This weekend, Winona State’s track and field team competed at the Phil Esten Challenge that was hosted by the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse on Saturday April 22.  

Two of our own Warriors, fourth-year Kaylee Beyer from Mukwonago, WI and first-year Alyssa Larson from Independence, Iowa both took championship honors in their respective events.  

Alyssa Larson won the 400-meter dash with an end time of 59.01, just edging Morgan Jennings of UW-La Crosse who came in at 59.10. Kaylee Beyer won the 5000-meter run with a time of 17:05.13, finishing almost ten seconds faster than second-place Heidi Heuerman of Wisconsin.  

“My strengths include having an amazing coach that understands what my training needs to be,” Beyer said. “He creates workouts to make sure I work on my speed so that it is my strength in the mid-distance races I do.” 

The runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles was Xana Leum, logging a time of 14.78, just slightly behind the first-place finish of 14.34 by Brooke McDowell of UW-La Crosse.  

In the 200-meter dash, Winona teammates Courtney Lukas and Alyssa Larson finished fifth and sixth, respectively, with Lukas ending with a time of 26.05 and Larson coming in at 26.69.  

McKenna Taylor and Sophia Taarud both earned top-10 finishes in the 1500-meter run, with Taylor taking fourth place of a time with 4:37:45 and Taarud taking seventh place with a time of 4:42:62.  

Competing for the Winona Warriors in the field events was Kaylee Patnode, she was able to take fourth in the javelin throw, going in at a best effort of 33.54 meters. While Xana Leum was fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 11.49 meters.  

Javelin throwing is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about 2.5m in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area.  

As A team, Winona State scored 58 points, good for third place overall.  

“This is a great group of ladies to coach. The attitude and effort they show every day is the kind of stuff you need to be successful,” coach Mason Rebarchek said.  

Coach Mason Rebarchek took over the track and field program as the Warriors’ head coach in 2004. He has been able to build a strong program in the competitive NSIC (Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) that annually produces national qualifiers and All-Americans.   

The Winona State’s track and field team will compete next on Wednesday, 26 at the Running on Hope Invitational against University of Minnesota- Twin Cities.