Post Messenger Recorder -

We witness two bucks battling nonstop for nineteen minutes. The fight ranges over three miles of woodlands, prairie and grassland of Platteville's large Veterans Park. Near the end, both exhausted animals release a final burst of energy. The dark haired one takes control until an old, wily male, following and stalking them the entire contest, dashes by and beats both. Jude Rice (19:36) and sophomore Tanner Gardner (19:42) can't believe that senior Beckett Malaise (19:34) snatches the sprint away from them. However, their effort, along with back-up from Owen Runkle, Aiden Runkle, Ben Collins, Collin Blum, Iain Vinson, Ray Valentine and Carter Ness, defeat 33 other teams to win the junior varsity trophy for New Glarus-Monticello Cross Country.

Lucy Melvin (22:50) runs free of nearby competition as she crosses the line thirty-some seconds behind #1 and twenty-some seconds ahead of #3. Ruthie Zuber (24:01), Ruth Marty (24:13), Eve Maclean (25:10), Juniper Lounsbury (25:48), Ella Skidmore (26:45), Devi Duerst (34:58) and Amalia Morrison (35:56) stake out third place overall in junior varsity at the Platteville CC Invitational.

Going into the large Platteville Invitational (17 small school teams and 17 large school teams) we know that all the power houses from our D2 Sectional will be present. At the end of the CC races this Saturday morning, progress reports will be issued. Our New Glarus-Monticello boys are predicted to finish 5th as four other state ranked teams line-up with us. 158 runners fly off the starting line with our blue and red uniforms mixed in the pack. Tom Nelson (17:05) and Evan Guenther (16:55) run side-by-side until Evan starts his sprint with 400 meters remaining. Their #4 and #7 puts us in second overall, but we need three more guys to hold that spot. Braylon Hoesly (18:01) and Brayden Ryan (18:26) finish #25 and #32 to keep us there but we need a good finish from Ian Schwartzlow (18:29), Grayson Rodefeld (18:51) or Linden Lounsbury (19:15) to bring home the upset. As Ian clears the line in 37th place, we score 105 points and just touch out Lodi (who beat us last week) by 2 points. To others it might "just be a runner-up trophy" but to us it's our midterm report card and it says "showing improvement."

Photo courtesy of Karen Guenther

Ruthie Zuber covers the last 200 meters at full speed.

Of the varsity girls teams, Dodgeville/Mineral Point holds the number two ranking in the state. We believe that several others from our D2 Sectional should be ranked but are not. Maybe today's races among these 17 big school teams will change that. As expected, Dodgeville/Mineral Point starts strong as the Robinson sisters (18:26 and 19:03) place #1 and #3 and their Julie T. (19:45) finishes #4. With their next two gals, they score 56 points. We counter with Lily Maynard (20:13) in 8th, Dayna Karls (20:58), Annika Ziperski (21:49), Melanie Fink (21:59.8), Emma Martinson (22:10), Cam Arnett (23:07) and Anya Brenkman (23:08) scoring 114 points. Mount Horeb's Rhya B. (19:59.9) places #5. Their score of 123 comes close to us. Seven other teams score under 200 points but our 114 holds for second place. Another runner-up trophy joins the two other awards sitting on the front seat of the bus.

Saturday, October 9th, we travel to the Baertschi Farm outside of Albany for the "Run By The River" Invitational. Our bucks and does will be running with the four footed types that live on this attractive cross country course.