Augusta, FC girls runners meet winners already to start season
The weather has been hot lately and so have the prep cross country teams at Augusta and Fall Creek.
Fall Creek won the girls team title in their season-opening meet, the Indy/Gilmanton Invitational held at Pietrek Park in between Independence and Arcadia back on Aug. 25. FC scored 42 points, just ahead of second-place Augusta who had 50 followed by Stanley-Boyd finished with 70, Mondovi 81 and Whitehall 117 to round out the top five. Leading the Crickets this season are two-time state qualifier senior Audrey Koehler along with fellow letterwinners senior Rylee Winsand and junior Emily Volbrecht. They both finished in the top 20 with Winsand finishing 11th and Volbrecht in 15th. At the Loyal/Greenwood Invitational held last week Tuesday, Sept. 1, FC's girls finished second in the team score behind S-B. Koheler and Winsand finished 3-4 individually with times of 22:51 and 22:57 while sophomore letterwinner Paige Anderson finished ninth in 23:58. Vollbrecht finished 13th and senior letterwinner Kamryn Dahlberg finished in 15th place.
AHS not only returns junior Laney O'Brien, one of the top runners in a top-heavy Dairyland Conference that's been dominated by Cochrane-Fountain City and the Duellman sisters and Independence/Gilmanton led by the Syllas but O'Brien now has some family help this season too as sister freshman Aubree O'Brien finished sixth in her first varsity meet to go with Laney's second place showing. Sophie Bergmann is back as a returning letterwinner as are Tessa Schroeder and Viola MacDonald and newcomer Mya Grandgaard has run well too so far.
The was evident at the Marshfield Columbus Invitational held this past Saturday, Sept. 4 at Wildwood Park in Marshfield. AHS had four girls finish in the top 10 with Bergman eighth, Mya Grangaard sixth, Aubree O’Brien fourth and Laney O’Brien second. This core group of runners, if they stay healthy, can help the Beavers break CFC's lock on the DC's girls' title.
Perhaps what was most impressive for AHS was the fact they had ran 48 hours before on a hot and humid Thursday, Sept. 3 in the Jesse Brone Invitational at Cochrane-FC. Augusta finished second behind Bangor and finished ahead of the host Pirates who placed sixth and I/G which took fourth. Laney finished fifth, Aubree ninth and Mya 10th. Other DC teams in the meet were incomplete although Eleva-Strum is one runner away from having a full team. And if the do, they could have a solid bunch led by Another newcomer, freshman Elsie Christ came home third in 21:56 at the I/G Invite and has been running well so far in recent meets. She also finished fourth at the Jesse Brone Invitational and senior Avery Glenz, one of the best athletes at the school, is also out for the sport for the first time and finished 14th. The girls squad is led by freshman Elsie Christ and a trio of senior newcomers: Avery Glenz, Grace Hulett and LIlian Ross.
Augusta's finished 10th in the Brone Invite out of 14 teams (E-S and Osseo-Fairchild both had full teams as well and they finished ninth and 14th respectively. But Augusta junior Zale Pettis is establishing himself as one of the top runners in the Area. He won the I/G Invite race in 17:49, setting a course record. He was second at Brone in 17:51 on the 5000-meter course and set a new personal best time finishing third in Marshfield. Other returning boys letterwinners for the Tri-County Area DC teams include John Kempf, Michael Lahn, Sam Gehrke and Nolan McConnell for E-S, Riley Charo and Thomas Troug for Augusta. The Central boys squad is led by a quintet of sophomore boys following two additions.
Osseo-Fairchild lost quite a few runners to graduation in Drake Vojtik - 2nd team all-conference; Alyssa Burmesch - 4 year letter winner; Orion Prudlick - 3 year letter winner and Noah Sullivan. Making up the Thunders' boys team this fall are Emerick Korger - 12, Dalton Clark - 11, George Clark - 10, Kole Bratina - 10; Layne Armstrong-Baglien 10 and Alfons Jesunas - 9.
In the boys race at Pietrek Park, Mondovi won the team title with 28 points, ahead of Stanley-Boyd in second place with 66 and Independence/Gilmanton in third with 105 points. Whitehall tied for fourth with Fall Creek with 109, Lincoln scored 116 and Augusta 142. Mondovi also won the Brone Invite as well. FC's boys had better showing at the L/G Invite, taking third behind Stanley-Boyd and Chippewa Falls McDonell . The Crickets were led by senior letterwinner Alex Anderson who finished sixth in 21:02. FC has a young squad this season consisting of junior Weston Mielke (who placed 14th at L/G); sophomore Andon Koehler; freshman Vincent Wilkom (17th); sophomore Aiden Christenson; junior Hudson Abts and freshmen Caleb Widdicombe and Jackson Morneau.
Meets after Labor Day involving Area team include the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser Invite on Sept. 8, the G-E-T Invitational on the 10th, the Knudtson Invite in Fall Creek on Saturday, Sept. 12 and the Colby Invitational the same day. The Tri-County Invite in Black River Falls is on Monday, Sept. 14 and Augusta hosts its invite meet Tuesday, Sept. 15.
