Appleton North girls take team title, send 11 to WIAA state track meet
AppletonSportsPage.com
DE PERE – The Appleton North girls won the team title and earned 11 state meet berths at a WIAA Division 1 track & field sectional on Friday at West De Pere High School.
Eva Busch and Ashley Parrish each won a pair of individual sectional titles for the Lightning, who had eight individual and three relay state-qualifying finishes.
The top three finishers in each event at the sectional qualified for the 2026 WIAA State Track & Field Championships, which will be held June 5-6 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Appleton East also had two boys state qualifiers and Appleton West had one that will be moving on.
Eva Busch won the 1,600 meters in 4:57.18 and the 3,200 in 10:47.48, and Ashley Parrish was the sectional champion in both the 100 (12.14 seconds) and the long jump (19 feet) to lead the way for the Appleton North girls.
North’s other sectional champion came from the 3,200 relay team of Audry Dehlinger, Elise Brazzale, Sophie Busch and Ava Helmbrecht, who won in 9:21.81.
Also moving on to state are the 400 relay team of Jada Ellis, Ashley Parrish, Maddie Loken and Emily Thompson, which finished second in 48.95; the 1,600 relay team of Ashley Parrish, Ellis, Brazzale and Sophia Busch (second, 3:58.33); Isabel Parrish in the 100 hurdles (third, 14.72); Thompson in the 100 (third, 12.45); Isabel Parrish in the 300 hurdles (second, 44.87) and Helmbrecht in the 800 (2:15.09).
Appleton East’s Collin Hanson took second in the triple jump (44-4¼), and the 1,600 relay team of Birk Kozlowicz, Preston Schefe, Abiatar Massingue and Allan Massingue placed third in 3:22.76 to pick up state meet berths.
Appleton West’s lone state meet representative will be Kegan Phalin, who placed third in the boys 1,600 in 4:30.18.
Division 1 competition begins at 9:30 a.m. Friday.