MOUNT HOREB — The Monroe boys and girls cross country teams nearly pulled out a dual victory over Mount Horeb April 10.

The Cheesemakers lost the boys race by just three points, 27-30, while the girls team fell 22-35.

“We were looking forward to this meet because it was our first meet to have nearly our entire team available, following our first two that occurred over spring break,” Monroe coach Scott Mosher said. “We were also excited because Mount Horeb boys and girls teams both qualified for the state meet last year, so we knew it would be good competition.”

Mosher said the course is very hilly and challenging, but that his squad had great times despite it all.

“On the boys side we knew we didn’t have the depth to go head to head with Mount Horeb, but that didn’t stop them from competing,” Mosher said. “Heath Huschitt was our top finisher and continues to look stronger after missing the first couple weeks of the season due to injury.”

Huschitt, a junior, was third overall with a time of 18 minutes, 28.6 seconds. Lucas Sathoff (18:44.9), a junior, was fourth, followed by sophomores Jared Batz (18:45.4) and Zander Slack (18:52.7). Freshman Adyn Thelander was the fifth scoring Cheesemaker, placing 12th overall at 22:21.9.

“They all ran great races in a pack and separated from Mount Horeb’s 3rd - 7th runners.  We almost pulled off the victory by having such strong performances up front,” Mosher said. “Jared Batz lived true to his nickname of Batzatron by running like a machine over the hills. Most people slow down uphill but I’m pretty sure he went faster. He set a lifetime PR by :30 seconds, which is amazing. Zander Slack looked like an entirely different runner at this race. He had such better turnover than the first two and I have a feeling we will see some fast times coming from him in the races to come.”

In the girls race, freshman Jadyn Elgin finished second overall (21:27.9). Junior Alyssa Roelli was fifth (22:43.2), followed by senior Jacie Hayes seventh (23:11.5), and freshmen Katrina Sathoff (10th, 24:08.7) and Marlies Brandli (11th, 24:51.3).

“(Elgin) ran a personal best, and more importantly gained the experience of trying to chase someone down during a race,” Mosher said. “We had a lot of girls who improved a ton. Alyssa Roelli looked much more comfortable running and improved a bunch from her first race. It was also exciting to see Jacie Hayes racing again and she looked solid in her season debut and will only improve from there as she shakes some rust off.

“We continued to see great races from our group of freshman girls, including Katrina Sathoff, Marlies Brandli, and Anna Polnow (14th, 25:34.8) who rounded out our top seven varsity athletes. All three continue to take large amounts of time off each race.”

Brodhead girls second, boys third at quad

BRODHEAD — The Cardinals got another strong showing at a home April 13.

The girls team finished one point behind Belleville for the team title, 41-42.

Mady McIntyre was the first Cardinal to cross the finish line (19:01), breaking her own course record set a week prior. Belleville’s Tayler Yapp (21:52), Lainey Winkers (21:55) and Alora Spiegel (21:56) finished 2-4 overall. Kalena Riemer (23:00) of Brodhead was fifth, with teammate Presleigh Arnold (23:09) sixth. Jada Burkhalter (25:44) was 14th overall for Brodhead, and Kyleigh Raupp (25:48) was 16th overall.

On the boys side, Beloit Turner (47) edged Whitewater (49) for the team title, with Brodhead (59), narrowly beating Belleville (60) for third.

Belleville’s Carter Scholey won the meet at 16:45, 14 seconds ahead of Whitewater’s Trenton Zahn. Kyle Braund (18:20) was the first Cardinal to cross the finish line, finishing fourth overall. Gavin Pinnow (9th, 19:29), Josiah Engen (13th, 19:44), Jacob Lohmar (15th, 10:49) and Brady Bruns (18th, 20:13) all scored for Brodhead.