August 26, 2023
The Dodge-Point boys and girls cross country teams recently kicked off their seasons with the Gale Johnson CC Kick-Off in West Salem. Both teams were expected to do well at this meet, as the girls varsity is currently ranked #3 in the state, with the boys close behind at #7. The varsity girls team finished first, and the varsity boys came in fourth.
It was a long bus ride to West Salem for the first meet of the season, but coaches Denny McGraw and Joe Hanson put it in the schedule so the teams could learn and know the sectional course they will be competing on later this season. Many fast times came from the course already this early in the season, giving both the runners and coaches high hopes for the sectional meet. On the girls end, all five scoring runners finished in the top twenty out of the 127 total competitors. Ellie Robinson barely broke 19 minutes with a 18:59.8 finish, earning her first place honors. Twin sister Annie Robinson finished just one minute later, securing the silver medal. These two both ran smart races, each beating the reigning course champion, Nora Jillson of Boscobel. The final three scoring runners for Dodge-Point were Grace Wersal (8th), Payton Christopher (10th), and Regan Schuette (16th). Rounding out the varsity were veteran runners Addison Christopher (24th), and Brianna Wasley (28th). The next three runners, Ava McDonald (32nd), Faye Schuette (34th), and Abbey Ludwig (35th), ran as a strong pack for the duration of the race. Next came Ava Hying (43rd), Sierra Davenport (52nd), Chloe Eastman (57th), Hayden Bakken (78th), Brooke Paynter (89th), Jadyn Swinehart (92nd), Breken Blackford-Hesselberg (93rd), Madi Bakken (105th), Olivia Wilson (117th), Alyson Melssen (119th), and Brynnlin Cartwright (125th).
On the boy’s side, Layne Aurit finished 6th behind five tough competitors, including Manny Putz of Onalaska. Putz, only a junior, ran a course record of 15:13.7, clocking a pace of 4:55 for every mile. For reference, the average high school track runner has to train hard all season to even dream of running that pace for one mile by itself. Circling back to our very own Dodge-Point runners, Cody Yoder finished 11th after having been injured most of last cross country season. The rest of the scoring varsity included Jesse Yoder (twin brother to Cody) in 19th place, Ethan Hook (22nd), and Gabe Engel (23rd). Hook and Engel’s times were tied to the tenth of a second, and it is still unknown who would’ve won if it went down to the hundredth or thousandth of a second. Finishing out the varsity team were Parker Owens (29th) and Alex LaMere (54th). The rest of the team included Johnny Robinson (68th), Rhet Spurley (79th), Mac Busser (97th), Andrew Hesseling (now out with a broken foot) (115th), William Brainbridge (121st), Elliot Hesseling (younger brother to Andrew) (122nd), and Felix Wiezorek (133rd).
Next up for the runners is the infamous Darlington meet, known mainly for its terrible weather year in and year out. The boys team hopes to be able to run this year, as their race was canceled last year due to extremely heavy thunderstorms.
