Girls Strong, Boys Need to Close Some Gaps

The Capitol Conference Meet remains several weeks away but after Invitationals on Tuesday at Marshall and Saturday at Belleville, it appears that, among the boys teams, our neighbor Wildcats will be favored followed by New Glarus-Monticello with Deerfield/Cambridge in third.
The NGM ladies, both V and JV, appear to be ahead of all other conference teams at this point.
NGM's Tom Nelson (16:31) wins the Tuesday race, with Deerfield/Cambridge's Martin Kimmel (16:56) close behind. A minute later the second D/C finishes. Our Tanner Gardner (18:39) sneaks in ahead of the third D/C while Ian Schwartzlow (18:43) and Linden Lounsbury (19:58) complete before D/C's fourth runner. With four runners on both teams across the line, it's up to the fifth guy to decide the race and fortunately Kaleb Welhouse (20:58), Collin Blum, and Jack Umhoefer (21:42) push the score in favor of New Glarus-Monticello. The guys end up 4th of the 11 teams but, clearly, ahead of our conference rival D/C.
Our Jude Rice wins the JV race with a time of 19:13.
In the girls Varsity race, Deerfield/Cambridge places ladies in 1st and 4th before Lily Maynard (20:43) crosses in 5th but then Ruthie Zuber (21:01), Molly Olson (21:04) and Melanie Fink (21:25) blast through in 8th, 9th and 10th to tip the scales in our favor. Emma Martinson (21:57) bests another D/C by 0.64 seconds and the team earns 45 points. Our back-up runner Annika Ziperski (22:04) slides in before the 4th and 5th D/C, and Deerfield/Cambridge totals 62. Camryn Arnett (23:08) is our other back-up gal. The ladies are first of ten teams.
Lucy Melvin (22:52), Tenley Faber (23:14), Ruth Marty (23:59), Ella Salas (24:24) and Eve MacLean (25:37) score a low 22 points to easily win the girls JV race.
The New Glarus-Monticello ladies continue their winning ways on Saturday at Belleville. As Ruthie Zuber (21:57), Lily Maynard (22:04), Melanie Fink (22:05), Molly Olson (22:27), Emma Martinson (23:01), Annika Ziperski (23:44) and Lucy Melvin (23:49) pack together with the scoring five going 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th and 11th, they total a winning 38 points. The next team, Evansville, earns double that with a 77 and our ladies earn the first place trophy in this 8 team meet.
In cross country the places of the first five runners decide the team score. At Belleville, the Junior Varsity ladies score a Perfect Fifteen, with Camryn Arnett (24:07), Ruth Marty, Ella Salas, Tenley Faber, Eve MacLean, Sophie Stecha and Juniper Lounsbury taking the first seven spots.
The boys race does not fall in favor of NGM. Belleville's Carter Scholey (17:14) wins the meet with our Tom Nelson (17:45) in third. The Wildcats place guys in 10th, 18th, 32nd and 39th to score 100 points. At one point we even the score as Ian Schwartzlow (19:58) and Tanner Gardner (19:59) sprint in, but the gap before the rest of our team finishes is too big with Linden Lounsbury (20:52), Kaleb Welhouse (21:52) Collin Blum (22:31) and Jack Umhoefer (22:49) earning 107 points to Belleville's 100.
Jude Rice (20:06) again places first on JV as Ray Valentine (24:41), Landon Schneeberg (28:40), Iain Vinson (33:20) and Michaelangelo O'Brien (53:58) earn 66 points and fourth place at the Wildcat Invitational.
Next Saturday the team travels to Fennimore to compete on the attractive, and hilly, Hickory Grove Golf Course.