MONROE — The Monroe Cheesemakers took advantage of racing at home by winning both the boys’ and girls’ Badger West conference titles on Saturday, Oct. 15. With football’s win the night previous, Monroe earned three conference championships in less than 24 hours.
“We set this as a goal for over a year now, as things fell into place to be a special day,” Monroe head coach Scott Mosher said. “This is Monroe’s final year in the Badger Conference, so we wanted to go out on top.”
Heading into the day, the girls’ team was ranked No. 11 in the WCCCA Week 7 poll. They proved their rank by taking first (43 points), despite not having a single runner in the top five. Rather, the top three runners all finished in a pack at six, seven and eight. Mary McKenzie led them with a time of 20:48.0, followed by Jadyn Elgin at 20:48.2 and Miley Hanson at 20:54.2.
The remaining two scorers — Aniyah Jackson-Bey and Skye Dickson — finished in the top 12 with times of 20:58.5 (10th) and 21:20.0 (12th), respectively.
“What makes the team so special and unique is we don’t have a runner who is our clear No. 1,” Mosher said. “We had all five finish within 32 seconds of each other. When they came across the line in that pack, we knew they scored low enough to win.”
The girls set the tone for the boys, who also took home first with 47 points.
“Following the girls’ race, there was a ton of energy and excitement boys’ [race],” Mosher said. “They used that to bring home the second championship of the day.”
The Cheesemakers finished in packs again, with the first group consisting of Jared Batz (17:17.3, 4th), Tre Dammen (17:27.7, 5th) and Anthony Wels (18:05.6, 9th). Wyatt Stevenson Padriac Houston came in together at 18:23.9 (14th) and 18:29.2 (15th), respectively.
Mount Horeb had the top runners in both the boys’ and girls’ races — Abigail Sadler and Joseph Stoddard — but finished third in team standings.
All 10 scorers from Monroe earned All-Conference accolades. Mary McKenzie, Jadyn Elgin, Miley Hanson, Jared Batz and Tre Dammen made first team, while Aniyah Jackson-Bey, Sky Dickson, Anthony Wels, Wyatt Stevenson and Padriac Houston qualified for second team.
Monroe travels to Prairie du Chien for its sectional race on Friday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22.
