WELLS &045; The best performance of the year came at the right time for the United South Central/Alden-Conger track and field teams.

The Rebel girls advanced to the True Team state meet by winning the section championship on the Wells track Tuesday. The boys were second by a mere seven points.

“The boys still have an outside chance of advancing to the state meet,” said Rebels coach Kent Viesselman. “I’d say our chances of advancing as the wild card aren’t real good, but whether we do or not, I couldn’t be prouder of the way our guys have come along this season and how they competed in the section meet.”

The girls were impressive in defeating Maple River and Minnesota Valley Lutheran.

“Both those teams are very strong,” said Viesselman. &uot;Both are experienced veteran teams who came into the meet fully expecting to win.”

The strongest event for the Rebels was the triple jump, where Becca Bryson and Kallie Rollenhagen went 1-2 to get the Rebels off to a good start.

The hurdle events were also a strength with Ciara Christenson and Kim Staloch going 1-8 in both the 100-meter highs and the 300 intermediates.

“I don’t like to pick one or two events or individuals as being the most important,” said Viesselman. “This was really a solid team effort. Everyone did their job. There were no mental errors, and everyone in the lineup either turned in their best performance or was very close to it. But, I do feel that a real key for us was the performance of our relay teams. All four of them finished in the top three, with the 4×200 upsetting Maple River for the win, the 4×400 finishing second, and the 4×800 and 4×100 both finishing third. The important thing was, that only in the 4×100 did a contending team finish ahead of us in a relay.”

The boys finished second to a solid team from MVL.

“The boys have really been fun to watch,” said Viesselman. “Based on what was coming back from last year’s section meet, where we finished fourth, LCWM/N should have beaten us by over 100 points. But our kids have just kept working hard and improving every week.”

As expected USC/AC scored well in the long sprints and distances. Other strong events included the throws and the pole vault.

“Winning the 4×400 and the 4×800 was also very big for us,” said Viesselman. “Those guys just keep getting better every week. Brad Tomschin had a great day for us, dropping seven seconds in the 1600 to get third in that event, winning the 800 in a personal-best 2:02, and anchoring the winning 4×400 team. I think another key for us has been the rapid improvement of Amos Bessler and Spencer Niebuhr in the hurdle events. They started from scratch about a month into the season and have shown consistent improvement.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our kids, both the boys and the girls. They really compete. All of them give it everything they’ve got, every time out. Here again, I don’t like to single out individuals in such an outstanding team performance, but anyone who missed Andrea’s anchor leg in the 4 x200, Brad’s performance in the 800, or both boys’ and girls’ 4×400 teams really missed something.”

The girls’ team will compete in the True Team state meet Saturday, May 21 at Blaine’s National Sports Center. The first event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.