NEW GLARUS — The New Glarus-Monticello boys cross country team returns to the WIAA state meet for the first time in two years and fifth time overall. In 2017, the Glarner Knights ran in Division 3, while the squad will race in Division 2 this year. 

The program also saw state appearances in 1995 (Division 3), 2001 (Division 3) and 2009 (Division 2). The Knights have never finished higher than seventh as a team.

Leading the charge for NGM is senior Adam Nelson, who has routinely been either the top or runner-up finisher for his team in nearly every race for the last three years. At the Oct. 26 sectional meet in Spring Green, Nelson was sixth on his team.

The rest of the Knights are young — three juniors, two sophomores and a freshman.

Junior Joe Quaglia was the first Knight across the finish line at the sectional meet with a time of 17:35.7. Sophomores Evan Guenther (17:37.4) and Braylon Hoesly (17:48.5) followed, with junior Conor McCoy (17:59), freshman Tom Nelson (18:02.3) and junior Ty Ready (18:20.1) all finishing in the top 35 of the 105 runners at sectionals.

Two years ago, at the 2017 state meet, McCoy, a freshman at the time, was the first Knight to cross the finish line (18:01.45), taking 71st place overall. Adam Nelson, a sophomore that year, was 101st, while Quaglia was 134th and Ready 137th. Now-senior Garrett Grossen and junior Rudy Wicker also ran in that race.

Since the state meet in 2017, Quaglia has cut the most time, trimming nearly two minutes. Ready has dropped about 77 seconds and Adam Nelson 33 seconds. McCoy’s sectional race was about two seconds faster than his state time in 2017.

Of the qualifying teams, Freedom and Shorewood each had an average finishing time per scoring runner of under 17 minutes. New Glarus-Monticello and Mount Horeb, the two schools from the Spring Green sectional, were at 17:45 and 17:48, respectively.