WIAA State Track: Shorewood Sprinters Head to Finals

Eric Mathews coaches the sprinters for Shorewood High School’s track teams.

So when the Greyhounds advanced two sprint relay teams to Saturday’s finals of the WIAA Division 2 state meet, Mathews was understandably mighty pleased.

“We’ve been a distance-oriented team in the past eight years or so,” Mathews said. “This year, we’re seeing some great efforts out of the sprinters. This is the first boys sprint relay that we’ve had to state in, I think, six years. The girls 4x400 (also) has had an awesome season.

“We’re very pleased with the sprints because they’ve really rounded out our program really well.”

Division 2 track events are scheduled to resume Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Watch all running events live here.

Both the boys 4x800 (eighth place) and the girls 4x400 (fifth place) earned the right to race again on Saturday by finishing in the top 10 of their respective events during preliminaries.

The girls 4x400, which is made up of two juniors, one sophomore and one freshman, finished in an impressive 4 minutes, 7.47 seconds.

Said Mathews, “Those ladies, albeit a little bit of nerves before the race, bounced back extremely well, ran really, really hard, really smart and put down a good time.

“I think we’re sitting pretty for tomorrow.”

As their coach said, the Greyhounds aren’t just a sprinting team.

Shorewood senior Joseph Pendleton closed out his high-school career by posting a time of 10 minutes, 27.72 seconds in the 3200, good enough for 14th place overall.

Sophomore Haley Holan also ran hard but fell just short, finishing 11th in the girls 1,600 with a time of 5:16.38.

The heartbreak for Shorewood came by not falling just short in an event, but rather not being able to finish at all.

The boys 4x100, comprised of two freshmen and two sophomores, didn’t complete a handoff on one of the turns, disqualifying what was a very hopeful group.

“Our boys 4x100, obviously a pretty big disappointment with the baton drop,” Mathews said. “Those guys were poised to break a school record for the third time this season. They put in all the work, they put in a ton of hard work, it’s just one of those things."