STOUGHTON — Monroe’s Kyle Legler returned from an ankle injury and finished 3/10ths of a second away from second-place at the Badger South Conference championship meet Oct. 13.
“Kyle Legler ran a great race …,” Monroe head coach Scott Mosher said. “He’s worked hard all offseason and season and deserves the first-team all-conference honors.”
Legler’s time of 17:02.7 was third to Watertown’s Matthew Engel (17:02.4) and conference champion James Giftos of Monona Grove (16:43.1). Monroe junior Dylan Fahrney was 12th (17:22.5) and earned second-team all-conference honors.
“Dylan Fahrney also raced hard. Both runners kept contact with the lead runners and had strong finishing kicks,” Mosher said.
Monona Grove (24) won the team title with all five of its scoring runners finishing in the top-10. Edgewood (96) was second by a point over Watertown (97). Stoughton (110) was fourth and Monroe (116) was fifth.
“We knew Monona Grove was the top team by quite a bit and then there would be four teams close for the next four spots,” Mosher said. “Twenty points in a cross country meet isn’t so much so it could have easily gone differently. Unfortunately, we weren’t as sharp as we could have been and ended up on the bottom of those four.”
Monroe sophomore Alex Henry finished 27th (18:10.8), while junior Jake Brower (31st, 18:22.9) and senior Brennan Shelton (43rd, 18:38.9) also had a scoring run for the Cheesemakers.
The Badger South championship for the girls was Oct. 12. Monona Grove (37) won the title in a tight race over Stoughton (43). Monroe finished eighth.
Sophomore Jacie Hayes had the best finish for the Cheesemakers with a 28th-place time of 21:47.6. Junior Jazmyn Mader (49th, 22:41.1), senior Elise Smith (56th, 23:34.1), freshman Ellery Bazley (59th, 24:22.0) and senior Maddie Bartelt (60th, 24:29.5) all had scoring runs for Monroe.
“Jacie Hayes was the top girl finisher and continued her strong sophomore year. She was hoping to squeak in a top-16 finish, but the Badger is such a touch conference and it was just out of reach for her,” Mosher said.
Up next for the Cheesemakers is the WIAA Division 2 sectional at River Valley Saturday. Mosher expects McFarland to lead both the boy’s races, so the rest of the field will be vying for that coveted No. 2 spot in order to automatically qualify for state.
“McFarland looks to be the favorite and then Platteville, Edgewood and Dodgeville-Mineral Point are all fighting for the second state berth. Other teams like Mount Horeb and New Glarus-Monticello are also in the mix,” Mosher said. “The boys will have to leave everything they have on the course if they want to advance to state.”
