By NATE BEIER | For the County Line
The impact by this year’s crop of Royall freshmen girls has been felt immediately. They seemed to play a role in success each season this year, but they may have the greatest influence on the track-and-field landscape.
The Royall girls finished third overall at Saturday’s indoor meet hosted by Cashton. But there were several strong finishes, which included two event championships and three runner-up finishes, all by the class of 2021.
Jessica Brueggeman won the first event for Royall by taking the long-jump title with a distance of 16-04.5. Brueggeman also helped thePanthers win the 1,600-meter relay, along with teammates Emma Gruen, Madeline Wainwright and Tenley Wopat.
The relay ran the race in a time of 4:32.99, nearly three seconds ahead of the runner-up. Brueggeman also finished second in the triple jump — behind former state qualifier Kylah Frederixon (Blair-Taylor) — with a distance of 34-00.
Wainwright was second in the open 400 with a time of 1:07.24. Also, Gruen was second in the high jump after clearing 4-10 and fourth in the 55-meter hurdles. Wopat was sixth in the 800.
Adrian Reneau led the boys with a second-place finish in the 55-meter dash (7.2 seconds). Keith Travis was sixth in the 55, and Nolan Knutson was eighth in shot put.
Grand Meadow/ Leroy-Ostrander/Kingsland/Southland (Minn.) won the girls team title with 77 points. Cashton was second with 53, and Royall was third with 52 points.
Whitehall claimed the boys-team title with 82 points, while Bangor scored 68 points to finish second. Royall was tied with New Lisbon with 12 points for 15th place.