DEERFIELD — The Monroe Cheesemakers boys and girls cross country teams are making the trip to the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids on Saturday as both teams qualified for the state meet. The Monroe boys finished in first place with 52 points at the Division 2 sectional meet at CamRock Park in Deerfield on Saturday, Oct. 25. The Monroe girls took second place with 70 points at the Division 2 sectional.
The top two teams and top five finishers who are not on one of the top two teams qualify for the state tournament. School records were broken by Tre Dammen and Aniyah Jackson-Bey of Monroe. Dammen broke Michael Barrett’s record while Jackson-Bey broke Vicki Wolf’s record from earlier in the season. The boys repeated as sectional champions, returning to state as a team.
In the boys race, the Hounds placed all seven of their runners in the top 25. Dammen led all runners with a time of 15:15.6. Weston Huntsman followed for Monroe in 10th place with a time of 16:20.1. Kamrin Gerber-Reamer was 12th (16:37.9), Ace Rossing finished right behind him for 13th (16:41.4), Lukas Gerber took 16th (16:57.8), Brady Keehn finished 18th (17:00.0) and Eli Phillips was 25th (17:09.4).
Elsewhere, the Brodhead-Juda boys team finished in eighth place with 204 points. The top runner for the Cardinals was Mavrik Plummer, who took 14th place in 16:51.7. New Glarus-Monticello boys were 11th with 283 points. NGM was led by Dylan Gardner (22nd, 17:05.4).
Monroe will have seven more runners at the state tournament as the girls team took second with 70 points and qualified for state. All seven runners for Monroe placed in the top 26. Jackson-Bey led the Monroe contingent with a seventh place finish in 19:01.1. Braylin Cleary was ninth (19:05.1), Vicki Wolf 11th (19:09.3), Mary McKenzie 19th (19:46.6), Miley Hanson 24th (19:58.9), Kaylen Cassidy 25th (20:01.6) and Lyla Ritschard 26th (20:02.5).
New Glarus-Monticello took sixth place in the girls race with 209 points. The leading runner for New Glarus-Monticello was Molly Olson, who came in 15th (19:31.4). Brodhead-Juda was eighth with 221 points. Olivia Brooks placed 10th (19:08.8), just missing out on qualifying for the state race by one spot.
Division 3
ALBANY — Two members of the Albany Comets cross country team will be going to the State Cross Country Meet after qualifying at the Division 3 sectional at Albany on Saturday, Oct. 25.
Senior Kaleb Broughton finished in sixth place in the boys race and was the top finisher of runners not on state-qualifying teams. Broughton ran the race in 17:40.5. As a team, the Comets finished in fourth place with 151 points. The top two teams, St. Ambrose/Abundant Life and Madison Country Day qualified for state.
On the girls side, Albany freshman Emerson Butts finished in fourth place with a time of 20:54.2. She was one of five runners who qualified for state but not as a member of a qualifying team. The Albany girls had a seventh place finish with 170 points.
Belleville finished in 14th place with 285 points. Senior Olivia Fox was the top runner for the Wildcats as she placed 24th in 22:20.0.
For Albany coach Tony Brewer, it’s sad for him that the season is over for the rest of his cross country team, but he’s glad to see Broughton and Butts have the state meet coming up for them next week.
“Today is bittersweet, but for Kaleb being a senior, he gets to run his last high school meet at the state meet and that’s what you want,” Brewer said.
Belleville was 12th as a team and led by Carson Biermeier (18th, 18:22.6).
Brewer was equally impressed with Butts qualifying for state as a freshman.
“She went out and got aggressive. Then, she got more aggressive. But, she hung on. Overall, we’ve got a boy and a girl going on and everybody else will get behind them next week,” Brewer said.
Belleville was 14th as a team and led by Olivia Fox (24th, 22:20.0).
In the Prairie du Chien sectional, the Darlington Redbirds girls cross country team left no doubt who was the best team at the Division 3 sectional at Prairie du Chien on Saturday, Oct. 25.
The Redbirds scored 43 points to take first place at the sectional and place their team into the state meet.
Senior Adalee Berget led the way for the Redbirds with a second place finish in 19:02.9. Brianna Vazquez (7th, 19:48.7), Alaina McGowan (9th, 20:09.2), Madison Walacha (14th, 20:39.2), Clara Solverson (15th, 20:39.5) also scored. Austia Stauffacher (27th, 21:40.0) and Brenna Edgerton (38th, 22:38.1) also competed.
Argyle-Pecatonica girls placed 12th with 277 points and were led by freshman Emma Johnsen, (30th, 21:48.7).
In the boys race, AP came in seventh with 177 points and were led by Aiden Slater (18th, 18:12.3). Darlington was 10th and led by Marcus Kendall (17th, 18:09.0).
This will be the Darlington girls team’s third straight appearance at state and 19th overall. Darlington won a state title in Division 3 in 2016.
This Saturday, Nov. 1, the WIAA Division 3 boys race will be at noon, and the Division 3 girls race will be at 1:45 p.m. at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.
