Spectacular day earns Huskies Track & Field first place at inaugural Battle for the Paddle

Friday, April 9

Winona, MN

St. Cloud State

Battle for the Paddle

Five Huskies won individual events and nine new personal bests were established in the Huskies' Battle for the Paddle win

Photo by: Thomas Breach

Spectacular day earns Huskies Track & Field first place at inaugural Battle for the Paddle

4/9/2021 9:35:00 PM | Women's Track & Field

Five individual wins, personal bests aplenty and an all-around fantastic team effort led St. Cloud State Track & Field to a first-place finish at the first-ever Battle for the Paddle held in Winona on Friday. The team win earned the Huskies some hardware, as the winning school takes home "The Paddle."

"What a fun meet!" said head coach Sam Kettenhofen, "Mason Rebarchek, Evan Perkins and others from Winona State did an excellent job setting up the meet and making the experience excellent for all of the student-athletes competing today. Hopefully we can turn this thing into a yearly thing and have the Battle for the Paddle every year."

The Battle for the Paddle is the first scored meet of the Huskies' 2021 Outdoor season.

"We wanted to bring the team trophy and I am very proud of our group for competing well, supporting one another throughout the day, and achieving that goal," Kettenhofen continued, "There were a number of strong performances across each of the event areas. That balance and our 5 event champions helped us bring it home."

SCSU competed with Winona State, Bemidji State and Minnesota-Duluth at the meet.

"Today was another step for our team in competing at the level we are capable of by championship season," Kettenhofen concluded, "There were a number of PR's and strong performances, but more importantly our group learned some things we can take with us into future competitions. I am excited to see what's to come and see if we can keep this momentum going."

Field Events

Dominique Buechel had an incredible meet for the Huskies, posting career-bests in both the Discus and the Hammer Throw. She launched a 49.50-meter Discus toss to win the event, a mark that currently ranks her fifth in the Nation. In the Hammer Throw, Buechel PR'd with a 48.08 mark to take second place. Dacoda Zimmerman placed fourth in the Discus (27.70m) and fifth in the Hammer Throw (40.40m) to join Buechel as a point scorer. The duo finished three-four in the Shot Put with Buechel posting a 12.36m mark and Zimmerman tossing 12.17m to round out the throws.

Gracie Elsenpeter won the pole vault, with Emma Gauert finishing right behind her in second. Victoria Czech threw a personal-best 25.09 meters in the Javelin Throw, good for third, with Leighten Fischer joining her in the top-six with a 21.83m mark.

The Huskies absolutely dominated the Jumps, as Emelia Burris (5.76m) and Parker Buske (5.48m) finishing one-two in the Long Jump joined by Maya Taylor (5.16m) in the top-eight. Buske won the Triple Jump with an 11.51-meter mark, and Taylor placed fifth with an 11.00m mark. Shantelle Des Marais and Claire Shea placed second and third in the High Jump, joined in the top-eight by Julia Rowles (5th) and Jocelyn Johnson (8th)

Track Events

Clara Welhouse opened the Huskies' Track efforts by winning the 3000 Steeplechase in her first-ever time running the event, finishing with an 11:57.79 time. SCSU's 4x100 Meter Relay team of Elsenpeter, Burris, Buske and Makayla Rice placed second with a 48.23-second time, continuing the Huskies' hot start, followed by Cheresa Bouley (4:47.92, 5th) and Katherine Todd (4:53.11, 8th) each posting personal bests and placing top-eight in the 1500 Meter. Elsenpeter finished second in the 100 Hurdles with a 15.32-second time, and Johnson joined her in the top-six with a 15.83-second finish. Of note, Elsenpeter PR'd in the preliminaries with a 14.94 top-qualifying effort.

Cassidy Lackovic (1:02.12) and Kaylee Gessay (1:02.40) placed four-five in the 400 Dash, then Karla Encarnacion finished fifth in the 100 Dash with a 13.41-second time, just a tenth of a second off her personal-best time recorded in the preliminaries. Leighten Fischer gave the Huskies another personal best with a 2:22.57-second third-place finish in the 800 Meter. Rice (1:06.44, 5th) and Encarnacion (1:09.19, 9th) continued SCSU's string of top-ten finishers in the 400 Hurdles. Lackovic (26.69) and Taylor (28.33) added to St. Cloud State's scorers with fourth and ninth-place finishes respectively in the 200 Meter, joined in the top-12 by Katie Lavato (28.76) and Alexis Fallow (29.36). Isabella Kraft placed ninth in the 5000 Meter with a 20:57.50 time to finish up the individual competition.

Closing the meet with the 4x400 Meter Relay, the Huskies' team of Gessay, Rice, Fischer and Bouley finished third with a time of 4:07.11 followed by a 4:22.98 sixth-place finish for the team of Welhouse, Czech, Todd and Johnson.

Next Week

There are a few meet opportunities for the Huskies next week and weather will play a significant factor in determining where they end up going. The Dragon Twilight at MSU-Moorhead and the Holst Invite at Concordia-St. Paul are both potential competitions. Further information on next week's competition decision will be posted on scsuhuskies.com.