SPRING GREEN — Darlington’s girls team finished second in the small school standings at the River Valley Invitational Sept. 10, while New Glarus-Monticello and Monroe finished fourth and fifth in the large school standings.
“This is always an important race for us because we get to race against most of the Badger West and also many of the teams at our sectionals. It gives us an early chance to see how we stack up against these teams,” Monroe coach Scott Mosher said. “The girls once again had strong pack. In three races we have had three different girls lead the way as our top runner. I hope to see this trend continue because it means they are pushing each other to get better.”
Ximena Miranda was the first Cheesemaker to finish, taking 27th overall with a life-time best 21:24.5, just 2/10 of a second faster than teammate Jadyn Elgin. Mary McKenzie was 29th at 21:29.3. Skye Dickson was right behind her at 21:33.5. Aniyah Jackson-Bey was the fifth scoring Cheesemaker to finish, taking 48th at 22:13.6.
“We were short-handed this meet so needed Aniyah Jackson-Bey to step up to round out our Top 5. She proved she has ice water in her veins and ran a great race and a lifetime best time,” Mosher said.
New Glarus-Monticello finished ahead of Monroe in the team standings, with Madison West the team champion. Dodgeville-Mineral Point was second and Waunakee third.
“Monroe, on the girls side, has very tough competition week in and week out. We’ve gone up against New Glarus/Monticello every meet so far and they’ve gotten the best of us each time,” Mosher said.
Lily Maynard was the first Knight to cross the finish line, finishing 12th overall at 20:39.9. Ruthie Zuber (18th, 20:56.8), Melanie Fink (21st, 20:59.1), Molly Olson (34th, 21:37.9) and Annika Ziperski (41st, 21:51.7) also scored for NGM.
On the boys side, Monroe was eighth, with New Glarus-Monticello finishing 15th of 19 teams. Madison West was the champion, scoring 37 points, well ahead of second-place Madison La Follette (95).
“While we would have liked to place a little higher, we are able to see we are ahead of many of the teams, and the teams that beat us we were very close to,” Mosher said.
Monroe was led by Jared Batz, who was 17th overall with a time of 17:24.4. Tre Dammen was 26th at 17:50.6.
“Beyond the team score we had some very nice individual performances and big improvements. Jared Batz was our top runner again, earning a medal by placing in the top 20. It wasn’t a lifetime best time, but it was a huge season best and he’s trending in the right direction,” Mosher said. “Tre Dammen was our second runner and broke the 18-minute barrier for the first time. That’s a huge accomplishment for anyone, especially for a freshman. He went out fearlessly from the gun and never looked back.”
Wyatt Stephenson (49th, 18:45.2), Padraic Houston (64th, 19:10.0) and Anthony Wels (70th, 19:19.3) rounded out Monroe’s scoring.
“Another huge race came from Padraic Houston, who was our 4th runner and ran 19:10. What’s impressive about that is he’d never even came close to breaking 20 minutes before and he nearly broke 19. It’s exciting to see a kid take a big leap like that because it usually means they figured out how to push themselves in a race,” Mosher said.
Tom Nelson (11th, 16:54.8) paced New Glarus-Monticello. Also scoring for NGM were Ian Schwartzlow (58th, 19:02.8), Tanner Gardner (61st, 19:08.8), Linden Lounsbury (99th, 20:24.2) and Kaleb Welhouse (115th, 21:24.9).
In the small school girls division, Lancaster finished first as a team with 61 points. Darlington had 76 and third-place Brookwood 78. Albany (91) was fifth, and Pecatonica-Argyle (216) ninth.
Scoring for Darlington were Raquel Reuter (2nd, 20:24.2), Adalee Berget (4th, 2:30.3), Alexis Murray (21st, 22:51.2), Piper Depauw (30th, 23:19.8) and Clara Solverson (34th, 23:43.8).
Albany’s top five included McKenna Broughton (7th, 20:39.7), Ava Ahnen (8th, 21:10.8), Linsey Mueller (20th, 22:44.1), Emerson Briggs (26th, 23:00.8) and Abby Hollis (26:39.2).
Pecatonica-Argyle runners included Loretta Tisch (29th, 23:16.2), Anna Tisch (40th, 24:08.2), Maddie Webster (74th, 29:58.4), Mazie Theorin (75th, 30:03.2) and Norah McCarthy (78th, 32:31.8).
In the boys small school division, Albany was fourth (121), just ahead of Belleville (122). Darlington was seventh (161) and Pecatonica-Argyle 10th (283) in the 15-team race. Iowa-Grant (59) was the team champion. Belleville’s Carter Scholey was the individual champion, winning by more than 25 seconds at 16:21.1.
Darlington was led by George West (5th, 17:37.6). Also scoring were Ethan Aird (26th, 18:53.5), Gerson Soto (28th, 18:57.1), Liam Lansing (48th, 20:16.0) and Phillip McGowan (67th, 21:22.1).
Scoring for Albany was Brayden Bakken (14th, 18:21.2). Brian Cid (19th, 18:30.3), Kaleb Broughton (22nd, 18:39.7), Gage Roth (34th, 19:22.7) and Ethan Koss (41st, 19:46.3).
Pecatonica-Argyle runners included Ridge Toay (15th, 18:23.1). Jakob Orloff (56th, 20:57.3), Aidan Gruenenfelder (71st, 21:38.7), Samuel Koch, (79th, 22:08.9) and Emerson Koch (83th, 22:31.3).
