours. We are looking forward to getting outside.”