The River Falls Wildcats competed at the cross-country sectionals at Menomonie High School on Saturday and had multiple runners qualify to advance to the state competition at Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.

It was a great day at sectionals where a number of Wildcat runners set personal records. The boys’ team took third, which is somewhat bittersweet as only the top two teams advance to state.

Head Coach Kari DeLuca said their goal was to have the boys make it as a squad, but they’re excited for the two boys who made it and that they are ready for great races next week.  

“We were so close. We knew it would be a tall task and that Memorial would be the team we needed to beat. They had beat us pretty good a few times during the season, but we knew we were gaining on them and that we could make it close. We crunched the numbers, and the boys all had different Memorial runners that they needed to beat,” DeLuca said. “It was so fun to watch. The boys really stepped up and raced. It resulted in lots of PRs, our closest finish to Memorial all season and two guys getting to state.”

DeLuca said freshman Owen Koepke and junior Ty Bauschelt really stepped up and had their best races of the season, while juniors Jonah Majerus, who took 11^th place at sectionals with a 5K time of 16:40, and Quin Andrews, who took sixth running a 16:18, are the individuals headed to state. 

“Jonah has worked so hard for this and has made incredible improvements from year to year. He is an all-in competitor, so fun to coach kids like that,” DeLuca said. “This will be Quin Andrews’ third trip to state, so he is looking to be one of the top individual runners. Overall, I’m just very proud of the team.” 

Although they missed state as a team, River Falls has four of their top five guys returning. The star is rising for the boy’s cross-country team, and this was just the start.

While the girls’ team didn’t have any members advance, they are looking forward to next season as well.

“With the girls’ team, it was a great learning and growing year,” DeLuca said. “It’s a great group of girls, and we are excited about being more competitive next season.”  

Good luck to Jonah and Quin on their trip to state!

Prescott

Cardinal runner Breckin Schommer earned his first trip to the state competition with a seventh-place finish at the Rice Lake Sectional on Saturday.

Schommer finished with a season best 5,000-meter time of 17:01 and will head to Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids to compete with the best runners in the state this Saturday. Head Coach Tim Philips said it wasn’t just Schommer hitting a personal high point, though, his team as a whole really raised the bar.

“I’m especially happy with the performance of our boys’ team. They were solid throughout the season. The girls had some bad luck with illnesses and injuries, so they struggled a bit to meet their full potential,” Philips said. “The most positive part of our season - and this applies to the boys and the girls - is their work ethic and constant improvement. At the section meet in Rice Lake, 13 of our 14 athletes ran a season best time, and seven of those 13 times were lifetime bests. They fought hard right to the end.”

The future is promising for the Cardinals teams. Even though they will lose 10 seniors, five boys and five girls, they will return some talented and battle-tested underclassmen. Philips noted how hard the athletes work in the offseason is going to determine if they retain the high level of success they’ve achieved this year.

“If they work hard in the off-season, come out for track in the spring, and run hard during the summer of ‘24, they’ll have good teams next season,” Philips said. “I can’t say enough good things about our top senior boys. Breckin Schommer, Jayde Canfield, and Ian Leask have had fantastic careers. Breckin earned a trip to State, Jayde became a great leader and will run in college and Ian is going to be an even bigger force than usual on the basketball court due to his conditioning.”

It wasn’t just the upperclassmen doing the heavy lifting either, according to Philips.

“We have a couple of super-sophs too. On the girls’ side, Amber VanLoon ran the third fastest time ever by a Prescott sophomore, and Nolan Leask hit number eight on the all-time sophomore boys list,” Philips said.

Good luck to Breckin on his trip to state!

Ellsworth

The Ellsworth Panthers fell short of state this year, but it was a team that steadily improved throughout the season.

The Panthers’ top runner, Max Bergner, only recently came back from a broken foot injury sustained just prior to the start of the season. Bergner went above and beyond in his rehab to try to maintain his conditioning and keep training while in a walking boot for most of the season. He returned just in time to take home second team all-conference honors, even though he wasn’t performing at quite the same level as after his full season of running last year.

Head Coach Marcie Jahnke said they ended on a high note, with nearly the whole team running season bests, if not career personal records, at the sectional meet. So, while Saturday ended up being the last race of the season for everyone on the team, she said it's impossible not to be happy about that. 

