Burlington Central vaults to Big Northern crown

When Aaron Wichman arrived at Stillman Valley High School for the Big Northern Conference girls track meet, his Burlington Central Rockets were already in first place.

Katie Trupp and Autumn Coon went 1-2 in the pole vault to give the Rockets an early lead. Nothing much changed the rest of the night, except that the Rockets continued to pull away from the field.

Central finished with 130 points. Hampshire finished second with 105 while Marengo took third with 103.

“Our pole vaulters got us off to a great start, going 1-2,” said Wichman. “When you show up and your girls can tell you that they went 1-2 in the pole vault, that gives you a lot of momentum to start a meet.”

Hampshire was led by Cassie Kruse, who doubled in the 800 meters (2:21.61) and the 1,600 meters (5:16.46).

Kruse also anchored Hampshire’s winning 1,600 and 3,200 relay teams.

Burlington didn’t win a lot of events, but scored consistently up and down the lineup.

“That’s the way our team is this year,” Wichman said. “We don’t have a superstar that we can just throw out there and is going to win three or four events. But we have a lot of girls who are competitive, all they way from the sprints through the 2-mile.”

When the Rockets did win, they took second place as well. Alli Sentanni led a 1-2 finish in the shot put, beating her teammate Brenda Thasavong with a 35-foot, 6-inch throw.

In the 400, the Rockets’ Alexa Tovsen and Kayla Wolf finished first and second. Running in the same heat, they were less than a second apart but finished well ahead of the rest of the field.

Wichman noted the contribution of Markelle Turk. Although she doesn’t normally compete in both events, she placed third in both the 1,600 and 3,200.

Hampshire’s Elizabeth Pagan won the long jump with a 16-4 leap.

Hampshire dominated the distance relays. The Whip-purs 3,200 team of Paige Membrano, Autumn Chomenko, Pagan, and Kruse beata Burlington by nearly 5 seconds. The same 4 Whip-purs then closed the night by overpowering the field in the 1,600 relay.

Hampshire finished almost 7 seconds ahead of second-place Oregon.

Byron, the defending Class A state champions, finished fourth with 83.5 points, with Paige Knodle winning both hurdles races.