When Elmwood/Plum City track and field head coach Amanda Webb saw 41 athletes on her 2023 roster, it reinforced her belief that the Wolves’ program can compete with Elk Mound and Mondovi at the top of the Dunn-St. Croix Conference this season.

Elmwood/Plum City’s roster is more than double the size of last year’s team that featured just 18 kids and only four girls. Between last summer and this spring, the Wolves have grown exponentially and so too have the expectations for the 2023 campaign.

“Now we have sprinters, we have distance kids and that will help propel our team score to become competitive with Mondovi and Elk Mound,” Webb said. “We can fill a roster a little better now and be more competitive as a team. I’m super excited to see where that brings us.”

In previous seasons, Elmwood/Plum City’s top-end athletes often competed – and occasionally outperformed – those of other Dunn-St. Croix Conference programs. It was the Wolves’ lack of depth that led to stagnation near the middle of the league standings annually.

With returning top-tier talent for the 2023 season including multiple athletes that qualified for state last season, the Wolves’ goals have grown just as quickly as the team. Coach Webb now has unprecedented versatility in terms of competitive roster construction.

“Elk Mound and Mondovi pull from more kids so they have more options to put together their 28 individual entries plus relays, and that’s hard to compete with when they have numbers,” Webb said. “I’m excited that we can be more competitive. With what we had last year, I thought we did well, but I’m excited to see how that can grow for us.”

Despite having less than 20 kids last season, Elmwood/Plum City had six athletes qualify in four events at the 2022 state track and field championships in La Crosse.

Five of the six returned for their senior season this spring including all four girls from the 4x200-meter relay group of Hannah and Izzy Forster, Allyson Fleishauer and Lily Webb.

Senior Trevor Asher also returns for his senior season after making it to La Crosse last season in both the long jump and triple jump events. The only graduating state qualifier is Ethan Rupakus, who made it to La Crosse in the high jump last year.

For coach Webb, the growth of the track and field program is unquestionably linked to the success that her team had last season. When the communities of Elmwood and Plum City rallied in support of the athletes who qualified for state, it generated buzz for the program among kids in the community.

“Last year we went to both Elmwood and Plum City for pep fests before we left for state track,” Webb said. “It generated a lot of excitement for us and I think a lot of kids wanted to learn more about it because of that. We’ve got a lot of kids that chose to come out for track and try new things this year.”

The new athletes will be supplemental to the returning big hitters from last year’s team. Perhaps no group has more attention on it than the aforementioned girls’ 4x200-meter relay, which returns all four of last year’s state qualifiers.

That group is headlined by Hannah Forster, who also finished eighth in the state last season in the 300-meter hurdles. Hannah Forster, the rest of the senior girls and the aforementioned Asher, who qualified in multiple events on the boys’ side will be the athletes to watch this season.

“Our seniors are definitely going to be the kids to watch,” Webb said. “Our four senior girls have made it to state the last two years in the relay. Hannah made it in the hurdles and Trevor has been there in the jumps.”

Elmwood/Plum City’s standout track and field athletes have already excelled in early season indoor competition, and that continued at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls High School Invitational on Thursday, March 30.

The aforementioned 4x400 relay group of Hannah and Izzy Forster, Fleischauer and Hailey Webb, who filled in for Lily Webb, posted a first-place time of 4:42.38. The Wolves’ relay defeated a dozen other teams en route to finishing atop the podium.

Asher also made his presence known, as he was a part of the boys’ 4x400-meter relay that finished third at the UWRF High School Invitational. Their relay group was bested by only two varsity squads from Shakopee, Minn., who competed in the unlimited entry meet.

“The kids that ran the relays – both boys and girls – worked really hard,” Webb said. “We had to make some last-minute changes because some people were out, but kids filled in and gave it 100%. I liked to see their competitive nature. They pulled through and ran really well.”

Izzy Forster made hay in more than just the relay. She also took third in the 200-meter dash, fifth in the long jump and eighth in the 60-meter dash. Fleishauer took 10th in the 200-meter dash while sophomore Tim Bechel took ninth in the boys’ 200-meter.

For coach Webb, seeing the strong performance of the returning veterans supplemented by flashes of excellence from young athletes is a jolt of confidence to the roster and coaching staff.

“Tim Bechel from Plum City, he took ninth in the 200 and he’s just a sophomore who didn’t come out for track last year,” Webb said. “I’m seeing some pockets of good individual things, even from some of the freshmen, and I’m really excited about that.”

Elmwood/Plum City will be back in action at Durand on Tuesday, April 11. Events are slated to begin at 4:30 p.m.