Heaving his way to state: Hanson qualifies for second-straight year in shot put behind personal-best throw | Sports

It took breaking his personal record by nearly 2 feet, but Noah Hanson is headed back to the state tournament.

The Ripon High School senior qualified for a second-straight year in the shot put with a throw of 49 feet, 8.5 inches last week Thursday at the Little Chute Division 2 Sectional.

The throw placed him in the fourth and final qualifying spot, 7 ½ inches ahead of Two Rivers’ Chase Matthias, who also recorded a personal-best throw.

Hanson’s previous-best throw was 47-9.5, which he accomplished twice in the four meets leading up to sectionals.

His event was the only one out of 16 for Ripon to advance to the WIAA State Track and Field Championships, which will take place Friday and Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“We’ve talked all along; there’s nothing that we’re going to do to get people to throw way further than what they’ve ever thrown before,” Ripon head coach Chris Gatzke said. “Two feet sounds like a big deal, but it’s the little things that got him the 2 feet. … And that’s an overlying theme for a lot of the races that took place through the course of the meet. … It was really exciting to see Noah be able to place and to do that, so that was phenomenal.”

While Hanson was the lone Tiger to qualify for the state championships, he was far from the only one to record a PR at the sectional competition for Ripon. The Tigers set or tied personal records in eight of their other 15 entries.

Doing the honors were Hayden Durovy-Meeker in the discus (8th place, 103-0); Adalin Nodolf in the 200-meter dash (15th, 28.26 seconds); Jack Schoelzel in the 300 hurdles (15th, 45.44); Brandyn Beahm in the pole vault (seventh, 12-6); Emma Resop in the high jump (eighth, 4-10); the girls’ 4×200 relay team of Nodolf, Reese Brooks, Resop and Victoria Rivera (ninth, 1:51.86); the boys’ 4×200 relay team of Matthew Cramer, Declan Dudzinski, Logan Pollesch and Ethan Struble (13th, 1:36.81); and the girls’ 4×800 relay team of Leah Page, Amelia Long, Libby Gatzke and Madalyn Leinweber (ninth, 10:39.56).

Anya Duffy narrowly missed joining the list of those setting or matching their personal records. She finished 7 inches off her school record of 9-7 in the pole vault with a fifth-place height of 9-0, just missing qualifying for state.

In several of the other events that Ripon qualified for sectionals, Chris Gatzke noted that the Tigers improved upon their seeding going into the meet, which was a positive for him. One of those athletes bettering her place was Libby Gatzke in the 800 run. She came in as the No. 16 seed and finished 14th with a time of 2:40.35.

The girls’ 4×400 relay team of Ashley Bradley, Nodolf, Leinweber and Brooks, meanwhile, held steady at the 12th spot with a time of 4:29.04 and was just 1.6 seconds off of the time it ran at regionals to qualify for the competition.

Landon Shidell also finished in the spot he entered as he placed ninth in the triple jump with a distance of 39-1.75.

“We ran tough, good races,” Chris Gatzke said. “And even if we didn’t set a PR, we improved; we beat where we were seeded going in. And that’s huge as well that you go in as the 16th seed, even if you just become the 15th seed, you improved. You were trying to do better than what you were seeded and you got that. It was a great feeling to leave the meet knowing that we’d given it all, we’ve done our best and we did very well as a team.”

One athlete who didn’t jump near what she had in previous competitions was Brooks in the long and triple jumps.

Brooks finished 11th in the long jump with a distance of 14-5 and 12th in the triple jump with a leap of 30-6.75.

Despite that, Chris Gatzke felt the freshman handled the situation well and noted it was a learning experience.

“It was a big stage and she was jumping at the same time her relays were running, in essence,” the Ripon head coach said. “So it was bouncing back and forth and she was really warmed up, she was really pumped and trying to get the mark was a little bit off and they kept adjusting the mark and she still missed. She had a couple of scratches and anytime you have scratches in a jumping event like that, then all you’re worried about is I just need to get a legal jump in and hope that I pull it through so that I can get to finals and go. It’s a whole different mentality.”

Ripon’s boys’ 4×100 relay team of Cramer, Austin Brown, Bodie Greff and Struble also were a little off their seed and previous-best time. It finished 14th with a time of 47.43.

Out of all of the athletes competing at the sectional meet for the Tigers, only Leinweber, Duffy, Hanson, Shidell, Cramer and Struble were seniors. For that reason, Chris Gatzke was bullish on Ripon’s future.

“The major makeup of our team just going into sectional was freshmen and sophomores, so that’s promising,” he said. “And so looking at that, where we were competing against upperclassmen and held our own and know what the big meet is and now are looking forward to coming back. Now, next year, not only are we going to qualify for sectionals, we’re going to do something at sectionals. That was the mentality from what we heard, so I’m excited.”

State preview

While looking forward to the future of the Tigers, Chris Gatzke and the coaching staff’s attention is focused on Hanson and this weekend’s state championships.

The Division 2 shot put competition will take place Friday, starting at 9:30 a.m. at UW-La Crosse’s Veterans Memorial Stadium. Chris Gatzke is hopeful that Ripon can have one more meet where Hanson continues to throw new personal records, hits the 50-foot mark and makes the finals after missing out on finals last year.