ALBANY — It was an amazing day for the Monroe Cheesemakers at the 32nd annual Baertschi Invitational Cross Country meet in Albany on Saturday, Oct. 11. The Cheesemaker girls took first place with 67 points in the large school division and the Cheesemaker boys also finished in first place in the large school division with 58 points.
The Cheesemaker girls placed seven runners in the top 11 with Vickie Wolf finishing third overall in 20:14.3. Right behind her was Braylin Cleary (4th, 20:48.5), Lyla Ritschard (6th, 20:50.4), Mary McKenzie (7th, 20:50.6), and Kaylan Cassidy (8th, 21:16.9). Monroe continued its dominance up front as Elizabeth Veeder was 10th in 21:36.9 and Annika Folk finished 11th at 21:44.9. Monroe won the girls race despite holding out Aniya Jackson-Bey with a minor injury.
“We feel we have the best team in the state right now,” said Monroe coach Scott Mosher.
The Cheesemaker boys had an equally outstanding day as Ace Rossing led Monroe with a 10th place finish in 17:29.0. The “Hounds” also went back-to-back-to-back with Brady Keehn (24th, 18:08.6), Lucas Veeder (25th, 18:11.9), and Landon Smith (26th 18:13.6). Elijah Cook finished 46th (18:43.6).
“What was neat about that, we didn’t have our regular runners, but we had some JV and varsity guys step up, like Ace Rossing as our top runner,” Mosher said.
Sitting out were Tre Dammen, Weston Huntsman, Kamrin Gerber-Reamer and Lukas Gerber. Eli Phillips was going to run, but pulled out as he had tightness in his legs.
In the girls race in the large school division, New Glarus-Monticello was third with 101 points. Molly Olson was the top runner for New Glarus-Monticello as she placed fifth and ran the course in 20:48.5. In the small school division, Darlington placed second with 78 points as Brianna Vazquez was 10th (20:39.0). Brodhead-Juda was fourth with 133 points. Olivia Brooks led the Cardinals with a ninth place finish (20:31.4). The Albany Comets were seventh with 164 points. Emerson Butts paced the Comets (13th in 20:50.3). Belleville was 12th, scoring 306 points with Ellie Gehin (56th, 24:23.7) leading the Wildcats.
The boys race featured New Glarus-Monticello taking eighth place in the large school division with 198 points. Dylan Gardner was the top runner for New Glarus-Monticello (16th, 18:22.1). In the small school division, Albany was fifth with 131 points as Kaleb Broughton placed sixth (17:33.3). Brodhead-Juda was eighth, led by Mavrik Plummer (9th, 17:51.8). Belleville came in 10th with 270 points and was led by Carson Biermeier (26th, 18:41.60). The Darlington Redbirds took 12th place with 330 points, led by Kane McDermott (38th, 19:16.10).
All the teams will be engaged with conference tournaments this week.
