Prep Cross Country Round-up: Anders, Peterson both individual winners and AHS girls' a team winner

CENTRAL - Fall Creek 's Jenna Anders won her first race of the season in just her fourth race of the season at last week’s Eleva-Strum Invitational on Thursday, Oct. 7.

Anders was in third at the mile mark then took over the race in the last 2500-meters on the 5000-meter course. This was just her second race back recovering from an ankle injury.

“I just opened up my stride and for the first time this season I was running with a strength and confidence and the race conditions were good too so I just went for it.” Anders said.

Anders won the race in a time of 20:43 and her FC squad placed third out of 10 teams in the girls' standings. The Crickets’ Alison Dubiel, Katie Kent and Evelyn Bergeron also finished in the Top 25 showing they have a shot at what could be a wide open team race for the girls’ title in the Cloverbelt Conference meet which will be run this weekend, Saturday, Oct. 16 at Fall Creek beginning at 10 a.m.

Dubiel's time was 23:18, Bergeron's 24:07; Kent 24:33; Cora Peterson, 28th in 28:06; Sophia Schultz, 37th in 26:38; and Lylian Anderson, 38th in 26:53.

Speaking of the Top 25, Eleva-Strum’s Anabel Howie finished in 10th place with a personal best time of 22:40. She said she loves running the E-S course which is like a track around the school’s athletic facilities and a wooded trail area behind the school along the Buffalo River. Runners go around it twice.

“It has hills but they’re not too steep,” Howie said. “Just going around it the second time you have the knowledge of it and if you’re feeling good running you can really race on it to get a good time.”

E-S's also runners in the race were Amalia Dyer, 43rd in 32:34 and Emily Gehrke, 54th in 33:14.

FC's boys finished fourth as they had four runners in the top 30 led by Kael Sanfelippo’s sixth place and Stewart Gundry’s eighth place both under 20:00 in times of 19:09 and 19:23; Jamison Carey finished 20th in 21:22, Joel Stump placed 28th in 22:20 and Quinn Kinderman finished 42nd in 24:45.

Durand swept both boys' and girls' races with the Panthers' Parker Schneider won the boys' race in 15:52 breaking the 16:00 mark. Team standings for the boys were Durand 34, Black River Falls 75, Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 84, Fall Creek 85, Cadott 91, Thorp/Gilman 113 with Neillsville/Granton, Eleva-Strum, Eau Claire Regis and ACHM Lincoln all incomplete. The girls' standings were No. 7 ranked Durand 30, Regis 57, Fall Creek 71, Thorp/Gilman 93, Cadott 133, Neillsville/Granton 149 and Lincoln, Eleva-Strum, BRF and Immanuel all incomplete.

Eleva-Strum runners were Garrett Zimpel 19th in 21:03; Jared Bohn, 23rd in 21:52 and James Anderson, 48th in 27:28.

Also last week, Augusta won its third straight meet in a tie-breaker over Bangor at the Owen-Withee Invitational on Tuesday, Oct. 5. The Beavers had 12 out of the 13 runners, boys and girls, reach personal bests which is a good omen for Thursday's Dairyland Conference Meet which takes place Thursday, Oct. 14 at Melrose-Mindoro High School at 4 p.m.

Augusta’s Bailey Peterson set a school record time of 19:02.7 and winning the race overall. This time ranks among the best in the state for Division 3 as of last week.

AHS' Ava Peterson and Beth Boone placed fifth and sixth in 21:56 and 21:57 respectively. CC Hanson taking 17th in 23:59 with Kendra Olson followed right behind in 21st in 24:57 and Atumumn Randall was 23rd in 25:20 and her time helped Augusta break its tie with Bangor. Roella Weiss placed 30th in 26:33.

Augusta and Bangor tied at 49 points, Thorp/Gilman was at 67, Osseo-Fairchild finished fourth with a score of 101, Bloomer 107 and McDonell 115 with Owen-Withee and Lake Holcombe/Cornell incomplete.

For the boys, Augusta's Kyle Shult ran well, pushing it right from the beginning to third overall. His time of 17:11 is the third fastest of all time in Augusta history.

AHS's Devin Molinaro finished with a PR of 19:04 in 17th place. Drew Jacobs, running a life time PR time of 20:05, was 23rd Damian Sovereign took 24th place in 20:09 and Preston Schafer finished in 52nd place. Matt Cork ran in 53rd place. AHS was fourth as a team in the boys' standings with 96 points out of eight teams competing. First in the team standings was top-ranked Chippewa Falls McDonell was 33 points followed by Bloomer 55, Bangor 74, Augusta 96, Thorp/Gilman 124, Owen-Withee 154 with Osseo-Fairchild and New Auburn incomplete.

Running for O-F in the girls' race were Breanna Wier, 12th in 23:22; Aurora Wier, 14th in 23:57; Ada Nelson, 26th in 25:32; Riley Bratina, 31st in 26:34 and Emilee Bauer, 39th in 30:16.

In the boys' race, O-F's Lincoln Bertrang finished 31st in 20:43 and Mason Scheffer was 35rd in 21:19. O-F junior Kyle Burmesch had his best result of the 2021 season finishing 11th in 18:31.

Osseo-Fairchild also competed in the Eau Claire Memorial Old Abe Invitational last weekend Saturday, Oct. 9 in Eau Claire. The Thunder girls' placed 17th out of the 18 teams competing with their times and places as follows: Breanna Wier 79th in 24:12.1, Aurora Wier 91st in 25:33.9; Aubrey Schmidt, 101st in 26:49.7; Ada Nelson, 102nd in 11 26:54.9; Rylee Bratina, 110th in 28:40.6 and Emilee Bauer, 114th in 34:59.8. Menomonie won the team title with 55 points led by the race-winner Isabella Jacobsen whose time was 18:04.

Running in the boys' race for O-F were Kyle Burmesch, 81st in 19:42; John Landrum, 109th in 22:09; Lincoln Bertrang, 121st in 27:49 and Brandan Ames, 122nd in 27:49.5. Hudson won the team title with 79 points and Chippewa Falls' Lukas Wagner won the race in 16:15.