MONROE — The Cheesemakers held their second dual of the short alternative fall cross country season April 3 against Stoughton at Twining Park. The girls team received a boost with multiple runners making their first appearance of the season, while the boys saw improvement in pack running.

In the boys race, Monroe was a bit short-handed, competing with just six runners — one of which is recovering from an injury.

Heath Huschitt, recovering from an offseason ankle injury, finished fourth overall with a time of 19:04.4.

“He hasn’t done much in terms of training the last 3 weeks, so I was happy just to see him racing again,” Monroe coach Scott Mosher said after the sunny, 67-degree race day. “The three runners from Stoughton that were ahead of Heath were each all-conference runners last year, and other than the kid who took first, I think Heath can run with the other two.”

With being shorthanded, Mosher set up a goal for the rest of his runners in order to compete with Stoughton. Mosher wanted his top four competitors to finished ahead of the top five of Stoughton. Lucas Sathoff (19:32.3) and Jared Batz (19:45.8) finished sixth and seventh. Zander Slack came in ninth (20:06.8), while AJ Fuchs (26:58.0) and Santos Tinoco-Lobato (29:52.1) were 12th and 13th in varsity scoring.

“Zander was our fourth runner and was just a couple seconds behind Stoughton’s fifth man,” Mosher said. “AJ Fuchs also won his personal goal of improving from his previous race, and he did so by over a minute.”

On the girls side, both team’s top-five runners finished tied at 25 points, with Monroe scoring better with its No. 6 and 7 runners (10th and 11th place). The Cheesemakers are still without multiple members of the team, including senior Jacie Hayes, due to spring break.

Of those running, Monroe freshman Jadyn Elgin continued to turn heads, winning the race by more than a minute at 22:26.5. 

“Jadyn Elgin had another strong showing,” Mosher said. “We’ve had two meets so far and she’s won both, and while doing so she beat a couple of all-conference runners from both Stoughton and Monona Grove. She’s also run these races alone, for the most part.”

Elgin started running at a young age, doing trail races by the time she was 10. She has been pleased with her adjustment to the distance of a high school varsity compared to middle school.

“We do a lot longer practices, which I feel like that’s helping me, too, because then it feels a lot easier to just do three miles — in middle school we did about two miles,” Elgin said. “The older girls push me a lot harder, too, which also helps.”

Elgin said that when the varsity squad is back to a full lineup, the Cheesemakers will make competition that much more interesting. 

“I feel like we’re going to have a real strong team and they are going to push me even more,” Elgin said.

Alyssa Roelli was the second Cheesemaker to cross the finish line, and fourth runner overall, with a time of 24:09.1 in her first varsity race. 

“My biggest takeaway from her race isn’t how she finished, it’s how she started. She went out hard from the gun and was in second place just a few steps behind Jadyn through the mile. She faded a little after that and I think that can be contributed to her legs not being in ‘running’ shape,” Mosher said. “She’s in great shape from all the swimming she did over the winter, but swimming conditioning is different from running conditioning. After a few more practices and races we will see some huge improvements in time.  Considering how well she ran, that’s pretty exciting stuff.”

For the past two seasons Roelli was a member of the swimming team, reaching state as a sophomore. However, her success in track and field gave her the confidence to try something new.

“With how track went my freshman year, I felt like I had more potential in running. In quarantine I just started running more because I couldn’t swim — the pools weren’t open,” Roelli said. “I truly love running more, and I wanted to see how cross country would go, because I haven’t done it since middle school.”

Roelli said she’s loved practices so far and is excited to compete in more meets, especially now that she has the first one out of the way. She also learned a lot about herself while running, including one key element she can do better with.

“I need to work on just what I am saying to myself during the race — making sure that it’s positive. During the rough parts, like up the hills, I was getting really unmotivated and tired, and I need to just keep being positive,” Roelli said. “I know that I can do better.”

Monroe’s run of youth had freshman Katrina Sathoff take fifth overall (24:34.5), with freshmen Skye Dickson (25:53.4) and Marlies Brandli (25:58.5) go 7-8 overall. 

“We had three freshman in our top five scorers,” Mosher said of Sathoff, Dickson and Brandli. While Sathoff and Brandli ran a week ago, this was Dickson’s first race of the year, and Mosher had an optimistic takeaway. “She looked fearless out on the course. Some runners shy away their first race and play it safe, but Skye showed she’s a gamer and competed with a strong Stoughton squad."

Jenna Brower (26:25.0) and Anna Polnow (26.45.2) were 10th and 11th, respectively. Also competing for Monroe were Elery Bazley (13th, 27:48.4) and Lauren Coppes (28:41.0), who finished the race without her running shoes.

“Our young depth and talent will be fun to watch improve throughout this season.  Now that spring break is over we will be back to full strength and we are excited to see how good this team can be,” Mosher said.