Oct 14, 2022

Last night, the boys and girls cross country teams competed in the Southwest Wisconsin Conference CC Meet. The weather was good for the runners, but a little chilly for the spectators. The girls secured the conference champions title.  

The boys earned second overall, after tying with Platteville. It came down to the 6th runner, Jesse Yoder, but the team fell short by just 1 point. It was a real nail-biter. 

Both teams came away with the individual champions as well; Ellie Robinson was the first girl and Layne Aurit was the first boy for the day.

The girls won by an impressive 30 points to second place Platteville; they have been ranked first in the state for the past four weeks, so it was an expected win. Ellie Robinson was the conference champion for the girl’s race. Only 13 seconds behind Ellie was her twin sister, Annie Robinson, earning a second-place finish. Julia Thompson, who completed her last conference race in her high school cross-country career, placed 6th. After Thompson, Brienna Wasley placed 10th, Regan Schuette placed 11th, and Grace Wersal placed 12th. Wasley, Schuette, and Wersal ran as a strong pack the entire race. Addison Christopher, running her first race after her injury, placed 15th. The two Robinsons, along with Thompson, received first-team all-conference. Wasley, Schuette, and Wersal were second-team. Ava Hying, coming out of nowhere, placed 19th, securing the alternate spot going forward. Hying was also the first JV finisher of the day. Next was Sierra Davenport in 24th, Abbey Ludwig 29th, Ava McDonald 31st, Brooke Paynter 40th, Emma Giddings 41st, Madelyn Bakken 51st, Aly Jones 57th, Katie Kramer 58th, and last but not least, foreign exchange student Carla Gonzalez finished her second cross country race ever, placing 60th. 

In the boys race, everyone knew it would be close between DP and Platteville, but no one expected a tie. In cross country, usually, the top five runners score, unless there’s a tie, in which case it will go to the sixth runner of each team to break the tie. This came down to Jesse Yoder of DP and Brian Richter of Platteville. Richter beat Yoder by just ten seconds, giving the victory to Platteville. Layne Aurit deserves a special shout-out for being the conference champion, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Will, who graduated last year. Following Layne was Parker Owens, 5th, with a tuck-and-roll at the finish as he finished in between two other runners, with only one second between each. Aurit and Owens both earned 1st-team all-conference. Joey Robinson finished 9th, Lucas Sullivan 11th, and Alex Lamere 13th, which earned the three boys 2nd team all-conference. Jesse Yoder came in 16th and Gabe Engel 17th, rounding out the varsity team. Chayse Helwig, 27th, also running his first race since his injury,  will be the alternate for the remainder of the season. Andrew Hesseling received 30th, Gavin Harpold 39th, Matthew Goninen 40th, Ethan Hook 44th, Taitin Riley 48th, and Carson Schroeder 49th. Cody Yoder still has his hip injury so he was unable to compete; however, he was given the honorable mention award for his success earlier this season.

Now, the varsity teams will be focusing on the sectional meet, which will take place on Saturday, October 22nd at the Prairie du Chien Country Club. The girls race will take place at 11:00 and the boys will follow at 11:45. The teams hope to see you there!