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Running with extra fire
Long wait to begin season ends with Darlington Invite
Ridge Toay
Pecatonica-Argyle’s Ridge Toay runs down the final stretch at the Darlington Invitational, held Sept. 11-12. - photo by By Thomas Gunnell

DARLINGTON — George West opened the 2020 cross country season with a victory at the cool and rainy two-day Darlington Invitational, held Sept. 11-12. 

The event was held over the course of two days and separated into three groups in order to maintain social distancing. Individual times were then all put together to determine individual and team scoring.

West, a sophomore for the host Redbirds, narrowly beat out Iowa-Grant’s Nick Connolly, crossing the finish line just 2/10ths of a second in front of his competitor with a time of 18:03.3. West and Darlington ran in the second group race of the invitational, while Connolly raced in the third.

Rhett Reuter, a Darlington junior, was second in the group run and sixth overall with a time of 18:43.3, while Redbird senior Caleb Weaver finished 18th overall at 19:58.4. Christian Guiterrez, a senior, capped the team’s point scoring with a 27th place finish (20:20.6).

Boscobel won the team title with a score of 59. Dodgeville-Mineral Point was second (83), followed by Darlington (91). Albany was seventh (160), while Pecatonica-Argyle came in 10th (234). 

Sophomore Gage Roth led the Albany boys team with a 19:23.2 finish, which was good enough for 11th. Junior Jesse Schwartz (19:25.4) was just two seconds behind Roth, ending 13th. Freshman Brayden Bakken (20:50.9), sophomore Brian Cid (22:05.5) and freshman Drew Sertle (22:42.6) rounded out the Comets’ varsity scoring.

Pecatonica-Argyle was led by senior David Tisch (20:33.9), with sophomore Ridge Toay (20:37.7) crossing the finish line just seconds later. The pair finished 30th and 31st overall. Juniors Brady Penniston (22.21.7), Nathan Nickels (23:37.4) and sophomore Caden Stoeger (24:02.9) rounded out the Vikings’ scoring.

On the girls side, Southwestern/Cuba City/Benton junior Kayci Martensen was the all around champion with a time of 19:27.4, nearly two minutes ahead of freshman teammate Hanna Martensen (21:21.1), who was second overall. Darlington, SCCB and Lancaster ran in the second group of the invitational, while Albany, Boscobel and Dodgeville-Mineral Point ran in Group 1. Fennimore, Riverdale, Iowa-Grant and Pecatonica-Argyle ran in Group 3.

Dodgeville-Mineral Point won the team title with 79 points, just ahead of Lancaster (81) and Albany (87). Boscobel (99) was fourth in team scoring, followed by Darlington (105) and SCCB (168). Pecatonica-Argyle did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score.

Albany freshman Ava Ahnen was the individual race champion of Group 1 and took third overall, finishing with a time of 21:28.2. Teammate McKenna Broughton, a sophomore, was second (21:30.8) in the group run and fourth overall. Sophomore Linsey Mueller (23:45.8) was 24th overall with junior Payton Wachholz (23:47.9) 25th. Junior Emileigh Dallman capped the Comets’ scoring with a 31st-place finish at 24:01.4.

Darlington was led by freshman Raquel Reuter (21:33.3), who was fifth. Junior Judith Meister (22:11.3) was eighth overall. Alyza Johnson, a freshman, was 27th (23:53.8), junior Allyson Meyers 32nd (24:05.1) and freshman Alexis Murray was 33rd (24:16.3) to cap the Redbirds’ scoring.

Sydney Webster was 60th overall (30:09.3) to lead Pecatonica-Argyle, with teammates Emily Zimmerman (30:25.0), Allie Godfrey (30:25.4) and Norah McCarthy (33:28.2) also competing. 

Pecatonica-Argyle was scheduled to travel to Darlington again for a conference dual Sept. 15. Albany is scheduled to host a conference mini-meet Sept. 19.