2 Down, 1 To Go in Spartans' Triple Crown Quest

The Brookfield East boys track and field team has a special goal in mind for this season: defend its triple crown title.

The triple crown for the Spartans is comprised of the three regular-season Great Metro Conference meets: the indoor, the relays and the outdoor.

East got off on the right foot last month by setting a school record for points by posting an impressive 215 points at the indoor, with second place finishing with a distant 77 points.

While the second leg wasn’t as dominating, it still did the job as the Spartans moved one step closer to their goal Wednesday afternoon by hosting and winning the GMC Relays (see the full results online at WisSports.net).

“We won the triple crown last year, we’ve got most of the team back and we were sixth at state (last year), so the kids are motivated,” Brookfield East coach Mike Steiner said. “They liked the triple crown last year and they want to be able to say that they did it again but it’s hard to do in our league. This is a high-powered league for track and field.”

While the talent level in the Great Metro Conference is far from lacking, East showed on Wednesday it still is the richest of the rich by posting 124 points. Marquette finished second with 79, while Sussex Hamilton came in just behind the Hilltoppers with 78.

“We have a lot of depth and that’s why we are who we are,” Steiner said. “We have a lot of really talented kids.

“The tradition of our program right now, the kids don’t want to let each other down and they don’t want to let their coaches down. There’s no other way to do it right now and it makes it fun because you know they’re going to bring it when they step on the track.”

That was mighty evident on Wednesday as the Spartans took eight first-place finishes across 15 events. East finished in the top three in five of the other seven events.

The highlight of the day for East came in an event it wasn’t even supposed to win.

In the 4x100 meter relay, an event Hamilton previously held the fastest time for in the state this year, the Spartans surprised even their coach by coming in just ahead of the Chargers in a time of 43.02. Hamilton finished in 43.50, which was still faster than their previous best this year.

Hamilton had a successful day overall and got a bit of revenge from its 4x100 loss in the 4x200 meter relay by posting a conference record time of 1:28.23.

“It was a great day for Hamilton, highlighted by the 4x200,” Charger coach Eric Murray said. “I know the boys were a little shaken up on the 4x100 so they wanted to get back out there.

“I was very happy overall.”

The Chargers finished in the top three of all of the shorter relays, as they took third in the 4x400 with a time of 3:26.05, finishing just behind Brookfield East (3:25.46) and Marquette (3:25.91).

Other area schools also had success on the day as Brookfield Central finished fifth on the day, highlighted by its pole vault performance. Elliott Yanasak and Chris Dubois tied for fourth place with height of 11 feet, six inches. The Lancers also finished second overall in the 800-sprint medley and took third in the distance medley and 4x100 relay.

Wauwatosa East won the 4x1,600 relay and Max Kilpin of East tied Brookfield East's Darius Barnes for the top individual high jump mark at 6 feet, 6 inches.

Menomonee Falls was eighth with 28 points.