PLATTEVILLE — A handful of local teams participated in the annual Dick McKichan Platteville Invitational cross country meet Oct. 5. The scoring of the 5-kilometer races was split between schools of large and small enrollments.
“It was an incredibly wet course and rained for most of the meet,” Monroe coach Scott Mosher said. Lightning cancelled the JV boys race a mile in.
In the large school girls race, Brodhead-Juda junior Madelynn McIntyre finished fifth overall (19:45.8), while Monroe junior Jacie Hayes (20:09.5) was seventh. Kayci Martensen, a sophomore of Southwestern-Cuba City-Benton, won the race by 37 seconds (18:28.1).
“Jacie Hayes had a great race,” said Mosher, raving about her fifth-place finish based on opponents that will run at sectionals Oct. 26. “Despite the wet conditions making the course slower, Jacie ran a near personal record and closed the gap on girls that have beaten her earlier in the season. Nothing is going to come easy, but Jacie has proven that she is a legitimate contender to qualify for the state meet.”
McFarland won the team title in the large school race, collecting 67 points. New Glarus-Monticello was 10th as a team, while Brodhead-Juda was 11th and Monroe 12th.
New Glarus-Monticello was led by a pair of freshmen, with Annika Ziperski (22:09.7) scoring 35th and Tenley Faber (22:34.5) 41st. Sophomore Dayna Karls (22:59.1) was 51st in scoring, one spot ahead of senior teammate Molly Molencamp (23:00.7). Freshman Whitney Disch (23:23.5) was 57th in scoring.
Scoring for Brodhead-Juda were sophomore Presleigh Arnold (42nd, 22:36.9); sophomore Anna Skoumal (48th, 22:50.4); sophomore Ellie Riemer (76th, 25:58.3); and freshman Gabi Ryser (82nd, 27:07.5).
Following Hayes for Monroe were senior Jazmyn Mader (23:20.1) in 56th place, then sophomore Bre Lambert (59th, 23:28.0) and freshmen Lauren Coppes (62nd 23:46.4) and Jenna Brower (80th, 26:42.5).
“This meet is a sectionals preview for us because the majority of the teams from our sectional meet are at it,” Mosher said. “For the girls team we set the goal to finish in the middle of the pack and have Jacie run with the top-4 from sectionals (top-5 make it to state). Unfortunately, we had two varsity girls not run so we weren’t able to meet our team goals.”
In the girls small school race, Darlington sophomore Judith Meister was third overall (20:37.7) behind a pair of Lancaster runners, including race champion Bridee Burks (19:44.9). Albany freshmen Linsey Mueller (20:52.5) and McKenna Broughton (20:52.8) finished fifth and sixth overall.
Lancaster won the team title, scoring 44 points. Albany was second (68) and Darlington third (91) in the 12-team race.
After Mueller and Broughton, the Comets had a trio of runners finish 18-19-20. Albany sophomore Payton Wachholz was 18th in scoring (22:31.3), while senior Kristen O’Bel was 19th (22:36.0) and sophomore Kaiya Zurfluh was 20th (22:37.8). Sophomore Emileigh Dallman (25th, 22:49.4) and junior Olivia Roth (36th, 24:51.3) didn’t score but placed in the top half of the race.
For Darlington, freshman Ashlyn Norgard was 11th in scoring (21:36.5); senior Maddie Crist 21st (22:44.2); junior Morgan Black 24th (22:48.3); junior Brooke Douglas 32nd (24:13.2). Not scoring but placing high for the Redbirds were senior Gracie Douglas (34th, 24:40.2) and sophomore Kylie Schilling (37th, 24:52.1).
In the boys large race, New Glarus-Monticello was second (103), just ahead of third-place Monroe (107). Sauk Prairie (65) was the team champion.
“On the boys side, the goal was to move the entire team up as a pack and compete with New Glarus-Monticello and Mount Horeb. Both teams are at our sectional and have beaten us multiple times this year,” Mosher said. “Four points in a cross country meet is a matter of seconds, so it’s a confidence builder to know we can run with these teams. We also know that we can be much better.
