Xavier’s Olvey wins boys 110 hurdles, Fouts grabs two more medals at WIAA State Track & Field Championships
AppletonSportsPage.com
LA CROSSE – Xavier senior Ben Olvey won gold and the Hawks and Fox Valley Lutheran combined for five other medals at the final day of the 2024 WIAA State Track & Field Championships on Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Olvey won a photo finish over Rylee Wendt of Greendale Martin Luther in the Division 2 boys 110-meter high hurdles, finishing in 14.89 seconds, just 1/100th of a second in front of the runner-up.
“I clipped one hurdle and I saw Blake (Thiry) and Rylee in my periphial, so I was, ‘OK, I have to start doing something here,'” Olvey said. “The last two hurdles were good and at the end I leaned, I saw Rylee and Blake right there. I was staring at the (score)board for what felt like forever, and I saw my name come up first. I never felt anything like it before. It was amazing.”
Fellow Xavier senior Lillie Fouts added two more state medals to her collection. After winning the D-2 girls 1,600 meters on Friday, Fouts placed third in the 3,200 in 10:44.31 and was part of the Hawks’ runner-up finish in the 3,200 relay, along with Annalise Minorik, Joy Krull and Hannah Linsmeyer.
Fouts took over the final leg in seventh place before making a mad dash to the finish in the final 200 meters to give Xavier a second-place finish in the event.
Also earning a medal for Xavier was the girls 800-meter relay team of Grace Renz, Caroline Basehoar, Faith Hafner and Lauren Erickson, which took fourth in 1:44.63.
Fox Valley Lutheran won two medals with top-six finishes.
Senior Emma Nilson collected her second medal of the state meet for FVL as she placed third in the Division 2 girls discus with a throw of 124 feet, 8 inches. Nilson won the shot put on Friday.
FVL’s girls 400 relay team earned a fourth-place finish to also grab a medal. The team of Sophia Wunderlich, Annalise Patchett, Amethyst Holmes and Mya Burleton ran in 49.60 seconds.
Other girls competitors in Division 2 that did not finish in the top six were: Xavier’s 400 relay team of Hailey Hafner, Bernice Geurts, Bryce Hietpas and Yami Ornelas (seventh, 50.16), the Hawks’ 1,600 relay team of Grace Hackl, Krull, Renz and Erickson (eighth, 4:02.36) and Basehoar in the pole vault (ninth, 10-6).
Fox Valley Lutheran freshman Jacoby Dobberstein took eighth in the D-2 boys 300 hurdles in 41.14 seconds.
In Division 1, Appleton West’s Tyce Scheetz took 12th in the boys 800 in 1:57.01; and Appleton North’s Nora Waddel tied for 10th the in girls pole vault (11-0), Sophia Scherwinski was ninth in the 3,200 (11:15.08), and the 3,200 relay team of Scherwinski, Sophie Busch, Lauren Podlasek and Ava Helmbrecht placed 21st in 9:49.04.
Boys team champions were Hartland Arrowhead (Division 1), Lakeside Lutheran (Division 2) and Iola-Scandinavia (Division 3).
Arrowhead also won the girls Division 1 team title, with Freedom and Rice Lake tying for the D-2 championship, and Deerfield won the Division 3 crown.