JANESVILLE — A Monroe freshman got her first taste of running with the best of the best in the state, while a Brodhead senior had one last chance to run the race of her life. After the WIAA Alternate Fall cross country championship race May 8 at Blackhawk Golf Club, both runners declared their races a success.

“It felt awesome. I just wanted to go out there with a clear head and see what I could do, and I was really happy with how it went,” said Brodhead-Juda senior Maddy McIntyre.

“I felt pretty good, but that last lap I got a little tired,” said Jadyn Elgin, a Monroe freshman.

McIntyre finished fourth overall with a time of 18:51.7. She outsprinted Oregon sophomore Dasha Vorontsov in the final 200 meters to grab fourth. Vorontsov beat McIntyre by nine seconds a week earlier at the sectional.

“It felt amazing. I’m speechless — just really happy with how it went,” McIntyre said. “I wanted to go out and use everyone here as my first mile pace, because sometimes I go out too hot. It was really getting being able to do that. I love getting all of that competition.”

Middleton junior Lauren Pansegrau won the race with a time of 17:07.3 — a full 80 seconds ahead of second place Genevieve Nashold of Madison West. 

McIntyre said the weather conditions (about 50 degrees, sunny with a light wind) were about as perfect as a runner could ask for.

“You couldn’t have made a better day for this — it was absolutely perfect, no wind — it was just everything you could have wanted,” she said. “I really liked this course — there was just a little uphill, then downhill the rest of the mile. You were really able to let yourself go. That was cool.”

McIntyre now gets the final weeks of the track and field season to compete for the Cardinals. In the fall she’ll suit up for UW-La Crosse.

“It’s amazing to see how much I’ve improved and gotten better. I just can’t wait to continue this in college. I love it,” McIntyre said.

Elgin was 41st overall (20:49.8) and sprinted out ahead of Green Bay Southwest junior Greta Hansen over the final 200 yards.

“I tried not to leave anything out there. I was really tired at the end,” Elgin said.

Normally at the start of the race Elgin gets out to the front, but at the state meet, all of the runners are fast. She instead started in the back third of the runners over the first 1,000-meters, then found her pace and started making up ground.

“At the start there were so many people packed together I thought I would hit someone with my spikes, but I did like the energy,” Elgin said. 

With about 1,000-meters left, Elgin kicked it into gear, catching the group in front of her that she had been chasing all race. 

“There were a group of kids that got out passed me, and I wanted to catch up with them,” Elgin said.

Now that she has had a chance to race at state, she said she has added expectations for herself moving forward.

“I had a great season and I am really proud of myself,” Elgin said. “I think next year I will try to break 20 — that’s my goal. I’ll train all summer and during track. I feel like if I do that, I can have a good season this fall.”

Monroe coach Scott Mosher said that with the state meet in the spring, it meant Elgin was able to practice with a lot more faces than state runners normally would.

“Typically when a runner qualifies for State they get a ton of attention from coaches during practice because they are the only ones left,” Mosher said. “This was different because of Track going on at the same time. Jadyn was running workouts with probably 100 kids on the track when we account for the high school and middle school track programs. But she kept her focus and had a great week leading up to Saturday.”

Mosher said he was impressed with how Elgin matured over the short season. While the coaching staff understood she had the talent to reach the state meet, competing in small duals over during a short season shrunk the amount of top-end competition she could compete against, as well as the experience with running in such a large mass of people.

“For a freshman who only ran in small meets all season we wanted to make sure she was prepared for the larger race with tougher competition. She ran like a veteran,” Mosher said. “One of the biggest mistakes runners make at the state meet is starting too fast from all the adrenaline. She went out faster than normal, but under control. Jadyn didn’t panic and moved up nicely throughout. She finished with a personal best time of 20:49, which is the 3rd fastest freshman time ever from Monroe and a 38 second improvement. Nothing compares to race experience in regards to learning how to compete, and I think this weekend will propel Jadyn to the next level as she continues her running career.”