Local sports roundup: Winona girls track wins section title

Winona's girls track and field team picked up another accolade Saturday, as the Winhawks won the Section 1AA championship meet by a wide margin, scoring 168 points to beat out Faribault's second-place score of 110.

The Winhawks have had their fair share of difficult meets so far this season, from a second-place finish at their True Team section meet that qualified them for the True Team state as well as a tough Big 9 Conference title meet against a handful of schools that are a class higher than them, giving them plenty of experience to fight through for a section title.

"In the section, they were battle-tested and ready to go…pretty confident based on some of the results they had been already putting down," head coach Jed Reisetter said.

Winona had eight girls qualify for state Saturday, joining the trio that qualified Thursday on the first day of the section meet for a total of 11, in six individual events and a pair of relays.

Sophomore Adriana Brenengen was the star of the show, winning two individual events and pitching in for a relay win as well.

Brenengen won the 100-meter dash at 12.59 seconds and followed up with a school-record 25.25 to win the 200.

Brenengen joined up with Abigail Ellenburg, Anna Gilmer and Erin Burke to take first in the 4x200 relay at 1:46.87.

Gilmer was part of another state-qualifying relay, joining Ava Pike, Calla Pike and Faith Quinn with a runner-up finish of 9:56.36 in the 4x800.

Senior Arianna Berlin-Burns wrapped up the girls qualifiers with a victory in the shot out at a distance of 36-feet, 11-inches to join sister Shay Berlin-Burns, who qualified as a runner-up in the discus Thursday.

A pair of boys swept the top two spots in the 400, qualifying for state in the process, as senior Brayden Draheim won the event at 49.90 and fellow senior Xavier Schultz was runner-up at 50.59.

The duo also qualified in the 4x400 relay, winning the event with a time of 3:27.19 on a team with Evan Bucknam and Jared Loos.

Draheim also qualified for state in the triple jump on Thursday.

Winona's boys also had a trio of event qualifications in the wheelchair division, as freshman Devin Filzen will compete in the 100, 200 and 800, also making state in the shot put Thursday.

In the girls’ section championship, Brenengen led the team in solo points with 24, followed by Shay Berlin-Burns at 18, sophomore Alexis Urbick at 16 and Arianna Berlin-Burns, sophomore Chloe Fratzke and freshman Kiley Pollock all tied at 12 apiece.

With a robust roster of athletes at the state meet, the Winhawks will be in prime position for a solid finish on the team leaderboards.

"It's a good mix of individuals and a couple relay teams as well. The more people you can bring along for that, the more it feels like a normal situation," Reisetter said.

BASEBALL

(7) Winona 5, (4) Stewartville 4

(1) Northfield (7) Winona 4

The Winhawks’ Cinderella run came to a close Saturday, winning one game in the Section 1AAA consolation bracket, but falling in the consolation final at the Red Wing Athletic Field.

Seventh-seeded Winona (9-16) started the afternoon with an upset, winning by one run over the fourth-seeded Tigers (17-7).

The Winhawks could not pull off another against the top-seeded Raiders (18-6), who won by four runs to advance to next week's championship game against third-seeded Byron.

Andrew Tucker can be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @andrewjtucker16

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