Published: June 5, 2014
Pacing the field
West girls’ 1,600 relay team is top seed
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Seven years ago, West Bend West girls track and field coach
Jerry Halopka couldn’t find volunteers for the 1,600-meter relay.
Today, they’re lining up like they’re auditioning for
“American Idol.”
Before each season, Halopka asks each member of the team
about their goals. With a roster of about 80 girls, about three-fourths of them
indicate they want to be on the 1,600 relay team.
“Girls didn’t want anything to do with it,” Halopka said.
“We dug our feet in and said we need to have that race. That’s the prime race.
It’s at the end of the meet. Everything is done. Everyone comes out to watch
it. We need to start developing and building our program based on that race.”
To be on this relay team is special. Those who are or have
been on it are honored.
There is a mystique that surrounds this relay. It’s the base
of the program for a lot of reasons, but two in particular.
The first is that the Spartans’ training regimen in practice
surrounds one’s ability to run hard for 400 meters.
The other reason is because of the glory the relay has
enjoyed the last three years, especially at state.
At the WIAA state championship meet, which is Friday and
Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the Spartans’ 1,600 relay
team has finished fourth, second and fourth.
Going into this weekend’s championship, the Spartans are the
top seed with a sectional time of 3:55.57.
“It’s a little bit nerve wracking because we know we have a
target on our back,” said Erica Wanie, one of the four relay members.
“There’s always pressure,” Alexis Wolf said. “That’s one of
the things that drives us to be our best because we know that although we may
be No. 1 in the state, that might not be the case when we get there.”
The girls who have made up the 1,600 relay over the years
are different. They have to be for this grueling race. It’s not a sprint. It’s
not a distance race. It’s a mix.
They have to be good runners and well-conditioned. But maybe
the most important element is the more fiery one competitor is, the greater
one’s chance is to be on the relay.
They have to hate to lose.
Wanie has been on it for four years in a row.
“I like that relay because you’re running with, ever since
freshman year, your closest friends,” Wanie said. “It’s been fun to run
together.”
Wolf has been on the team for three seasons and parts of a
fourth. Last season, she was battling a knee injury, which limited her
opportunity to contribute on the relay team.
In her place was Ife Ekunsanmi.
This year, Ekunsanmi has flourished in the 100 and 200
sprinting events because of her development and contribution to the 1,600
relay.
“After my first year of coaching here, we did sprint works,
but we really didn’t have a plan,” Halopka said. “My assistant coaches and I
started to figure out where we wanted to be. For us to be successful, we found
that we needed real strong middle distance, 200, 400, 800 runners.”
They asked around, got feedback and started to assemble
training plans with the hope of taking the program to new heights.
One person the coaches spoke with was Central Michigan
University coach Mark Guthrie.
Guthrie, a former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse coach,
coached 46 NCAA individual champions who won 66 titles during his time at La
Crosse. He had 138 student-athletes earn All-America honors 457 times. In the
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Guthrie’s team won 33
championships, with 320 individuals winning WIAC titles.
Guthrie was Matt Wanie’s old track coach. Matt Wanie is the
father of Erica and Amanda Wanie, who, along with graduated Kayla Janto, made
up last year’s 1,600 team.
“We sat down with him and said, ‘We’re looking to train
these girls,’” Halopka said. “He said, ‘You train them as 400 runners.’” “We’ve
developed a plan and we’ve seen the benefits of it,” Halopka added.
Celina Wanta is new to the relay mix this season, but is a
senior and has enjoyed success in other events for the Spartans, including pole
vault, which she is seeded ninth for this weekend’s competition.
“Our team has very strong 400 runners,” Erica Wanie said.
“In order to have a strong relay, you need four really good runners. We’ve
really lucked out that even though that those were the four that were picked,
we could have other girls on the team that aren’t on the relay be on it because
it’s an event our team specializes in.”
Training in 400-meter sprint increments helps develop mental
toughness, too. In addition, three of the four compete in cross-country in the
fall.
“Mentally you know that from cross-country, even when you
think you’re tired you always have that extra gear,” Wanie said.
This year, the Spartans added a surprise to the relay: Libby
Brugger.
Brugger is the only underclassman on the relay and is in her
first year of competitive track after playing soccer last year.
“I thought it was pretty exciting,” she said about being on
the relay team.
Being in a new sport, in an event with high expectations and
surrounded by seniors made Brugger nervous.
“They were expecting a lot out of me so it pushes me to go
faster,” she said, adding she hoped to be on the relay team in the preseason.
“I didn’t know what events I was going to do.”
Halopka loved the competitive fire residing inside Brugger.
He saw it right away by watching her in other sports.
That’s why she was put on the relay.
Wanie and Brugger are also on the 3,200 relay team, which is
seeded second. Abby Janto and Kyra Gudex are the other members of the 3,200
relay team.
Gudex is one of the two alternates for the 1,600 team.
Amanda Wanie is the other alternate.
“It’s awesome that we have a chance at the podium,” Brugger
said.
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