Post Messenger Recorder -

Beautiful weekends in October are not unheard of but they are appreciated. As a bright sun warms the crisp, calm air we didn't realize it foretells of an especially enjoyable day ahead. The Capitol Conference Cross Country meet occurs at Walking Iron Park, located on the northwest corner of Mazomanie. We've already explored the three miles laid-out for today's footrace. At exactly 10:00 a.m., the first Varsity race starts and the girls representing the twelve Capitol Conference teams sprint off the line. For the first kilometer the gals circle a grass path in Lions Park before crossing a bridge and entering the horse trails and hiking paths of W.I.P. As they come off the bridge, we see a half dozen ladies in front of our number one runner, Lily Maynard (19:20). The rest of our team is buried among the other 84 competitors.

"I don't know why they take off so fast because they just die away by the first mile," commented Lily.

It's hard to watch the entire race because the ladies disappear into the woods. With one kilometer remaining, the gals fly down a slippery, sandy path and come back into view. As has been the pattern, our New Glarus-Monticello team runs at an even pace to take advantage of those who exhaust themselves before the finish. Today is no exception and we witness our blue and red uniforms picking people off right to the end. The team finishes as fastest in the Capitol Conference team, and New Glarus-Monticello is awarded the Capitol South trophy. Lily Maynard (19:20), Ruthie Zuber (19:26), Molly Olson (19:36), Mel Fink (19:38), Emma Martinson (19:56), Annika Ziperski (19:58) and Cam Arnett (20:27) also earn individual All-Conference recognition.

The Junior Varsity team, led by Lucy Melvin (20:51), Ruth Marty (21:08), Ella Salas (21:47), Tenley Faber (22:10) and Ella Skidmore (22:42), and the rest of our JV team, score a perfect 15 by taking the first five scoring places and eleven of the top twelve spots.

Photo courtesy of Kristi Blum

Capitol Conference South Cross Country Champions for 2022 From left: Linden Lounsbury, Ian Schwartzlow, Tanner Gardner, Thomas Nelson, Collin Blum, Grayson Rodefeld, Kaleb Welhouse.

Going into this race we've defeated Deerfield/Cambridge two times, but they've never run with their full team. We've only beaten Belleville once, and only by a few points. All week long we've planned on competing in a close race. This morning we find one of our top guys is ill. We move Linden Lounsbury from JV to Varsity. No matter where you watched during the first 4,500 meters, it looked like B would win followed by D/C. Something happened in the last 500 meters, or as Grayson Rodefeld said, "I just kept passing people." Tom Nelson (16:08) places 3rd behind Carter from B and Martin from D/C, but Tanner Gardner (17:22) and Ian Schwartzlow (17:35) even things up by finishing ahead of their guys. Then the surprise of the day occurs as Linden Lounsbury (18:18), formerly on JV, knocks off his B and D/C guys. Grayson Rodefeld (18:52) slides in just ahead of his competitors. The race continues but the top five runners from our teams have already crossed the finish line. Kaleb Welhouse (19:24) and Collin Blum (19:27), our back-up runners, do well today with their fastest times of the season. It only takes a few minutes after the race concludes for the timing system to compute the winners and post the scores on their website. Against all odds, the New Glarus-Monticello varsity guys earn 52 points to beat B'ville's 55, D/C's 62, Wisconsin Heights/Barneveld's 95, Waterloo's 107 and Marshall's 135.

The JV boys don't fare as well as their teammates but do finish 3rd of the 6 teams in the Capitol Conference South. Jackson Umhoefer (19:34), Raymond Valentine Jr. (20:47), Carter Ness (22:50), Avery Bell (25:18) and Michelangelo O'Brien (43:43) represent the NGM guys.

Every conference win is appreciated but this is the fourth year in a row that both the New Glarus-Monticello varsity boys and girls earned conference trophies. It is an especially enjoyable day.