MONROE — On a hot and humid day — with heat index temperatures over 100 degrees in the afternoon — the Cheesemakers came out of the first meet of the season looking solid.
The annual Bruess Invitational, held at Twining Park, had its four-race schedule trimmed to just two races, along with a delayed start, in order to allow the temperatures to cool off just a smidgen. When the girls — varsity and JV together — took to the starting line at 5:45, temps had dropped slightly, with the heat index back down to the mid-90s.
Sophomore Braylin Cleary paced the Cheesemakers with a time of 20:32.5, good enough for fourth place overall. Junior Kaylen Cassidy (8th, 22:02.2), senior Nevaeh Huenefeld (9th, 22:13.5), sophomore Annika Folk (12th, 22:28.0) and sophomore Elizabeth Veeder (14th, 22:31.6) all scored for Monroe, which edged Duqubue Wahler by two points — 36-38.
East Dubuque’s Ell Law (20:03.7) was the race champion.
Albany sophomore Emerson Butts (22:29.1) was 13th overall. The Comets were eighth as a team with 208 points.
New Glarus-Monticello was sixth (192) as a team. Freshman Sadie Mitchell finished 28th overall with a time of 24:03.1 and senior Holly Maynard was right behind (29th) at 24:04.8.
On the boys side, East Dubuque (48 points) was the team champion, with Monroe (73) second and Wahlert (78) third. Albany (212) was eighth.
Monroe’s Ace Rossing (17:22.8) and Kamrin Gerber-Reamer (17.25.1) paced the Cheesemakers, finishing ninth and tenth overall. Weston Huntsman (17:42.4) was right behind and 12th overall. Eli Phillips (20th, 18:10.6) and Isaiah Ritschard (26th, 18:31.6) also scored for Monroe.
Albany was led by Kamden Broughton (28th, 18:37.2), with teammates Noah Lisser (30th, 18:45.5), Brooks Wachholz (42nd, 19:31.9), Brodyn Bakken (44th, 19:33.6) and Michael Schwartz (70th, 21:19.6) also scoring.
Finian Hoeper (69th, 21:17.3) led New Glarus-Monticello, which had just four runners in the race, one shy of varsity team scoring.
Monroe and New Glarus-Monticello race again on Saturday, Sept. 5 at the Verona Invitational, while Albany, Belleville and Argyle-Pecatonica will be at the annual Darlington Invitational.
