Two Meets and Five Victories
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Photo courtesy of Karen Guenther
NGM boys hold their own against the Verona guys on Verona's new home course.
Two weeks of practice and four weeks of competition precede Conference, Sectionals and State. The Alternate Fall Cross Country season sets a record for brevity. Unable to compete in the fall, the WIAA granted schools a short spring season in place of the traditional August, September and October. Three weeks into this shortened season, NGM turned over five victories and one close finish.
On Tuesday last, the boys lined-up against McFarland and Columbus in McFarland. Despite the difficulty some guys encountered breathing through a triple thick mask, they finished 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 to score first place with 20 points to Columbus's 91 and McFarland's 114. Evan Guenther (18:16), Tom Nelson (18:34), Brayden Ryan (18:54), Braylon Hoesly (19:08), Ty Ready (19:42), Conor McCoy (19:50) and Ian Schwartzlow (20:19) represented the Varsity. Linden Lounsbury (20:38) finished first for the JV as our young Red, White and Blue guys also placed first.
Making winning for the other teams nearly impossible, Lily Maynard (21:49), Annika Ziperski (22:55) and Melanie Fink (23:15) crossed the line as one, two, three. When Dayna Karls (24:09), Emma Martinson (24:10), Ruth Marty (25:14) and Tenley Faber (25:33) blasted through as seventh, eighth, twelfth and thirteenth, it was all over except the recovery breathing and masked shouting. NGM 21, Columbus 52 and McFarland 56.
Photo courtesy of Randy Marks
Lily Maynard and Varsity girls start pulling away from Verona girls' team.
On Thursday, the NGMers visited neighbor Verona on the new Stewart's Wood Cross Country Course on the south end of the huge Verona Area High School campus. Professionally designed and developed, half the course snakes up and down through the ancient trees of Stewart's Woods. The trails are wide and covered with lush turf. The other half loops around a prairie as spectators easily observe the competitors. Verona boys defended their home by barely defeating New Glarus-Monticello 27 to 29. Getting revenge, our JV guys won as Linden Lounsbury (20:03), Desi Delforge (21:29), Tanner Gardner (22:40), Collin Blum (22:47), Griffin Ness (23:48), Ben Collins (24:58) and Triston Koch (25:16) defeated the Wildcats.
Although the Bigger School Girls attempted to run ahead of our Smaller School Girls they soon faded away as Lily Maynard, Melanie Fink, Dayna Karls and Annika Ziperski took the first four spots and Emma Martinson grabbed number seven. Our ladies scored a near perfect 17 points to Verona's 38. A perfect score in cross country is 15 points (add up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 as a team's first five runners places determines their team score). Our two victories turned out to be even more special as the Thursday races were the first ever held on this amazing, dedicated CC course.
