Chilton senior Alex Steiner defended his state title in the 800 on Saturday June 6th in the WIAA State Track and Field Championships in La Crosse. 

Steiner knows something about a strong finishing kick.  For his second year in a row, Steiner turned it on at the end of his Division II 800m final.  And for the second year straight, Steiner turned that opportunity to gold. 
Steiner tracked down Monroe's Brett DeNure over the last 80 meters of the race, winning in a time of 1:54.78, his best time of the season by almost five seconds.  He claimed the championship last season in a time of 1:54.32.  "I was looking for the record (1:54.30), but I couldn't quite get there," Steiner said.

Even with his status as defending champion, Steiner was kind of an afterthought coming in.  He qualified for finals with a time of 1:59.16, ninth best in the field, and he rarely ran the 800 this year, instead running the 400 in conference to help his team score more points in duals.

Steiner will continue his track career at UW-Stevens Point, where another distance change could be looming.  "The coaches think I could be even better in the 1,500," Steiner said.

Also making the podium for Chilton was the girl's 4x800m relay team of Amber Moschel, Madalyn Salm, Amber Woelfel, and Ali Richmann.  The relay team finished in fifth place at the state meet on Friday.  Their time was 9:44.89.

Also competing for Chilton at the state meet was:  the boys 4x800m relay team of Brandon Marx, Cody Kurscheidt, Tony Holzer, and Alex Steiner which finished in 8:22, ten seconds slower that their sectional time, placing them in 14th and out of the race for a medal, Jordan Pethan who competed in the 110m high hurdles.  Pethan took the heartbreaking 10th spot in a time of 15.45, which just edged him out of the finals.  Justin Juckem competed in the 100m dash.  He took 14th in the prelims with a time of 11.49 seconds and did not advance to the finals, Cody Kurscheidt compete individually in the 3200m run.  Kurscheidt gained two places in the final lap of the race to finish in eighth place and getting the Tigers their first team point of the meet.  Kurscheidt finished in a time of 9:53.05.  Chilton's 4x400m relay team of Pethan, Juckem, Marx, and Steiner gave a valiant effort but came up just shy of qualifying for the finals.  They finished in 11th place with a time of 3:31.40.  Pewaukee got the final spot for finals in a time of 3:28.99.  

    Congratulations to Chilton's state competitors for a job well done!!!

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