On Saturday, the Dodge-Point cross country teams took part in the very large River Valley Blackhawk Invitational, competing in the large school division. The varsity girls finished in second place behind D1 school Madison West, and the varsity boys finished in 6th place. All of the varsity girls ran very strong and smart races, but still fell just short of the Regents. Ellie Robinson notably secured first place, and twin sister Annie was not far behind her in fourth. Addy Christopher, Regan Schuette, Grace Wersal, and Sierra Davenport (Dodgeville) ran as a pack of four for much of the race. Christopher finished 32nd, Schuette 38th, and Wersal 39th. The boys had some struggles when two varsity runners, Cody Yoder and Chayse Helwig (Dodgeville), were both injured during the race. Yoder was pulled from the race and Helwig finished, but both were looked at by the trainer on site afterwards. Their teammates all ran strong races, particularly Jesse Yoder (twin brother to Cody) and Parker Owens (Dodgeville), who finished right with Joey Robinson. 46th place was earned by Robinson.

In JV action, the girls took 3rd and the boys 9th. Brienna Wasley (Dodgeville) had a spectacular race, which will most likely earn her a spot on varsity for the remainder of the season. Competitors from Mineral Point included Brooke Paynter (63rd), Breken Blackford-Hesselberg (94th), and Aly Jones (114th). All ran strong races, especially for just being the third meet of the season. For the boys, there were a few runners from Dodgeville that finished near the front, and there were many strong middle-pack runners from MP. This includes Taitin Riley (129th), Matthew Goninen (130th), and Carson Schroeder (177th). Keep in mind that this race contained over 230 runners. 

The middle school girls team finished 9th overall. Pointer runners included Lily Houtaker (13th), Faye Schuette (30th), Emme Ollerich (75th), Lucy Paynter (217th) . The boys team took 3rd place out of 21 teams. Many pointers finished towards the front of the pack in the boys race as well, including Boden Chambers (13th) Logan Swinehart (24th), Johnny Robinson (24th), Nolan Allendorf (55th), Alastan Van Overmeer (119th), and Bo Lindsey (123rd). The future looks bright for these young runners and it will be exciting to watch them through future years!