SPRING GREEN — Monroe boys finished ninth in the large school division at the River Valley Invitational Sept. 14, while New Glarus-Monticello was sixth.

“We also had some great time performances but didn’t quite compete as well as a team as hoped,” Monroe coach Scott Mosher said. “The top competition for sectionals was at this meet so it was a goal to beat those teams, but they came up a little short. However, we showed that on a less than average day competing we are still within striking distance.”

Adam Nelson of New Glarus was 22nd in scoring with a time of 17 minutes, 37.5 seconds. Joe Quaglia was 27th (17:44.3) and freshman Tom Nelson (31st) also finished under 18 minutes (17:51.6). Evan Guenther and Conor McCoy each finished in under 18:30.

Monroe was led by freshman Zander Slack, who was 38th at 18:01.6. 

“Zander Slack showed that he is a fierce competitor, as well as a pretty good runner. When our top guys started falling off, Zander had a look of pure determination to finish strong,” Mosher said. “Before the race the coaches talked about how it takes a pretty special freshman to break 18:00, and Zander nearly did it. With his work ethic and determination it’s just a matter of time.”

Junior Alex Henry was 41st in scoring with a time of 18:06.6, with senior Dylan Fahrney one spot behind at 18:08.3. Sophomore’s Heath Huschitt (18:19.2) and Lucas Sathoff (18:39.9) both scored for the Cheesemakers.

“Heath Huschitt also ran a lifetime best, in similar fashion by finishing strong the last mile.  He’s been dealing with an abdominal strain but he fought through obvious pain the last half of the race to be our 4th runner,” Mosher said.

In the boys small division race, Darlington was second as a team behind Boscobel, while Pecatonica-Argyle was 10th and Albany 15th. 

Darlington sophomore Rhett Reuter was sixth, finishing at 17:57.9.  Willie Riechers was 10th (18:14.2) and George West (18:33.9) and Michael Thompson (18:57.2) also finished under 19 minutes.

Payton Flannery of Pecatonica Argyle was 31st in scoring at 19:07.5, while teammate David Tisch was right behind him at the finish line (19:08.2).

Albany’s Gage Roth was 38th in scoring (19:32), while Jesse Schwartz was 48th (19:51.3).

In the girls large school race, Monroe’s Jacie Hayes finished third overall with a time of 20:31.0 in the 5K race. 

“Jacie Hayes continued her strong season by placing third overall and breaking her lifetime best by 25 seconds. When you’re running as fast as Jacie it’s difficult to take off a lot of time, so 25 is very impressive,” Mosher said. “Jacie took herself from being a pretty good runner to being one of the top runners with a chance to qualify for the state meet. Ten teams from our sectional were at this meet, so racing as well as she did not only shows she can run with the competition but also that she’s on track to beat her competition at sectionals.”

Jazmyn Mader was 53rd (22:58), Sierra McGuire 60th (23:10.7) and Ellery Bazley 77th (23:59.4).

“We had many girls take significant time off their season bests,” Mosher said. “Jazmyn Mader made up her mind to get back to last year’s times after a slow start to the season by running nearly 2 minutes faster than her last race. Ellery Bazley had a great week of practice and showed the toughness in the race to run a lifetime PR. Sierra McGuire has been dealing with an ankle injury since this summer but showed her toughness by running through the pain for a really good time.”

Monroe didn’t place as a team, as No. 5 runner Bre Lambert couldn’t finish the race after a coach forced her to stop for health reasons. 

“Bre Lambert, while not finishing the race because of health reasons, showed her mental toughness by refusing to give up until being forced to stop,” said Mosher, who added that freshman Lauren Coppes shaved nearly four minutes off of her time in the junior varsity race to earn a varsity roster spot. “It was so exciting watching her (Coppes) attack the course from the start and never let up. She had a huge smile afterwards and earned herself a spot on the varsity team.”

New Glarus was 11th as a team. Annika Ziperski was 19th in scoring (21:43.5), while Tenley Faber was 37th, Dayna Karls 55th and Whitney Disch 77th.

In the small division, Darlington was second, just four points off the pace of meet champion Lancaster. Judith Meister was third (20:38.1), while Ashlyn Norgard (13th), Morgan Black (18th), Maddie Crist (24th) and Allyson Meyers (27th) were all top-30 finishers.

Albany was tied with Brookwood in third place with 113 points overall. Linsey Mueller was eighth (21.17.1), just two seconds ahead of teammate McKenna Broughton, who was ninth. Kaiya Zurfluh, Emileigh Dallman and Kristin O’Bel all finished 36th or better for the Comets.

Lexi Peterson finished 44th to pace Pecatonica-Argyle, while teammate Val Car was 47th.