Return to Twining

What do you find more exciting: long series of playoffs, or a sudden-death contest?  (Maybe it depends if you are a Cubs fan?)  In cross country the season focuses on one sectional race, followed by the state championship.  Friday afternoon at Monroe’s Twining Park sees fifteen Division Two teams line-up for that one chance.  Our southwest corner of the state is different than any other area in the midwest.  We live on unglaciated land (glaciers went right around us and reconvened in Illinois!), large areas of prairie (why do you think our ancestors settled here?) and fast cross country runners.  Two of the girls teams and four of the boys are ranked in state.  Only two of each will pass on to Wisconsin Rapids next Saturday.
Girls take off at 4:30 p.m., with McFarland and Dodgeville/Mineral Point reasonably confident they are the chosen ones.  Instead, unranked Lodi pulls the upset and qualifies first, McFarland second, DV/MP ends third with Brodhead/Juda one tiny point behind.  Lodi and McFarland will represent our corner of the state.
The New Glarus/Monticello girls finish just behind Madison Edgewood to record eighth place.  The first race of the season occurred at this same Twining Park so we look for improvement in times.  Gabbie Sawyer (21:06) and Ashley Risley (21:33) each drop a minute and half, Jane Thurow (22:52) goes two minutes faster, Kelly Fredrickson (22:42) and Rebecca Barr (23:49) shed around three minutes, Gabby Whistler (24:16) dodges six minutes and Jenna Molencamp (24:15) cruises through infinitely faster because she didn’t even run at our first visit at Monroe.
The boys face four ranked teams.  McFarland comes through as predicted but Madison Edgewood knocks off Monroe and Platteville in a reversal of forecasts.  Our guys end up 10th of the 15 teams, sandwiched between Brodhead/Juda and Evansville.
As he has done for every race this year, Kyle Fredrickson (17:50) leads the team.  He and Christian Arnett (18:35) lose over a minute from the September race.  Max Cruse (18:09), Cade Beutler (20:03), Andrew Newberry (20:19) and Colin McNulty (20:24) discard over two minutes while Ben Jackson (18:59) breaks the nineteen minute barrier AND sloughs four and a half.
The Cubbies playoff game lasted several hours.  Our races finished in less than sixty minutes.  All that yelling, cheering and sweating concentrated in a short period of time.
For the Chicago Northsiders and our NGM’ers, the season is now over with the feeling that both teams produced excitement and noticeable improvement.