SPRING GREEN — Brodhead-Juda junior Madelynn McIntyre qualified for the state cross country meet for the third season in a row.

“I love going to state,” said McIntyre, who was second overall with a time of 19 minutes, 30.8 seconds at the Oct. 26 WIAA Division 2 sectional hosted by River Valley. “It’s really cool, because there are people watching the whole way so you are constantly getting pushed, even if it’s not your own teammates. It’s something special.”

She was able to fend off Platteville’s Brittani Meis (19:35.1) and River Valley’s Madison Krey (19:50.8), both of which earned a trip to the state meet as third and fourth place finishers. Sophomore Kayci Martensen of Southwestern-Cuba City won the race (18:28.5), finishing ahead of McIntyre by over a minute.

“I really wanted to beat this one girl, because we’ve been battling all season. I was able to pull away at the end, so that was nice,” McIntrye said.

McIntyre’s sectional time was slightly faster than her 13th-place mark at state last year (19:31.8), and more than 40 seconds better than her freshman year mark of 20:09.60, which placed her 20th in the D2 field.

“I felt like I ran really well. I just kept pushing. I just want to keep improving when I get (to state),” McIntrye said.

The speedy runner said that experiences from past races on the state course should help her again this year.

“With all the experience, I know not to worry about it too much — there’s so many people that you’ll do good no matter what. It just means something to get there,” McIntyre said.

Monroe junior Jacie Hayes had aspirations to run at the Nov. 2 state meet in Wisconsin Rapids, but her time of 20:53.1 was 47 seconds shy of the qualifying mark.

“We were hoping to see Jacie Hayes qualify for the state meet and unfortunately that didn’t happen,” said Monroe coach Scott Mosher. 

Hayes had a difficult week leading up to the sectional. She rolled her ankle in gym class on Wednesday, then on Friday developed a head cold and wasn’t able to practice due to a scheduling conflict.

“Despite these things she put up a strong fight and kept herself in contention for as long as possible,” Mosher said. “Even though she ended her season on a down note, Jacie had a fantastic year, highlighted by being 1st team all-conference the week prior and breaking 20:00, improving by nearly a minute from her sophomore season.”

Finishing one spot behind Hayes was New Glarus-Monticello freshman Annika Ziperski (20:55.6). 

Monroe finished 10th as a team with 241 points, one spot ahead of New Glarus-Monticello (257). Brodhead-Juda was eighth (223). McFarland (74) was the team champion of the sectional, and Mount Horeb (92) took second and qualified for state.

“For the girls we had a team goal to be in the top 10, which we accomplished,” said Mosher. “The girls ran near season best times, and some personal bests. We had only three returning runners from last year so it was exciting to see the improvements they all made from the beginning of the year.”

Following Hayes for Monroe was sophomore Sierra McGuire (46th, 22:29.0), senior Jazmyn Mader (57th, 22:46.4), sophomore Bre Lambert (61st, 22:58.9) and freshmen Lauren Coppes (66th, 23:16.8) and Jenna Brower (93rd, 25:41.6).

For Brodhead-Juda, sophomore Presleigh Arnold finished 28th (21:38.9), Anna Skoumal was 43rd (22:20.0), senior Carisa Purdue 68th (23:35.2) and freshman Gabi Ryser 82nd (24:37.0). Freshman Lexie Lobeck (86th, 24:57.2) and sophomore Elli Riemer (90th, 25:24.2) ran for the Cardinals but did not score.

“The weather was perfect, and we were really excited to get out on the course. It went really well for us,” McIntrye said.

New Glarus sophomore Dayna Karls (54th, 22:39.5) was in the front of the pack of Knights that finished behind Ziperski. Freshmen Tenley Faber (62nd, 23:00.9) and Whitney Disch (64th, 23:02.7) and senior Molly Molencamp (65th, 23:04.6) all finished within steps of each other. Juniors Alexa Thayer (26:40/5) and Dylan Noll (29:53.6) ran but did not score.

Division 3

BOSCOBEL — Darlington reached the state meet as a team thanks to a collective stellar performance. Of the five scoring Redbirds, just one is a senior — No. 5 runner Maddie Crist, who finished 40th overall with a time of 22:42.9 at the Oct. 26 Boscobel Sectional.

Sophomore Judith Meister led the way with a time of 20:14.1, which was fifth-best in the meet. Freshman Ashlyn Norgard was the second Darlington runner to cross the finish line (14th, 21:02.8), right ahead of junior teammate Morgan Black (15th, 21:13.2). Sophomore Allyson Meyers was 21st (21:36.4). Junior Brooke Douglas (45th, 22:46.9) and senior Gracie Douglas (57th, 23:45.3) ran but didn’t score for the Redbirds.

Darlington was second as a team with 83 points, just behind sectional champion Lancaster (80). Host Boscobel was third (95), followed by Poynette (105) and Albany (116).

Comet freshmen Linsey Mueller (10th, 20:50.6) and McKenna Broughton (12th, 20:59.0) were within striking distance of being state qualifiers. Boscobel’s Abri Brown was the last individual qualifier with an 8th-place time of 20:28.0.

Albany sophomore Kaiya Zurfluh was 27th overall (21:56.7), sophomore teammate Payton Wachholz was 38th (22:41.5) and senior Kristin O’Bel finished 48th (23:01.8). Sophomore Emily Dallman (67th, 24:20.0) and senior Kaleigh Dallman (74th, 24:47.8) ran but didn’t score for the Comets.

Senior Val Carr was the first Pecatonica-Argyle runner to cross the finish line, finishing 79th overall (25:16.1). Junior Allie Godfrey was 95th overall (27:15.2), with junior teammate Sydney Webster one second and one place behind her. Emily Zimmerman was 102nd overall (27:49.0), two spots ahead of freshman Noah McCarthy (104nd, 28:02.3).