WISCONSIN RAPIDS — Both Monroe’s boys and girls cross country teams placed in the top seven at the WIAA Division 2 state meet on Saturday, October 31 at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids. The boys finished sixth as a team, one point behind Fort Atkinson, while the girls were seventh, tied with Lakeland Union.
Campbellsport was the boys team champion, scoring a 102 points — including individual champion, senior Garrett Pickering (15:31.1). Second place as a team was McFarland (132), which finished behind Monroe at the sectional a week ago. Lakeland Union was third (145), followed by Notre Dame (176), Fort Atkinson (192), Monroe (193) and Watertown Luther Prep (197).
Senior Kamrin Gerber-Reamer paced Monroe with a 28th overall finish (16:43.3). Also scoring for the Cheesemakers were sophomore Ace Rossing (51st, 17:10.3), senior Eli Phillips (81st, 17:34.9), junior Weston Huntsman (87th, 17:38.4) and junior Landon Smith (92nd, 17:43.0). Freshman Isaiah Ritschard (97th, 17:47.2) and senior Lukas Gerber (115th, 18:14.7) also participated in the 151-person race.
On the girls side, New Berlin Eisenhower was the team champion in Division 2, scoring 87 points. Behind Ike was Kettle Moraine Lutheran (99), Notre Dame (132), McFarland (152), Winneconne (164), Aquinas (179) and then Monroe and Lakeland (184). Monroe finished ahead of McFarland at the sectional a week prior. Amery junior Macie Boe was the D2 champion with a time of 18:20.1, two and a half seconds better than Prescott senior Kyra Dix.
Sophomore Braylin Clearly was Monroe’s top runner, finishing the course 34th overall with a time of 20:08.2. Senior Nevaeh Huenefeld was next at 52nd (20:23.8). Junior Alivia Mosher (73rd, 20:49.0), senior Maryella Green (77th, 20:53.1) and senior Lyla Ritschard (96th, 21:17.5) all scored for the Cheesemakers. Junior Kaylen Cassidy (106th, 21:31.7) and Elizabeth Veeder (127th, 22:18.4) also ran for Monroe.
Also running in the Division 2 girls race was Darlington sophomore Alaina McGowan. She finished 16th overall with a time of 19:18.2.
Division 3
Albany’s boys team scored a 12th place team finish among the 16 qualifying teams. Marathon (102) was the state champion, finishing just ahead of Brookwood (108).
Senior Noah Lisser was the leading Comet, finishing 35th overall with a time of 17:19.1, a tenth of a second ahead of Howards Grove’s Liam Beiersdorf. Also running for Albany were juniors Brooks Wachholz (87th, 18:10.4), Kamden Broughton (92nd, 18:22.2) and Brodyn Bakken (106th, 18:49.4), as well as sophomore Michael Schwartz (132nd, 19:35.8) and freshmen Merrick Vozka (122nd, 19:18.0) and Aaron Alexander (123rd, 19:18.6).
Darlington senior Marcus Kendall ran as an individual, placing 52nd overall with a time of 17:30.2. Three Lakes/Phelps senior Nolan Waltz was the individual champion with a time of 15:58.2.
On the girls side, Belleville sophomore Kate Hendrickson was 48th overall (20:47.1). Southwestern sophomore Mackenzie Knuckey (18:49.4) was the individual champion. As a team, Southwestern won it all, scoring 112 points, just ahead of Phillips (120) and Lomira (126).
