DARLINGTON — As Arnie Miehe enters his 39th year in charge of the Redbirds cross country team, it will resemble a season unlike any other. With the COVID-19 pandemic altering school and sports scheduling across the world, Darlington is not unaffected.
The delayed start to the season pushed the team’s home invitational back, and other major meets like the Midwest invitational in Janesville and the Wisconsin Rapids meet at the state championship course have been canceled altogether.
“You gotta do what you gotta do, right?” Miehe said. “We hope all goes well and we have a complete season.”
The boys team had its 11-year run as SWAL champions snapped a season ago, when the Redbirds placed third. The team finished with the same result at the sectional and missed the state meet for the first time in a dozen years.
Three key runners from the boys team graduated — Willie Riechers, Bailey Schwartz and Ross Zimmerman. Five seniors are back this season, along with four juniors and a sophomore. Three freshmen enter the fray in 2020.
“We are lacking depth, and so we need to have guys step up and fill positions for us to be in the hunt at the conference and sectional meet,” Miehe said. “We want to be competitive at the conference and sectional meet, and in order to do that, we will have to keep the gap between our first and fifth runners at a minimum.”
Rhett Reuter, a junior, is a two-time all-conference runner and was the team’s MVP last season. George West was all-conference as a freshman a year ago, and seniors Cristian Gutierrez, Michael Thompson, Caleb Weaver, and juniors Luis Rios and Ethan Thompson each have varsity running experience.
“We have a group of runners who are running with a high level of purpose and dedication. We have to keep adding to that group to get the job done,” Miehe said. “Boscobel and Iowa-Grant return the majority of their varsity teams from a year ago to make the conference meet tough, and they will be joined by Poynette to make qualifying for state from the sectional meet a challenging task.”
On the girls side, four-year letterwinners Maddie Crist and Gracie Douglas graduated from the 2019 state bound team, as well as three-year varsity runner Aliyah Gould.
Returning for the Redbirds will be seniors Morgan Black and Brook Douglas, both of whom have run varsity since their freshmen year. Twice Black has received all-conference honors. Another senior, Elliana Ruiz, was an alternate on the 2019 state squad.
Seniors Xandria Olson and Layla McDermott, and juniors Judith Meister and Allyson Meyers also return, each with two years experience running with the varsity squad. Meister was the team MVP a season ago and finished 33rd overall at the state meet. Meister and Meyers are also two-time all-conference runners. Another all-conference runner returns in sophomore Ashlynn Norgard.
Miehe said his squad graduated dedicated runners that provided strong leadership, but that he has a good mix of experienced runners returning, as well as an incoming freshman class that is dedicated and filled with talent.
The SWAL will be tough this year, Miehe said, with Boscobel returning its top seven runners from 2019 and Albany back with its top five.
“Those teams will be joined by powerhouse Lancaster and Poynette at the sectional meet, which will make qualifying for state a difficult task. The top 10 individual place winners from last year’s conference and sectional meets all return, making both meets very competitive,” Miehe said.
The Redbirds hope to be in the mix at both meets, but Miehe said his team will likely have to dip into its youth at some point to close out strong.
“Our young runners will have to pull together with the experienced gals and not put a limit on what they can achieve individually and together as a team,” Miehe said. “We have the potential to run well, but we will have to be all-in and pull together to make good things happen. Having a strong work ethic will be a key to the level of success we have. I’m interested to see how it all comes together.”
