Pulaski junior quartet earns unique trip to state podium
The Pulaski girls were aiming to make it on the WIAA state podium twice for relays.
The junior quartet of Kayla Lipsey, Gianna Kornaus, Leighann Binkowski and Maddy Karcz did that, but not exactly how they envisioned.
The Red Raiders advanced to the Division 1 state finals for both the 800- and 400-meter relays and ended up making two trips to the medal stand.
Both trips, though, were for the 800 relay.
Lipsey, Kornaus, Binkowski and Karcz made their initial trip with a fourth-place finish before being called to the podium again when Nicolet’s disqualification was reversed and it was named state champion as a result.
Follow Preps Agenda on Facebook
“It’s still fun just to podium,” Kornaus said about being bumped down to fifth place.
Lipsey, Kornaus, Binkowski and Karcz reset the school record they broke earlier in the season with a time of 1 minute, 43.80 seconds in the state finals. It was an impressive run from one of the outer lanes after being seeded eighth in finals.
“We’ve been together since freshman year and have definitely improved together,” Karcz said. “To finally podium with this group of people is so exciting.”
The junior quartet has been using the same lucky baton since they were freshmen. Although they had to use the WIAA’s batons for state, they still packed their lucky baton for the state trip.
It was Lipsey, Kornaus, Binkowski and Karcz’s second run at state together for the 800 relay. They finished ninth in their first appearance in the 400 relay, coming within an eyelash of the school record of 49.28 seconds in preliminaries with a time of 49.34 seconds.
The good news for the group is they have one more year to more trips to the state podium.
“We’ve just been working so hard all year, and we’re so excited to show how hard we worked,” Karcz said.