ALBANY — When Darlington had to drop out of an Oct. 3 four-team meet at 3 Baertschi Farm, the host Comets needed to adjust their strategies, which meant trying to stay mentally focused and closing the gaps between runners.

After COVID-19 reached the halls of Darlington High School, the school canceled all sports indefinitely Oct. 2, the day before the race.

“It was a whole different situation with the whole Darlington issue,” said Tony Brewer, Albany’s coach. “I talked to (Darlington coach) Arnie Miehe yesterday, and he’s just, you know, he’s helpless. You don’t know what you can do.”

McKenna Broughton won the girls race by more than two minutes, finishing with a time of 20:51. The Albany sophomore understands how hard she has to work during the current stretch of the season.

“I felt very, very good today. I was a little sore earlier in the week, but today I just felt very prepared and pretty excited to run,” Broughton said. “I knew where I wanted to set myself and pace myself. I kind of learned how to attack the hills and how to keep my pace and not losing all of my power by the end. I just really wanted to finish harder this race.”

Orfordville Parkview’s Paige Valley (23:07) was the second finisher in the girls race. The next six finishers were all Comets.

Payton Wachholz (23:11) was third overall, and Linsey Mueller (23:29) was fourth. Avary Briggs (23:37) finished fifth, Kaiya Zurfluh (23:49) sixth and Emileigh Dallman (23:56) was seventh.

“We still have a big gap between McKenna and Payton, but I thought the other gap from Payton down to Emily were good,” Brewer said.

Parkview runners took the next five spots, while Pecatonica-Argyle runners occupied spots 13-16.

“I’m really impressed with the way my ladies are running. Allie Godfrey and Emily Zimmerman have really picked it up lately and shaved a couple of minutes off their times,” said Jason Klocek, Pec-Argyle’s coach.

Allie Godfrey led the Vikings, finishing at 28:31, one second ahead of teammate Emily Zimmerman. Sydney Webster (30:24) and Norah McCarthy (30:53) capped the race, which combines hills, short grass and sloppy, muddy terrain along Allen Creek north of Dunphy Road.

“It’s a beautiful day and Albany is a nice course,” Klocek said. “It’s great to be out here competing. With all the things going on, we’re just happy to be able to compete.”

In the boys race, Parkview’s Avery Crane (18:18) finished first overall, with Albany’s Gage Roth (18:33) and Jesse Schwartz (18:48) finishing second and third.

“We have been practicing here (Baertschi) pretty much all the time. Every week we have a meet here, we practice here the whole week. We practice the hills and the course, and that helps improve our times significantly,” said Roth, who added that after the last race at the Baertschi farm two weeks earlier, he lost his breakfast after the race. “This time it was much different — much easier. At the end of the race, there was no puke this time. I was barely winded. It was very nice this time around.”

Pec-Argyle’s David Tisch (19:29) and Ridge Toay (19:45) were fourth and fifth, respectively, followed by Albany’s Brayden Bakken (19:52).

“David Tisch and Ridge Toay are starting to come into their own. They didn’t really have the best run today, but I think that is a little bit of carryover from the last race,” Klocek said. “We’re coming off from a race we had on Thursday, so our guys are maybe a little banged up or tired from that one, but overall, I think there are a lot of things to build off of.”

Albany’s Brian Cid (20:49) and Drew Sertle (20:53) were eighth and ninth overall, and Andy Gertsch (22:35) was 15th.

“I thought the boys were great. They are really coming on,” Brewer said. “Gage looked strong again. Brayden, our freshman, broke 20 (minutes). I think Brayden, Brian and Drew all PRed today. Andy was one of those in quarantine for two weeks and this is his first week back and he did well. There is definitely momentum there on the boys side, and hopefully it just keeps going.”

Pec-Argyle’s Brady Penniston (21:02) was 11th, while Nathan Nickels (22:20) was 14th and Caden Stoeger (22:46) was 17th. 

Pec-Argyle is in the middle of a tough stretch. The Vikings ran at Boscobel two days before Albany, then have to run at Iowa-Grant and Riverdale this week — a total of four races in just 10 days’ time.

“Typically we don’t have that kind of stretch,” Klocek said. “We’ve just got to take it one day at a time and approach practice like it could be our last. We need to make sure we are fine-tuning what we need to and hitting the weight room hard. By the time we get to the conference meet and the postseason, everything will start to pay off for us.”

Albany, meanwhile, is off until the conference meet Oct. 15. Brewer & Co. are hoping that gives some runners needed time to heal from injuries — like Mueller, who is nursing a calf strain, and freshman sensation Ava Ahnen, the girls team’s leading runner, who was unable to race due to a leg injury.

“(Ava) ran hard at Fennimore and came back this Monday and was in a lot of pain. We are trying to rest her for hopefully a few more days,” Brewer said.

After the conference meet, Albany will host its third race of the year — the WIAA subsectional.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WIAA decided to hold subsectional races, where only qualifying runners will advance to the sectional four days later. The idea is that fewer teams and runners will be in close proximity and competing at both races.

“Not only is it going to be a subsectional race, it will be home, so it will be the third race at home. That’s going to be kind of cool,” Brewer said.