VERONA — The Cheesemakers had a full boys lineup at the Verona Invitational Sept. 4, unlike the home Bruess Invite just five days before. That led to Monroe taking 11th out of 24 teams. Split into Divisions, the Cheesemakers were No. 1 in Division 3, beating out New Glarus-Monticello by eight points (55-63).
“When you look at the schools ahead of us, nearly all are huge high schools with 3-4 times our student body, so it was fun watching the top programs in the state run,” said Scott Mosher, Monroe’s coach. “The strength of our boys team will be our 1-5 spacing, and they were just :55 apart which is fantastic. Typically, you will see winning programs with a low point scorer (meaning they score in the top 10 of a race), but the boys didn’t have a runner in the top 40, which is the medal cutoff. Lucas Sathoff just missed at 42.”
Lucas Sathoff finished 42nd overall with a time of 17:51.8. Heath Huschitt, who was unavailable at the Bruess Invite, was the second Cheesemaker to cross the line at 18:18.2 (55th). Jared Batz (18:24.3, 60th), Zander Slack (18:39.0, 71st) and Anthony Wels (18:46.3, 79th) rounded out Monroe’s scoring runners.
“It was great to get Heath Huschitt back racing again and be our second runner. He will make the boys a very tough team as he gets back into racing shape. Not only could he help if he can be our top guy, but he will also pull the others along with him,” Mosher said. “Jared Batz, Zander Slack and Anthony Wels rounded out the scorers. As the season continues, I think we will see those three finish in different orders and push each other a lot.”
New Glarus-Monticello was 13th as a team. Scoring runners were Tom Nelson (17:33.0, 27th), Evan Guenther (17:47.8, 37th), Braylon Hoesly (18:56.7, 82), Brayden Ryan (19:08.8, 89th) and Grayson Rodefeld (19:12.5, 90th).
Middleton (111 points) topped Verona (129) for the title, with Verona’s Aidan Manning the individual champion at 15:58.0.
On the girls side, New Glarus-Monticello was 11th in total team scoring and first in Division 3. Monroe was fifth in Division 3 and 17th overall.
Lily Maynard was the first Glarner Knight to cross the finish line, placing 15th overall at 20:56.5. Also scoring for the Knights were Dayna Karls (21:42.8, 39th), Melanie Fink (22:45.1, 69th), Lucy Melvin (22:53.9, 77th) and Emma Martinson (22:58.2, 82nd), who finished just 1.6 seconds and one place ahead of teammate Annika Ziperski (22:59.8, 83rd). Tenley Faber (23:16.8) was 89th out of 159 runners.
Sierra McGuire ran a lifetime best 21:41.9, playing 37th overall to medal.
“She is looking really strong and we are so happy to see her success. She’s dealt with injuries the last couple seasons but never gave up. She doesn’t have a lot of racing experience so who knows how fast she can get as she learns to race,” Mosher said.
Also scoring runners for the Cheesemakers were Alyssa Roelli (22:35.3, 65th), Ximena Miranda (22:23.6, 115th), Katrina Sathoff (24:23.8, 116th), and Lauren Coppes (25:51.1, 146th), who beat out teammate Anna Polnow in the final sprint by 6.4 seconds.
“The girls were racing without some of our top runners, but we still had some great performances and showed that when we are full strength we can be a competitive program,” Mosher said.
Middleton’s Lauren Pansegrau (18:08.6) was the overall medalist, winning by 48 seconds. Her team finished first.
Dodgeville-Mineral Point sweeps Darlington Invitational
DARLINGTON — The Redbirds hosted their annual early-season invitational Sept. 4, and Dodgeville-Mineral Point won both the boys and girls team titles, as more than 18 schools participated.
Joseph Stoddard of Mount Horeb won the boys race (16:59.8), with DMP’s Will Aurit (17:06.0) second and Belleville’s Carter Scholey (17:33.5) was third.
As a team, Albany was fifth overall, Belleville sixth and Darlington eighth. Pecatonica-Argyle was 13th as a team.
On the girls side, Mount Horeb was second and Lancaster third with Darlington fourth, Albany sixth.
Kayci Martensen if Southwestern-Cuba City-Benton finished first (19:05.0), with DMPs Ellie and Annie Robinson taking second and third, and teammate Julia Thompson fourth.
