FENNIMORE — At the SWAL conference cross country meet on Thursday, Oct. 13 in Fennimore, both Albany and Darlington boys and girls finished in the top four.
Boscobel won the girls’ title with 43 points. Its top runner, Nora Jillson, took first overall. The team nabbed the No. 3 spot in the WCCCA poll in Week 7.
Darlington, No. 12 in the WCCCA as of Week 7, finished in second with 57 points. Freshman Adalee Berget led the Redbirds as the second-place finisher overall (19:27.7). Alexis Murray also finished in the top 10 with a time of 21:05.9 (8th). The remaining scorers for Darlington were in the top 20: Piper DuPauw (21:35.7, 14th), Shayla Gould (22:11.9, 16th) and Stella McGowan (22:49.4, 17th).
Albany finished just behind Darlington with 63 points. Its top three runners finished in the top 10: McKenna Broughton (20:08.7, 4th), Ava Ahnen (20:10.8, 6th) and Emerson Briggs (21:19.3, 9th). Linsey Mueller, the Comets’ fourth runner, also finished in the 22nd minute at 21:57.5 (15th). Abby Hollis rounded out the group with her time of 25:43.3 (29th).
In the boys’ race, Iowa-Grant ran away with first (47 points). Their top three runners — Mason Aide, Caden Pennekamp and Bret Connolly — took three of the top five spots. As such, they are ranked No. 2 in the WCCCA poll.
Albany boys, who were ranked No. 12 in the Week 7 WCCCA poll, took third with 68 points. Although Brian Cid (17:28.0, 8th) was the only runner in the top 10, the other four scorers placed in the top 20: Brayden Bakken (17:45.3, 11th), Ethan Koss (17:46.7, 12th), Gage Roth (18:18.7, 18th) and Kaleb Broughton (18:19.3, 19th).
Darlington boys trailed the Comets in fourth with 115 points. George West (16:47.7) led the Redbirds, as he finished third overall. Gerson Soto, Ethan Aird and Liam Lansing came in at the 19-minute mark with times of 18:07.6 (17th), 18:21.0 (20th) and 18:59.2 (30th), respectively. The last scorer, Kane McDermott, finished with a time of 20:11.1 (45th).
Pecatonica/Argyle girls’ and boys’ teams also participated finishing sixth (138 points) and eighth (197 points), respectively. Ridge Toay placed in the top ten in the boys’ race with his time of 17:24.5 (7th).
Albany hosts one of the six Division III sectionals on Friday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22. Darlington and Pecatonica/Argyle will be in attendance.
NEW GLARUS/Monticello GIRLS 1ST, BOYS 1ST
WATERTOWN — The New Glarus/Monticello co-ops took care of business at the Capitol Conference meet on Thursday, Oct. 13, winning both the boys’ and girls’ races.
The girls’ team — which entered the meet ranked No. 8 by the WCCCA poll — totaled just 32 points. The Knights have now won four conference championships.
Lily Maynard led the Knights with her third-place finish (19:19.8), setting a new school record. Ruthie Zuber followed right behind her in fourth (19:26.4). Molly Olson, Melanie Fink and Emma Martinson comprised the second grouping, finishing seventh (19:36.2), eighth (19:37.7) and tenth (19:55.5), respectively.
Lily Maynard, Ruthie Zuber and Molly Olson all made First Team All-Conference, while Melanie Fink, Emma Martinson, Annika Ziperski and Camryn Arnett made Second Team All-Conference.
The boys’ faced more adversity en route to their win, according to head coach Steve Wehrley.
“Our boys were missing our No. 3 man and still beat Belleville by three points. Belleville beat us almost every time we saw them this year. Deerfield/Cambridge was, on paper, the better team, but we ran well, and they didn’t.”
Although the Wildcats had the top runner in Carter Scholey (15:16.5), Tom Nelson came in third (16:08.4) to lead the Knights. NGM’s second and third runners — Tanner Gardner (17:21.7, 7th) and Ian Schwartzlow (17:34.6, 8th) — edged out Belleville’s second runner, Angelo Dohm (17:36.1, 9th). Linden Lounsbury (18:17.9, 14th), the Knights’ fourth runner, also beat Niles Monroe (18:24.0, 15th), the Wildcats’ fourth runner. Although Grayson Rodefeld (18:51.6, 20th) lost the battle of No. 5 runners to Aiden Campbell (18:37.3, 18th), his team still did enough to win.
New Glarus/Monticello will join Monroe in the Prairie du Chien Sectional race.
Rock Valley Conference Meet
The Brodhead/Juda boys finished in the middle of the Rock Valley pack at sixth (166 points). Each scorer finished roughly a minute after each other: Nathan Engen (18:57.7, 12th), Gavin Pinnow (19:36.0, 24th), Jorge Villalva (20:29.7, 34th), Gauge Jorgenson (21:21.1, 41st) and Braden Williams (22:37.5, 55th).
Kalena Riemer led the girls’ team, which finished seventh with 130 points. She placed fifth overall with her time of 21:57.3. Madi Brown came in at 14th (23:00.4), while the next three scorers finished in a pack: Olivia Hartwig (25:05.0, 36th), Lexie Lobeck (25:06.9, 37th) and Emily Welsh (25:08.1, 38th).
Brodhead will travel to Prairie du Chien for its Division 2 Sectional race.
