Post Messenger Recorder -

“We’re number one! We’re number one!” How often do you get to say that? Not very. On Saturday, Sept. 5, the New Glarus-Monticello cross country team utters “we’re number one (no exclamation point)” as we jog onto the course of the huge Verona Wildcat Invitational. Our gals stand in lane one at the far end of the starting line. Twenty-five other schools arrange themselves in ten-foot chutes stretching across the field. The gun fires, and the lonely feeling disappears as 167 varsity girls converge on the trail up the first hill.

The temperature and humidity rise from mid-seventi...