The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association state track and field championships kicked off June 5 at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex in La Crosse, with Milwaukee area athletes making an early impact.
Preliminary events and finals for several distance and field events were held Friday, with the remaining finals scheduled for June 6.
Record-Breaking Performances
Wisconsin Lutheran's Niyer Clayborn broke his own meet record in the 110-meter hurdle preliminaries, clocking 13.80 seconds to surpass his 2025 mark of 13.92.
Waukesha West's 800-meter relay team of Nolan Schmidbauer, Ammonra Lomas, Josh Ziebell and Cole Zielinski set a Division 1 record with a time of 1:25.65, beating Arrowhead's 2025 record of 1:25.88.
Arrowhead responded by breaking the Division 1 400-meter relay prelim record with a 41.14, surpassing Racine Horlick's 2019 mark of 41.38.
In Division 2, Brown Deer's 400 relay team of Cole Lejon, Jaiden Craig-Collie, Jayden Ragland and Michael Essoka set a state record with 41.83, eclipsing Prescott's 2025 record of 42.00.
Marquette senior Gianni Quintero broke his own wheelchair 800-meter record with a time of 1:54.75, winning his ninth individual state title and moving within one of the all-time career record.
Field Event Highlights
Cole Zielinski won the Division 1 triple jump with a mark of 48 feet, 2 inches, then contributed to the record-setting 800 relay.
Waukesha West senior Chetan Malkan won the Division 1 discus with a throw of 172-5, winning on a tiebreaker.
Homestead's 3,200 relay team won the event in 7:43.00, positioning the team well for a title after last year's runner-up finish.
Marquette senior Brendan Reardon and Milwaukee Rufus King sophomore Logan Ziese finished second and third in the Division 1 3,200, behind De Pere's Grady Lenn who set a state record.
Other top area finishers included Muskego senior Will Kraklow (fourth in pole vault) and Wisconsin Lutheran senior John Gehl (sixth in pole vault), both clearing 14-6.
New Berlin West junior Spencer Phelps placed third in Division 2 pole vault, while Martin Luther senior Elijah Watkins took second in Division 2 triple jump.
Preliminary Qualifiers
Several area athletes advanced to Saturday's finals in sprint events.
Trey Resch led Division 1 100 qualifiers with 10.74 and also topped the 200 list with 21.40.
Gabriel Olson of Oak Creek had the fastest Division 1 400 prelim time at 47.83, while Howard Fuller Collegiate's Jabari Freeman led Division 2 400 qualifiers with 48.36.
Martin Luther senior Rylee Wendt posted the top Division 2 110 hurdles prelim time of 14.67.
Brown Deer and Grafton had the top two times in the Division 2 800 relay prelims.
