Edgar Wildcats Preseason Practice

Thursday, March 11, 2010 at Edgar High School
Special note from June 6, 2010: Edgar was the D3 2010 State Champion
Edgar

Division: 3
Enrollment: 235
Coaches: Kevin Ruplinger & Dave Bielmeier
Conference: Marawood
Conference Schools: North Division-Abbotsford, Athens, Park Falls, Phillips, Prentice, and Rib Lake. South Division-Auburndale, Assumption, Edgar, Marathon, Wausau Newman, Northland Lutheran, Pittsville, and Stratford.

Tessa Thurs [L] gave notice that she would be a force in track by winning a Gold Medal in the 300m LH and placing third in the HH event as a freshman at the 2009 WIAA State Meet.

Edgar displayed strength in the sprints, hurdles, relays, and pole vault events to place second in D3 at the 2009 State Meet.

Razor Thin Finish In The D3 2009 4x4

Conference rivals Edgar and Wausau Newman will each return three of the four runners who made up their 4x4 relay teams at the WIAA State Meet. As the rain poured down on a cool day in La Crosse anchors Tessa Thurs of Edgar and Emily Schuster of Newman Catholic were dead even in the homestretch. Thurs nudged ahead in the final steps of the race to give Edgar the Gold Medal. Only .03 of a second separated the first and second place teams as Edgar was clocked in 4:05.82 while Newman recorded a 4:05.85. Newman Catholic edged out Edgar by 3 1/2 points for the 2009 D3 Championship.
As a ninth grader Faryn Wirkus [R] finished 2nd in the D3 PV event. She matched the height of Gold Medal winner Kelsey Temanson of Stratford.

Teammate Hannah Pospyhalla [L] tied for 5th in the PV at La Crosse. Pospyhalla also qualified for State in the 200m dash and was a member of the 4x2 and 4x4 relay teams. The Edgar 4x4 won the Gold while their 4x2 was DQ'ed in the finals after posting the 2nd best time in the trials .

Emily Dittman [L] finished 8th in the 100m D3 at La Crosse.

Jena Heidmann [R] was 4th in the D3 100m behind graduated seniors Chelsey Simon [Whitehall], Paige Wirkus [Marathon], and Aileen Lemanski [Florence].

Edgar finished 8th in the 4x1. Karissa Andreshak is pictured below left taking the final handoff from graduated senior Danielle Boehm.

Below right: Tessa Thurs in the 100m HH preliminaries at La Crosse.



The above track team members had a regional semi-final game against Amherst on Thursday night at 7. L-R: Jena Heidmann, Kelsey Steinke, Tessa Thurs, Faryn Wirkus, Hannah Pospyhalla, Kelly Wirkus, and Holly Denfield.

Dave Bielmeier [above left] and Kevin Ruplinger [above right] are the co-head coaches of the boys and girls teams at Edgar. The athletes led a spirited warmup session prior to the regular practice.

Assistant coach Greg Streit meets with the distance runners before they left the building for their workout

Coach Kevin Ruplinger is pictured working with the throwers. Left: Danielle Lake. Above: Reese Werner.

Edgar has two gyms. The older 'West Gym' was used by the throwers while the dash athletes did their work in the newer 'East Gym.' Below: Drill work by throwers

Above: Bethany Pelch



Assistant coach Mandy Streit [above center] whose husband also coaches track at Edgar assisted coach Bielmeier with the dash athletes. Athletes concentrated on running form and starts.

The Edgar Wildcats compete in the Marawood Conference. The Marawood Conference includes last years D3 State Champion Wausau Newman Catholic.