SPRING GREEN — The New Glarus-Monticello boys cross country team will return to state this week after a second-place finish at the Oct. 26 WIAA Division 2 sectional hosted by River Valley.
The Knights finished with a score of 92, just seven points off the pace of Mount Horeb, and 14 ahead of third-place Dodgeville-Mineral Point. Monroe finished sixth (166).
“We knew it was going to be tough to qualify for state, but thought we had a group that could do it,” Monroe coach Scott Mosher said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t their day.”
Madison Edgewood junior Leo Richardson had the top time in the race at 16:08.3. River Valley senior Beau Gloudeman (17:16.5) finished fifth and snagged the final individual qualifying spot for the state meet, to be run Nov. 2 at Wisconsin Rapids.
New Glarus-Monticello had three top-20 finishers, and all seven runners placed 35th or better. Junior Joe Quaglia was the top runner for the Knights with an 11th place finish (17:35.7). Sophomore Evan Guenther crossed the line less than two seconds later (17:37.4), taking 12th. Sophomore Braylon Hoesly was third (17:48.5), with junior Conor McCoy 24th (17:59.8), freshman Tom Nelson 26th (28:02.3), senior Adam Nelson 29th (18:05.6) and junior Ty Ready 35th (18:20.1).
Monroe also tried a pack-running strategy. Senior Dylan Fahrney finished his career with a time of 17:52.8, which was 21st overall. Freshman Zander Slack was second for Monroe (31st, 18:10.7), followed by sophomores Heath Huschitt (33rd, 18:14.0) and Lucas Sathoff (40th, 18:28.4), with junior Alex Henry a nose behind (41st, 18:28.5). Seniors Trevor Boll (44th, 18:31.6) and Jake Brower (46th, 18:35.9) did not place for the Cheesemakers.
“It would have been neat to see Dylan Fahrney get one more race at the state meet in Wisconsin Rapids. He battled through an early season injury and was a tremendous leader and teammate,” Mosher said. “The rest of the Top 5 runners are all returning next year and they will all benefit from the examples he set.”
Brodhead-Juda was 13th as a team and was led by Carter Urness, who was 30th (18:07.5). Junior Royce Brauer was 56th (18:46.3), senior Jacob Staffon 60th (18:54.8), sophomore Brady Bruns 86th (19:51.1) and sophomore Josiah Engen 89th (19:59.5) to cap the Cardinals’ scoring. Junior Kyle Braund (94th, 20:30.6) and sophomore Sabian Blang (101st, 21:37.1) also raced for Brodhead-Juda.
Division 3
BOSCOBEL — For the first time in 12 years, Darlington will not be sending its boys cross country team to state. In fact, the Redbirds won’t even be sending an individual.
Darlington finished third as a team with 99 points, 14 behind second-place Iowa-Grant. Boscobel (70) won the meet, held Oct. 26.
Redbird freshman George West was the team’s top finisher, finishing 9th overall with a time of 17:38.0 — less than eight seconds behind Shullsburg’s Niko Karavergos, who was the final individual qualifier from the sectional.
Darlington sophomore Rhett Reuter was 11th (17:43.4), with senior Willie Riechers 13th (17:44.5). Junior Christian Gutierrez finished 26th (18:26.3) and sophomore Cashton Hauser was 46th (19:00.3) to round out the scoring. Freshman David Bautista (58th, 19:28.6) and junior Caleb Weaver (60th, 19:35.1) also ran for the Redbirds.
Pecatonica-Argyle’s Troy Nickels was the first Viking to cross the finish line, finishing 25th overall (18:25.2). Teammate Payton Flannery was 39th (18:47.9), junior David Tisch 44th (18:57.0), sophomore Brady Penniston 72nd (20:00.3) and senior Chevy Hughes 74th (20:04.4). Sophomore Nathan Nickels (94th (20:54.6) and freshman Caden Stoeger (106th, 21:40.8) also raced for the Vikings, which finished ninth as a team.
Albany was 13th in team scoring. Freshman Gage Roth and Jesse Schwartz finished 32-33 overall, with Roth’s time of 18:37.2 just 4/10ths of a second faster than Schwartz, a sophomore. Owen Baertschi was 68th overall (19:55.7), while freshman Brian Cid (77th, 20:20.2), senior Nathaniel Ross (100th, 21:22.2), sophomore Andy Gertsch (111th, 21:48.6) and sophomore Tyler Anderson (123rd, 24:33.2) all ran for the Comets.
