FENNIMORE — When the times were all added up, the Darlington Redbirds came out ahead of rival Boscobel by the slimmest of margins to capture the boys’ team title at the annual Fennimore Golden Eagles Relays held at the Hickory Grove Golf Course on Friday, Sept. 25.

Running in four different waves of racers, the Redbirds top five finishers posted a combined time of 93:29.9 in the relay format to nip the Bulldogs’ varsity squad by just 1.2 seconds for first-place at the 11-team event. Boscobel was second in 93:31.1, while Dodgeville/Mineral Point was third in 94:23.9 followed closely by Iowa-Grant at 96:24.7 in a highly competitive race. Southwest-Cuba City-Benton was fifth and Albany finished sixth out of the 10-team field.

Sophomore George West finished second overall behind Iowa-Grant senior Nick Connolly (16:56.3) in the first runners race in 17:24.5 to lead the way for the ‘Birds. 

Junior Rhett Reuter was first in the finish line in the second/third runners race in a fourth-place overall time of 17:37.9, while senior Cristian Guitterrez came in second in the fourth/fifth runner race to place third on the team and 14th overall in the boys’ meet in 18:58.0.

Senior Caleb Weaver was 15th overall 18:58.3 and junior Ethan Thompson was 37th overall in 20:31.2 to complete the team scoring and help the Redbirds locked down the title.

“This was an important win for our guys. They found out what they can do if they dig in and believe in themselves,” said Darlington head coach Arnie Miehe.

Jesse Schwartz (19:01.2) led Albany with a 16th-place finish. Gage Roth (19:22.6), Brayden Bakken (20:17.8), Owen Baertschi (21:17.9) and Brian Cid (21:49.5) all scored for Albany.

Pecatonica-Argyle also had three runners in the meet: Davis Tisch (19:07.3) was 18th overall, Ridge Toay (20:15.3) 31st and Brady Penniston (21:31.0) 49th.

The Darlington girls’ cross country team also battled through some tough competition to place third in the girls’ race with a combined time of 111:40.8.

Lancaster won the girls’ team title with a time of 107.22.6 with Lake Mills coming in second at 110:18.8.

Freshman Raquel Reuter placed third in the first runners race and fourth overall in a time of 20:33.7 to lead the Redbirds at Friday’s meet. Five of the top seven finishers in the girls’ varsity race were freshmen.

Junior Judith Meister was sixth in the second/third runners race and 14th overall in 21:41.8 for the ‘Birds, while sophomore Ashlyn Norgard was second overall in the fourth/fifth runners race and 24th overall in 22:43.2.

Freshmen Alexis Murray and Shayla Gould placed 31st in 23:16.2 and 33rd in 23:25.9 to round out the team scoring for the Redbirds on the day.

“We had ladies all the way down the lineup take on the challenging course and run impressive times. They are in the middle of a tight conference race and this gives us a chance to see where we stand right now,” Miehe noted.

Southwestern/Cuba City/Benton sisters Kayci and Hanna Martensen placed 1-2 overall in the girls’ race with Kayci, a junior, winning the first runners race in the top individual time of 18:42.7 and Hanna, a freshman, winning the second/third runners race in 20:03.2.

“It was a good night for both teams. We had runners on both the varsity and junior varsity teams step up and run strong races. Things are starting to take shape and I like how our teams are coming together and running,” stated Miehe. “We still have more work to do, but things are starting to fall in place.”

Albany was fifth as a team and was led by freshman Ava Ahnen (20:40.9), who was sixth. McKenna Broughton (21:13.8), Kaiya Zurfluh (23:30.3), Payton Wacholz (23:39.8) and Emileigh Dallman (24:21.2) all placed for the Comets.

Pecatonica-Argyle’s Emily Zimmerman (30:36.9), Allie Godfrey (30:47.1) and Norah McCarthy (31:25.2) finished 65, 66 and 67.

Next up, Darlington will participate at a triangular meet hosted by Albany High School at Baertschi Farms on Saturday, Oct. 3, starting at 10 a.m. The Redbirds will compete in a triangular at Platteville High School on Tuesday, Oct. 6, starting at 5 p.m.

­— Adam Krebs contributed to this story.