“I was happy with how the season went. Obviously, Max getting hurt early in the season was disappointing, but being witness to how hard he worked to try to get back was impressive. I learned a lot about Max as an athlete this season, more than any other season,” Jahnke said. “As a junior, he ran at the state tournament, but the courage and willingness to do anything necessary to try to get back in face of a significant injury is such a testament to him as an athlete and a young man. In the end, he fell a little short at where he wanted to be at sectionals, but I cannot properly communicate how proud I am of him.”  

Although they are losing a lot of experience and leadership this year with seven seniors graduating, four of whom have been on the team all four years of high school, there are a number of young athletes on the rise.

“The girls’ team will lose over half their runners to graduation, and we will be looking to rebuild next season. On a positive note, we have several returning runners on the team next year, and they all seem eager to come back next season and pick up where they left off,” Jahnke said. “Ben Baker is a young talent in his second year and is very determined to make gains in the next season. Noah Matzek, coming out for the first time as a junior, ended up running right behind Max at the sectional meet, and is starting to really understand what he needs to do to realize his potential in the 5K.” 

Although it will be an emotional farewell to those who are leaving, there is ample reason to be excited as well.

“Saying farewell to the seniors, managing the emotions of final races, and stoking the enthusiasm of the next team always makes the end of the season bittersweet. But I can say that I'm proud of where we ended, and I'm excited for what comes next,” Jahnke said.  

Congratulations to Max for battling through and finishing strong!

Elmwood-Plum City

The Elmwood-Plum City Wolves ended their season on a high note at the sectional meet on Saturday at Whispering Pines Golf Course in Cadott.

Head Coach Mike Merritt said there were a lot of personal records in their last couple races, which is great for a team focusing on growth like the Wolves. Since there are no criteria for advancing to sectionals, everyone got the valuable experience of running in a race with the potential to qualify for the state competition. 

“Our performance overall was right where I expected it to be. The kids ran the times I expected them to run, and they finished in races, place-wise, where I expected them to finish,” Merritt said. “Towards the end of the season, I noticed kids were becoming very tired, both physically and mentally. They put a lot of work and a lot of miles in this season, and I saw a lot of appreciation and respect given towards the sport of running. This is something that takes a lot of dedication.”  

Even though nobody will move on to state, that didn’t stop junior Olivia Pullen, the Wolves’ top runner, from earning Second Team All-Conference recognition at their conference meet. This is especially impressive because this is Pullen’s first year running cross country.

Merritt said with performances like these at the end of the season, their future is looking better and better.

“We have all our high school kids returning next season, as we didn't have any seniors this year. We may not have enough kids to make a team, but it will still be great to have everyone back,” Merritt said. “I also had a lot of middle school runners this season that developed an appreciation for running. I am hoping they make the decision to do it again, as they were a lot of fun.”

Congratulations to Olivia on her impressive finish!

Spring Valley

The Spring Valley Cardinals cross country teams competed in the sectional round of competition at Whispering Pines Golf Course in Cadott on Saturday.

Sectionals went well for the Cardinals, according to Head Coach Chelsey Ricketts. Although nobody advanced to the state round of competition, she is proud of their teams’ performances.

“The boys team finished seventh out of the 16 teams, and most of our athletes ended up with personal bests for the season at sectionals. We did not have anyone move on, but Brody Gregg finished 20th and Colton Hoyt finished 38^th and were the top two finishers for our boys’ team,” Ricketts said. “Our girls only had four runners participating, so a team score was not counted. All of our girls ended up with season bests, though. Rylie Fritz was our top finisher for the girls’ team, taking 37th.”

After competing at state as a team in 2020-2021, Spring Valley’s boys team lost a lot of their senior core going into 2022. Gregg and Hoyt are both seniors this year and will be part of the group that is moving on after this season as well. In all, the Cardinals are graduating five senior boys, so next year could be something of a rebuild, according to Ricketts.

Getting girl runners to fill out their starting five so they are able to compete as a team is something Ricketts hopes to achieve next year when they will get an influx of talent to add to their veteran core.

“We have a few female eighth graders that were running strong this year in middle school,” Ricketts said. “I hope they decide to give High School Cross Country a try as well.”

The other big change for the Cardinals this year was the opening of their new cross-country course.

After not being able to host competitions since 2019, they were able to add on to and improve their home course in the offseason. With the opening of this new back section, which added an element of woods and terrain to the running, there was some excitement and fanfare surrounding cross country running in the home of the Cardinals for the first time in almost five years. The new addition was well received by both home and visiting runners as well as coaches, and the hope is that this might draw some attention and new runners to the sport also.