JANESVILLE — The New Glarus-Monticello girls cross country team may have finished eighth out of eight teams at the WIAA Alternate Fall state championships May 8, but the road to Wisconsin’s title race has shown the young Knights just exactly what they are capable of.
“I think it’s really clear to them what could be in store,” NGM coach Steve Wehrley said. “They are motivated people to start with, and now you’re giving them a big carrot. I think I know what’s going to happen.”
NGM competes without any seniors on the girls squad — and just one junior, Dayna Karls. The rest of the lineup is made up of freshmen and sophomores.
“Dayna is asking everyone to do things the right way, from warm-up to cool down. And they are following along,” Wehrley said. “And there is an innate competitiveness that doesn’t make any difference of how old you are — and we’re seeing that already. They run like seniors.”
We were within nine points. I don’t know if we could have done any better than that. We earned our way here, and I think we proved that it wasn’t a fluke.Steve Wehrley, NGM coach
In this spring’s state meet at Janesville’s Blackhawk Golf Course, Middleton dominated, scoring 41 points, including the individual champion and third-place finisher. Oregon was second with 76 points, just three ahead of Madison West with De Pere close by at 87 and Eau Claire Memorial finishing with two top-10s and a 108 for fifth place as a team.
The bottom three teams were just as compact, with just 12 points separating Fond du Lac (162), Oshkosh West (165) and NGM (174).
“We were within nine points. I don’t know if we could have done any better than that,” Wehrley said. “We earned our way here, and I think we proved that it wasn’t a fluke.”
The Knights were also the smallest team at the race — by far. The other seven teams are all Division 1 schools, while NGM sits on the yearly border between D2 and D3.
Lily Maynard, a freshman, was the first Knight to cross the finish line for the Knights, placing 24th with a time of 20:11.4, just 2/10ths of a second off from sole possession of 23rd place.
“It was really exciting” to compete at state, Maynard said. “It was really nerve wracking, but I was just excited to be here.”
Meet champion Lauren Pansegrau of Middleton won the race by nearly a minute and a half at 17:07.3 — crushing the state record by nearly 40 seconds. A week earlier in her sectional, she was the first girls runner in Wisconsin high school history to break the 17-minute mark in the 5K.
The pace of the front-end girls was an eye-opener for Maynard.
It was hard — I wasn’t sure where to put myself or pace myself. I didn’t know that I had that last kick in me, because I was sprinting around the corner, and then the girl caught up to me so then I had to go faster.Lily Maynard, NGM freshman
“It was hard — I wasn’t sure where to put myself or pace myself,” Maynard said. After sprinting by a runner at the finish line, she collapsed to the ground, worn out. “I didn’t know that I had that last kick in me, because I was sprinting around the corner, and then the girl caught up to me so then I had to go faster. I’ve fallen down before, but never really collapsed like I did today.” Maynard added that more offseason training is something she’ll definitely pursue, given that she’s now tasted the state meet.
Sophomore Annika Ziperski was the second Knight to cross the finish line, completing the 5,000-meter course in 20:43.9. Karls was 57th overall (21.3.8), with freshman Melanie Fink 65th (21:57.9). Sophomore Tenley Faber took 68th overall at 22:33.7. Freshman Emma Martinson was 70th (22:42.7), and freshman Lucy Melvin came in 73rd (23:12.2).
“You just love to see the end of the season finish with success,” Wehrley said. “Lucy Melvin beat her girl — she stayed with her just enough to close it off at the end. It’s another one of those little things to check off.”
