PLATTEVILLE — The Monroe boys’ and girls’ cross country teams took home high finishes in the Dick McKichan Invite at UW-Platteville on Saturday, Oct. 1. The boys finished second (100) behind McFarland (96), while the girls finished third (102) behind Union Grove (97) and winner Dodgeville/Mineral Point (60).
“This is an important end-of-the-year meet for us because we get to see most of the teams from our conference and section, so we can see how we stack up against these teams,” head coach Scott Mosher said. “Both programs showed they can compete against any of the teams we will see and that we at least have a chance to realistically compete for a conference championship and qualify for the state meet.”
Jared Batz led Monroe with a time of 16:53.6 for fifth place overall. This was his second week in a row finishing under 17 minutes. Last week’s 16:47.9 was a personal record.
“We had nearly every boy run a PR last week at Midwest and then had roughly half come back and PR again on Saturday,” Mosher said. “What’s even more incredible is we have boys that are not only improving week to week but we are seeing boys that are running 3-4 minutes faster than last year.”
Tre Dammen, who is on the doorstep of breaking 17 minutes, ran a 17:12.1 for seventh place.
“[Tre] Dammen won the Fastest Freshman award for being the fastest freshman out of all 25 teams,” Mosher said. “He placed 13th overall and 7th in the large school race, showing he belongs with the top runners at conference and sectionals.”
The remaining three scorers for Monroe were Padraic Houston (27th, 18:14.9), Wyatt Stevenson (28th, 18:15.0) and Anthony Wels (33rd, 18:28.6).
On the girls’ end, three freshmen placed in the top five for the Cheesemakers.
Miley Hanson led the team with her time of 20:29.0 (15th). Jadyn Elgin and Mary McKenzie finished one after the other with times of 20:37.5 (18th) and 20:46.9 (19th). McKenzie improved upon her PR performance from last week by 1.5 seconds.
Skye Dickson and Aniyah Jackson-Bey rounded out the top five with times of 20:54.9 (21st) and 21:20.0 (29th). Jackson-Bey hadn’t raced for three weeks due to illness, crushing her PR by nearly a minute.
The Cheesemakers head to Albany for the Baertschi Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 8. It is their last meet before the conference championship at home on Oct. 15.
NGM GIRLS 1ST, BOYS 4TH
Lily Maynard paced the lady Glarner Knights to a first-place finish in the small schools’ race with her time of 20:11.2 (6th). The remaining scorers finished in the top 15, giving NG-Monticello 56 total points: Molly Olson (20:53.1, 10th), Ruthie Zuber (20:59.7, 11th), Melanie Fink (21:21.4, 14th) and Emma Martinson (21:33.7, 15th).
The boys were led by Tom Nelson, who broke the 17-minute mark to take third (16:36.0) Two other racers finished in the top 25 — Tanner Gardner (18: 23.3, 21st) and Jude Rice (18:33.6, 22nd) — while the final two scorers took 41st and 45th, respectively: Ian Schwartzlow (19:36.7) and Grayson Rodefeld (19:43.4). NG-Monticello boys’ team totaled 132 points.
ALBANY BOYS 2ND, GIRLS 4TH
The Comets’ top-three scoring boys all finished in the top 20 en route to a second-place finish. Brayden Bakken led them all (17:45.7, 10th), followed by Ethan Koss (18:03.8, 16th) and Kaleb Broughton (18:16.1, 18th). Brian Cid (19:07.9, 32nd) and Drew Sertle (19:23.9, 34th) rounded out the scorers. The boys’ team finished with 110 points, 69 points behind winner Iowa-Grant.
The girls’ team featured only five runners, led by Mckenna Broughton (20:01.6, 3rd). Ava Ahnen (20:34.1, 8th) also finished in the top ten. Merson Briggs (22:11.6, 20th) and Linsey Mueller (22:43.2, 27th) were the next pair of Comets to finish, while Abby Hollis (25:42.5) rounded out the team. The girls’ collected 108 points.
DARLINGTON GIRLS 3RD, BOYS 6TH
Raquel Reuter (20:07.9, 4th) and Adalee Berget (20:09.1, 5th) finished one right after the other to lead the lady Redbirds to a third-place finish. Alexis Murray (22:29.0, 23rd) and Piper DePauw (22:43.0, 26th) also had strong showings, while Clara Solverson (23:07.8, 30th) rounded out the top five. In total, Darlington scored 88 points.
On the boys’ side, George West paced the Redbirds at 17:26.8 (8th). His teammate Ethan Aird (18:14.8, 17th) came in less than a minute later, while Gerson Soto (18:52.4, 30th), Liam Lansing (19:42.0, 44th) and Kane McDermott (21.17.0, 72nd) trailed further behind. The Redbirds scored 171 points.
BRODHEAD-JUDA GIRLS 5TH, BOYS 12th
After leader Kalena Riemer (21:37.0, 16th), the Cardinals had three runners finish 30-39. Madilyn Arnold paced the group at 23:14.4 (32nd), followed by Olivia Hartwig (23:57.0, 37th) and Madi Brown (24:04.4). Emily Welsh was the fifth runner for Brodhead-Juda at 25:04.2 (43rd). In total, the Cardinals amassed 166 points.
In a tough boys’ field, Nathan Engen led the way for the Cardinals with his time of 18:35.9 (24th). Gavin Pinnow (19:37.6, 42nd) and Jorge Villalva (19:55.6, 49th) finished in the next group for Brodhead-Juda, while Braden Williams (21:32.5, 75th) and Gauge Jorgenson (22:42.3, 87th) rounded out the team’s scorers. They finished with 277 points, seven behind Lancaster in 11th.
