The New Glarus-Monticello cross country team experienced our own version of Gulliver's travels. A week ago at the Platteville Invitational, we were placed in the Small School category. The varsity girls won the Lilliputian division. This week we travel to Albany to compete as a Large School. Among the Brobdingnag's are rival teams Mt. Horeb, Monroe, Oregon and Little Chute.

On this beautiful Saturday morning we watch a competitive group of almost 140 runners race the hills and wooded paths of the former Baertschi Farm. Judging who wins today is difficult as many schools get one or two gals into the chute before our first runner, Lily Maynard (20:40) finishes in 18th. She leads a relatively tight group behind her. Melanie Fink (20:50), Ruthie Zuber (20:56), Molly Olson, Emma Martinson (21:32), Annika Ziperski (21:53) and Cam Arnett (21:58). Although other runners mix in with our ladies, we all finish before any other school can get a complete team across the white line. The NGM'ers end up 11 points ahead of Monroe to take the First Place trophy.

The first mile of the Baertschi cross country course is a big loop which brings the runners back to the main group of spectators before it sends the athletes north, through the woods and along Allen Creek. By the first half-mile, the Junior Varsity dominates the race. Leading for most of the race is our own Lucy Melvin (22:42). In the sprint to the finish, an Oregon girl sneaks by to push Lucy into 2nd place. Other than the injury to Lucy's ego, no damage is done as the team places Ruth Marty (22:47) in 3rd, Tenley Faber (23:15) 5th, Ella Salas (23:46) 6th and Ella Skidmore 11th to total an impressive 27 points. The nearest team is Oregon, with 44 points. The remainder of the JV'ers enjoy some of their fastest times of the season: Sophie Stecha (25:10), Eve MacLean (25:32), Anya Brenkman (26:10), Juniper Lounsbury (26:27), Elena Marunde (28:53), Abi Burk (28:53), Devi Duerst (30:57), Delany Karls (35:02), and Ayden McCoy (42:47).

The Varsity boys line up thinking less about winning the Big School division and much more on trying to match our conference rivals, Belleville and Deerfield/Cambridge. To date we've not competed well with the B'ville Wildcats and only narrowly defeated D/C earlier in the season. Spectators enjoy watching the front of the pack that includes Joe Stoddard (16:22) from Mt. Horeb, Riley Huss (16:30) from Little Chute, Carter Scholey (16:31) from Belleville, and our Tom Nelson (16:43). Carter almost takes 2nd place, with Tom finishing closer to Carter than he has all season. Our guys place 5th in the Large School division by running some of their fastest times of the season. Jude Rice (18:46) continues to improve and pulls Tanner Gardner (18:54) and Ian Schwartzlow (18:56) through in the 18s. A minute passes before our Grayson Rodefeld (19:58) comes across in 5th, allowing us to score 116. Kaleb Wellhouse (21:06) and Linden Lounsbury (21:56) hold down the last two positions. Our 116 points places us ahead of Deerfield/Cambridge at 204. Although Belleville is in the Small School Division, we compare times to see that, finally, we've run faster than the Wildcats.

The excitement culminates this morning with the boys Junior Varsity race. Not because we might win, not because we expect to run fast times, but because we line up with five guys and if they all finish we get to score as a team. Collin Blum (21:15) posts the fastest time of the season followed by Jackson Umhoefer (21:22), Raymond Valentine (22:39) and Carter Ness (25:02) to give us a partial score of 131 but we need one more runner. We're hoping that somewhere, out on the course, is our number five man. For fifteen minutes we wait and watch. We hear the sound of the four-wheeler before we see Michelangelo O'Brien come into view. He and the trailing vehicle move down the course, up the last two hills, run the long stretch then turn toward the finish line. He picks up his pace and even finds a sprint to finish in 50:23. With delight we find we've scored 189 with our full five-man team, and placed 7th to defeat both Darlington and Belleville.

Photo courtesy of Steve Wehrley

Ella Skidmore demonstrates focus and smooth running at the Baertschi Invitational.

Our travels take us to Mazomanie as Wisconsin Heights hosts the Capitol Conference meet next Saturday. With evenly matched teams this contest should be as exciting as any Jonathan Swift* story.

*If you forgot from high school, he is the author of Gulliver's Travels.