MONROE - After suffering a stress fracture in his foot that wiped out most of his cross country season, Monroe junior Ethan Moehn pondered what the end of the season may have in store.

Monroe answered that question on Saturday as the Cheesemakers placed Moehn and three other runners in the top six to run away with the WIAA Division 2 sectional title 55-84 over Dodgeville-Mineral Point, which is ranked No. 5 in the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association poll.

"When I got hurt I worried about what we would be like at the end of the year," Moehn said. "Every one of them has stepped up into new roles. It's phenomenal."

The Cheesemakers, ranked No. 7, qualified for state as a team for the eighth time in the last nine years. It marks the Cheesemakers fifth sectional championship in the last 17 years.

New Glarus-Monticello senior Ryan McCoy was the individual sectional champion with a time of 15 minutes, 58 seconds, which was 40 seconds ahead of Dodgeville-Mineral Point's Trevor Wunnicke, who finished second (16:38). Monroe junior Jake Hirsbrunner finished third (16:58) followed by senior Steve Christiansen, fourth (17:04); Moehn, a junior, fifth (17:23) and senior A.J. Cifuentes, sixth (17:25).

"We knew Dodgeville-Mineral Point was the favorite," Jake Hirsbrunner said. "We knew they were strong and experienced. We knew we all had to have a good race to beat Dodgeville-Mineral Point and we all put it together on the same day. It's a great feeling to know that everyone showed up. Everyone had the right mindset, knew what they had to do and they went out and did it."

McCoy, the defending Division 2 state champion, just wanted to advance to his fourth straight state meet in Wisconsin Rapids.

"Today was good, but next week has to be better," McCoy said.

The other area state qualifiers include Brodhead-Juda junior Dylan Johnson who took seventh (17:26) and New Glarus-Monticello senior Alexander Yeiser who was 10th (17:36). Both Johnson and Yeiser have been training since the summer for a shot to qualify for state.

"It's been my goal the whole season," Johnson said. "All summer it's been what I have been working towards. It's a big relief that the hard work has paid off."

Cifuentes passed Johnson down the homestretch, but he remained confident.

"I knew Monroe had four guys in front of me," Johnson said. "I felt confident I would make it. At that point, I couldn't sprint any more."

Monroe coach Dave Hirsbrunner said Cifuentes' main job was to finish ahead of Dodgeville-Mineral Point's No. 4 runner and make a run at the Pointers' No. 3 runner.

"We had no idea that he would finish ahead of everyone's No. 2 runner," Dave Hirsbrunner said. "A.J. had a super race. We had an idea he could have a race like this and he cracked it. He put together a full 5K race.

"We thought the race would start after the first two guys (McCoy and Wunnicke). We wanted to have a guy finish third. We didn't think we would have four guys in a row. The competition is what keeps us rolling."

Yeiser was excited to qualify for state after just misses a state berth last year.

"I'm very happy and really excited," Yeiser said. "This year I got off to a tough start with my asthma. By the time conference rolled around, it hit me that I didn't want what happened last year to happen again."

Monroe sophomore Jeremy Miller finished 37th (18:28) to round out the top five for the Cheesemakers. The Knights were just seven points away from qualifying for state as a team. New Glarus-Monticello sophomore John Zuber took 20th (17:57) and junior Hunter Pratt was 24th (18:07). Senior Brock Westby-Hess finished 35th (18:25) to round out the top five for the Knights.

"We knew we had to have a great race to leapfrog one of those two schools," McCoy said of Monroe and Dodgeville-Mineral Point. "Everyone ran their best and we gave it our best shot."