Last Saturday, the Dodge-Point high school and middle school cross country teams took part in the Platteville Invitational at Veterans Memorial Park. It was a chilly morning, but great weather rolled in by the time the races came around, and maybe got even a little too warm for the open race that took place around noon. Overall, it was a good day as the girls varsity earned first, the girls JV fourth, the boys varsity third, the boys JV eighth, the middle school girls first, and the middle school boys second.

The girls varsity team came out with another win with a lead of 37 points. Out of 174 runners, Ellie Robinson finished 1st, Annie Robinson 3rd, Julia Thompson 20th, Brianna Wasley 26th, Regan Schuette 40th, Grace Wersal 48th, and Sierra Davenport 51st. The girls varsity team was facing some injuries: Addison Christopher is unable to compete for the time being due to a stress reaction, and Grace Wersal struggled with a lingering injury from the past few weeks, but still tried her hardest. The JV team runners included Ava Hying with an impressive 5th place, Abbey Ludwig 8th, Ava McDonald 14th, Emma Giddings 32nd, Brooke Paynter 47th, Aly Jones 71st, Katie Kramer 74th, Breken Blackford-Hesselberg 76th, and Madi Bakken 98th.

Boys varsity finished 3rd only 8 points behind second place team Monroe and just 14 points behind 1st place team McFarland. Layne Aurit — still missing his running partner, Cody Yoder — finished 8th. Behind him was Parker Owens 21st, Joey Robinson 26th, Lucas Sullivan 61st, Jesse Yoder 62nd, Alex LaMere 77th, and Gabe Engel 93rd. There were 194 runners that competed in this race. On the JV side, Gavin Harpold had a strong race that earned him 19th, and Andrew Hesseling was not far behind Harpold in 24th. Finishing after them were Matthew Goninen 39th, Taitin Riley 52nd, and Carson Schroeder 84th. Chayse Helwig was still unable to compete due to injury.

In middle school action, Lilly Houtakker was 9th, Payton Christopher 11th,  Faye Schuette 16th, and Lucy Paynter 107th. On the boy’s side, Johnny Robinson was 9th, Logan Swinehart 12th, Boden Chambers 13th, Nolan Allendorf 15th, Alstan Van Overmeer 77th, and Bo Lindsey 94th.