“As a team we ran well, but still had a couple of our guys who didn’t have their best days. If our top-5 can all have good races on the same day we know we can compete with anyone at our sectional.”
Monroe was led by senior Dylan Fahrney, who finished ninth in scoring at 17:22.8. Also scoring for Monroe were sophomore Lucas Sathoff (19th, 17:54.0); junior Alex Henry (21st, 17:57.5); freshman Zander Slack (23rd, 17:59.0); and senior Trevor Boll (35th, 18:09.8). Sophomore Heath Huschitt (18:17.0) and senior Tyler Barker (18:21.5) also finished top-40 but didn’t score for the Cheesemakers.
“Dylan Fahrney took another step towards full recovery from an early season injury. He ran a season best time on a day where not many were running fast. More importantly is we said he needed to be in the top 10 in the large school meet, and he finished ninth in that and 11th overall,” Mosher said. “Lucas Sathoff, Trevor Boll, and Tyler Barker all ran personal best times, with Alex Henry, Zander Slack, and Heath Huschitt all within a few seconds from their season bests. On a day where conditions weren’t ideal for fast times, it is encouraging to see everyone compete hard and run fast. Hopefully that’s a trend that will continue through the last few weeks of the season.”
New Glarus-Monticello was led by sophomore Evan Guenther (17:36.8), who was 12th in scoring. Junior Joe Quaglia (15th, 17:43.9), senior Adam Nelson (17th, 17:46.5); sophomore Braylon Hoesly (28th, 18:03.5) and junior Conor McCoy (31st, 18:07.4) all scored for the Glarner Knights. Junior Tom Ready was just 4/10ths of a second behind McCoy for 32nd -place in scoring, and freshman Tom Nelson was 47th (18:38.9).
Brodhead-Juda placed 12th as a team. Senior Carter Urness was 25th (18:01.9); sophomore Brady Bruns finished 72nd (20:03.9); sophomore Sabian Blang was 81st (20:51.8); sophomore Jacob Lohmar 82nd (21:22.3); and senior Blaine Berget finished 84th (22:12.1).
In the boys small school race, Darlington placed three runners in the top-10 overall and finished second as a team. Iowa-Grant (49) was first in team scoring, followed by Darlington (60), Lancaster (95) and Wauzeka-Steuben (96).
Freshman George West paced the Redbirds with a fifth-place finish (17:57.3), while sophomore teammate Rhett Reuter was a step behind in sixth (17:57.6) and senior Willie Riechers was seventh (18:08.3). Junior Cristian Guiterrez was 16th (18:44.0), with sophomore Cashton Hauser 26th (19:24.0). Junior Caleb Weaver (27th, 19:27.0) and junior Michael Thompson (39th, 20:06.6) missed out on scoring but ran strong races.
Albany was eighth as a team (166), one spot behind Belleville (161). Junior Bailey Schroeder was 14th in scoring (18:42.1) to lead the Comets, while sophomore Jesse Schwartz was 21st (19:03.9). Junior Owen Baertschi finished 32nd (19:41.3); freshman Brian Cid was 49th (21:14.8) and sophomore Andy Gertsch was 50th (21:18.5). Senior Nathaniel Ross (52nd, 21:25.8) finished just outside the scoring runners for Albany.
Monroe, Albany, Brodhead-Juda, New Glarus-Monticello and 27 other schools will race Oct. 12 in the 27th annual Baertschi Invitational at the Fred and Dorothy Baertschi Farm on Dunphy Road outside of Albany. The girls varsity race will begin at 9 a.m., with the boys varsity to follow at about 9:35 a.m. Junior varsity and middle school races will follow, as will an open race for coaches, parents and fans at noon. The awards ceremony is slated to begin at 12:30 p.m. Scoring will be broken up into large school and small school formats with an enrollment of 375 being the cutoff.
Darlington will run at an invitational at Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids, the home course for the WIAA state championships. Pecatonica-Argyle will run at Riverdale.
