JANESVILLE — Monroe boys finished 22nd overall as a team and the girls were 32nd at the annual 40-plus team Midwest Invitational Sept. 28.
“The Midwest Invite is one of the largest high school meets you can find, over two times as big as the state meet. There is even a team from Texas and one from Missouri that come to it each year,” Monroe coach Scott Mosher said. “Overall we had a nice meet with some great performances, while also realizing we have to improve our consistency as a team if we want to be competitive at the end of the year.”
Dylan Fahrney had Monroe’s top time in the boys 5-kilometer race, finishing 100th overall with a time of 17 minutes, 31.5 seconds. Oconomowoc’s Alex Vance won boys title at 15:28.8.
“Dylan is starting to get back into race form while recovering from an Achilles injury that occurred during the second week of the season. He’s in great shape because he worked hard during the summer and chose to train through the injury rather than rest. Because of that he’s been able to increase his fitness and he should be primed to finish the season strong,” Mosher said.
The Cheesemakers had a four-pack of runners finish within 13 seconds of each other. Alex Henry was 121st overall with a time of 17:49.2, and freshman teammate Zander Slack broke the 18-minute barrier at 17:55.7. Sophomore Lucas Sathoff also finished under 18 minutes at 17:59.4, and Heath Huschitt was 149th at 18:02.2.
“Freshman Zander Slack and Sophomore Lucas Sathoff, both first year runners for us, broke 18:00 for the first time. Whenever a runner breaks through a minute barrier, they seem to break through a mental barrier as well. Hopefully getting under 18 just opens the floodgates and they keep dropping time,” Mosher said. “Alex Henry had another solid race in 17:49 and Heath Huschitt was just a couple seconds behind the others in 18:02 to round out our top five.
“The strength of the boys team going forward will be their pack running, and just 31 seconds between numbers 1 and 5 is outstanding.”
Darlington’s Willie Riechers was 117th overall (17:46.1), with teammate Rhett Reuter finishing 169th (18:13.0). The Redbirds also received scoring runs from Michael Thompson (217th, 18:54.4), Cristian Gutierrez (221st, 18:57.5) and Caleb Weaver (230th, 19:10.8). Darlington finished 34th in the team standings.
On the girls side, Jacie Hayes again set the team pace with a mark of 20:03.7, which was 32nd overall and less than a second behind Darlington’s Judith Meister, who was 28th. Sun Prairie junior Katie Kopotic won the race at 18:35.5.
“With 42 schools and 238 runners, the majority being top D1 programs, her 32nd-place finish is outstanding,” Mosher said. “She ran a personal best time of 20:03, which I don’t even think Jacie would have thought she could do at the start of the season.
“Beyond the hard work, she is running with so much confidence and guts right now. She wanted to be in the top 40 to earn a medal, and she realized that the best way to do that was to get in the top-40 right from the gun and hold on. She has lofty goals for the rest of the season and is on the right track to achieve them.”
Lauren Coppes (202nd) was the second Monroe runner to cross the finish line at 23:06.3, and Bri Lambert (214th) was right behind at 23:31.8. Jazmyn Mader (224th) finished in 24:08.5, while Ellery Bazley (230th) was at 25:00.1.
“Freshman Lauren Coppes also had a great race. She ran the fourth fastest 5K time for a Monroe freshman. Lauren went out fast and surprised herself that she hung on the entire way. She is just figuring out how to race and no doubt will continue to see lots of improvement,” Mosher said.
Darlington’s girls team was 29th in team score. After Meister, freshman Ashlyn Norgard was 95th (21:16.4), Allyson Meyers was 196th (22:50.6), Maddie Crist 199th (22:58.9) and Morgan Black 207th (23:16.0).
NGM wins Fennimore relays meet
BOSCOBEL — The Glarner Knights boys team took first place at the Golden Eagles Relays, held Sept. 28 at the Ryan Zimpel Memorial Course in Boscobel.
New Glarus-Monticello’s varsity squad of Joe Quaglia (17:26.1), Adam Nelson (17:46.8), Evan Guenther (17:49.5), Conor McCoy (18:20.5) and Tom Nelson (18:26.0) had the best time by over 50 seconds, with West Salem finishing second and Marian Catholic third.
In the girls race, NGM was third behind Lodi and champion Lake Mills.
Annika Ziperski (21:24.5), Tenley Faber (22:23.9), Dayna Karls (23:27.2), Molly Molencamp (23:46.3) and Whitney Disch (25:03.4) all scored for the Glarner Knights.
