Tri-County Area cross country teams return bulk of runners from last season

The Knutdson Invitational is this weekend, Saturday, Sept. 14 in Fall Creek beginning at 10 a.m. which will see Tri-County Area prep cross country teams Augusta, Osseo-Fairchild and the host team Falls Creek competing along with Durand-Arkansaw, Boyceville, Eau Claire Regis, Thorp, Glenwood City and Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran, a good cross-section of small school cross country teams throughout the region.

For Area teams to be successful this season (along with Eleva-Strum which competed at yesterdays G-E-T Invite) they need the runners they have returning from last year to improve upon what they did a year ago and newcomers to make an immediate impact.

An impact like that of Augusta freshman Laney O'Brien who ran well in a meet in Marshfield back on Aug.31 and lifted Augusta to a good team finish. She joins returning runners Preston Schafer, Garett Larson, Roella Weiss, Sam Hanson and Kaden Rodriguez with only Cecelia Hanson graduating to help the Beavers be far more competitive in 2023. Head coach Zach Lee figures AHS's top runners will be O'Brien, Sophie Bergman, Maya Peterson, Thomas Truog, Dasan Downey, Zale Pettis, Riley Charlo, and Jayson Klingbeil to go with aforementioned returning letter-winners. If the Beavers stay healthy they should compete as a team the time the Dairyland Conference meet rolls around on Oct. 17, hosted by AHS. . Augusta was third in boys and fourth in girls last fall.

"Team success for us will be everyone enjoying practice, a team atmosphere that is fun and inviting, making great memories, and everyone is working hard," Lee said.

The DC will feature some strong teams like Cochrane-Fountain City girls who won both their own Brone Invitational back on Sept. 5 and the G-E-T Invite yesterday led by defending DC individual champion junior Addy Duellman, and Independence/Gilmanton led by their own talented junior runner Taylor Sylla, who finished in top five of the Brone Invite as well. They finished 1-2 individually at the Red Hawk Invite, both running under minutes on the 5000-meter course. Defending Dairyland boys team champ Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran returns seven runners who competed in last year's conference meet including their top runner senior Logan Thompson. Blair-Taylor, Melrose- and Whitehall will also offer their toughest challenges to repeat as champions.

Joining Augusta in the DC meet will be Eleva-Strum and new conference member Osseo-Fairchild, both with small teams but with talented and experienced runners returning from last season. One of those is Eleva-Strum junior Russell Hulett. In his very first season of cross country running he finished sixth in the conference meet and picked up where he left off by taking sixth in the Brone Invitational in 18:54 on the 5000-meter course. He did even better at the G-E-T Red Hawk Invite by finishing fourth in 18:37

"I'm running more effieciently now. This is just my second year running," Hulett said. "I'm running with a good pace, not starting too strong but having the ability to catch other runners during a race and not letting them catch me."

Also back for E-S are runners junior Alex Awe senior Amalia Dyar, their lone female runner who took 37th in the Brone meet at 26:33 and 40th at G-E-T in 26:50. Joining them are junior Gabe Wakefield and freshman Sam Gehrke. Graduating from last year's Central squad were Anabel Howie and Jillian Awe. Cardinal head coach Martin Walter would love to recruit more runners, especially for the boys team so they can make the team score. That and other factors will make a for a good 2024 season for the Redbirds.

"A successful season is one in which each team member works hard all season and shows significant improvement throughout the season," Walter said. "Each team member consistently maintains a good attitude and demonstrates good sportsmanship throughout the season. Ideally, consistent year round effort will result in one or more team members that finish either first or second team all-conference and perhaps qualify for State competition."

Just as important for both E-S and O-F was the middle school race at the Brone Invite and beyond this season. To buid up their high school programs they will have to keep the middle school runners out until they graduate. Both squads had good individual results at Brone with E-S's Elsie Crist, a seventh grader, finishing second and O-F eighth grader Annabell Koplein taking fourth in the girls race while the Thunder's Alfons Jesunas and the Cards' Michael Lahn finished 7-8 with both schools having full boys teams.

"We just have to keep building, keeping bringing kids out and keeping them out for the sport," new Osseo-Fairchild head coach Jeff Stoik said. "And it starts in middle school and we have some good numbers there this year."

O-F's high school team has competed in the Bloomer and Brone invites so far. Members of the team include junior Alyssa Burmesch, their lone female runner, along with returning runners senor Nolan Olson and junior Orion Prudlick and sophomore Casey Bauer. The Thunder graduated Mason Scheffer from last season.

Fall Creek's season began did for Osseo-Fairchild, at the Bloomer Invitational back on Sept. 3 where the boys finished fifth out of 12 teams competing and the girls were fourth. FC returns all its boys runners who took part in the Cloverbelt Conference meet last year where they finished seventh including senior Joel Stump, who finished 12th at Bloomer in a time of 19:23.0 followed by junior Marcus Coleman, 20th in 21:29; sophomore Alex Anderson, 24th in 22:24; senior Jamison Carey, 27th in 23:05; junior Kaden Prock, 28th in 23:11 along with freshman Weston Mielke, who placed 31st in 24:16 and junior Shane Moore, 37th in 27:26. Returning runners for the girls include sophomore Audrey Koheler, who finished seventh in Bloomer in a time of 22:01; senior Cora Peterson, 19th in 24:54 and sophomore Kamryn Dahlberg, 29th in 26:41; junior Ellie Coach, 56th in 29:27; sophomore Reece Asmussen, 62nd in 30:24. Other FCHS runners competing in Bloomer were senior Emma Westrate, 26th in 25:50; sophomore Iris Van Wormer, 31st in 27:02; freshman Emily Vollbrecht, 33rd in 28:13; freshman Claire Fischer, 57th in 29:28 and senior Kendyl Asmussen, 60th in 30:24.

At the Loyal Invitational last weekend, Audrey Koehler & Cora Peterson medaled for the girls and Joel Stump & Marcus Coleman medaled for the boys all finishing in the top 20.