Area track and field: E-PC girls shine at conference meet

The Elmwood-Plum City girls finished second out of nine teams at the Dunn-St. Croix Conference track meet with 114 points. Mondovi was the only school to tally more points Tuesday, finishing with 159.5.

"We have a lot of quality athletes and they had a lot of great performances tonight," Plum City coach Rick Stewart said.

Plum City's Marah Boyer set personal records in all three of her individual events and anchored the 4x400-meter relay team to victory.

Boyer, a sophomore, placed fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 33 feet, 0 3/4 inches. She improved upon her previous best by 2 feet, 9 inches. She also placed fourth in the long jump and (15-2 3/4) and fifth in the 400.

E-PC dominated the relays. The program took first in the 4x200 with a time of 1 minute, 52.72 seconds. Sarah Gilles was the lone Plum City student on the team.

The victorious 4x400 team, which included Plum City's Heather Von Holtum, Elaina Danzinger and Boyer, posted a time of 4:22.07.

Danzinger teamed with fellow Plum City students Morgan Sweeney Abbie Hartung on the second-place 4x800 relay team. They finished in 10:35.26.

Von Holtum also took second in the 400 (1:03.69). In the 300 hurdles, Gilles placed third (51.47) and Sweeney came in fourth (52.88).

Led by Alex Gilles, who won three races for the second year in a row, the Plum City boys finished fifth.

Gilles won the 400 (51.99) and the 800 (2:02.05). He also teamed with Plum City's Tyler Dink on the victorious 4x400 relay team. They set a conference meet record by finishing in 3:32.81.

Gilles turned in a dominant performance even though he had returned Sunday from a nine-day senior class trip to Washington D.C. and New York. While he was away from the team Gilles trained every day except one, according to Stewart.

"It was a matter of getting up at 5 a.m. to get a workout in (so he could) participate in all the events that his class was doing," said Stewart, adding, "That's a level of dedication that you don't get out of very many kids in high school."

Dink also took third in the 400 (54.05).

Plum City's Chase Lanz came in fourth in the 300 hurdles (44.68) and the 4x200 team, which featured Lanz and Plum City's Lawton Radle and Gabe Rodriguez, placed fourth in 3:32.81.

E-PC's next meet is Monday when it travels to Boyceville for the regional tournament.

The Pepin boys and girls both finished ninth. The girls recorded seven points and the boys tallied 14.