September 9, 2023
At 6:30 a.m. this past Saturday, the Dodge-Point boys and girls cross-country teams loaded the bus to travel to Spring Green to take part in the River Valley Blackhawk Invite. Why the early departure? Coach Denny McGraw wanted to make sure the team got “their spot” that they have been setting up camp at since they began running at this meet. The runners grumbled about the bus time being at the crack of dawn, but McGraw insisted it was important to secure the tent spot. McGraw’s logic proved to be right as the girl’s team came in 2nd, the boy’s 8th, the JV girl’s 5th, and the JV boy’s 12th.
Going into the race, the girl’s varsity team knew they were going to have to work hard in order to even come close to Madison West. To put this in perspective, Madison West is a D1 team currently ranked 5th in the state, and they had 74 runners just on the girl’s side that Saturday. Their grand total for the girls roster this year comes to 117, which is more than 5 times the size of the Dodge-Point girls team. This all just makes it that much more impressive that Dodge-Point came this close to them. MVP Ellie Robinson placed 2nd with her twin sister Annie Robinson not far behind. Grace Wersal came in 22nd place with a career PR of 20:31. Payton Christopher was next in 26th. Regan Schuette was 48th and Lilly Houtakker was 54th. Addison Christopher was 68th. In JV action, Abbey Ludwig came in first only 9 seconds away from varsity runner Addison Christopher, placing 12th overall. After Ludwig was Brianna Wasley in 17th, Sierra Davenport in 31st, Ava McDonald in 43rd, Faye Schuette in 65th, Chloe Eastman in 66th, and Emma Giddings in 88th. The rest of the JV runners were Brooke Paynter (125), Breken Blackford-Hesselberg (151), Madi Bakken (152), Jadyn Swinehart (164), Hayden Bakken (171), Katie Kramer (193), Reese Meute (206), Mallory Spurley (211), Alyson Melssen (215), and finally Brynnlin Cartwright (228).
Joe Hanson shared with the girls team as they warmed up that the boys varsity had run phenomenally earlier that morning, which is not a compliment either teams receive often from their coaches. He says the boys went out hard and kept going hard, which helped them run significantly better than the last two meets. Layne Aurit continues to lead the boy’s team as he came in 10th behind nine very impressive runners, many of whom have competed at and finished highly at the state race in the past years. Next came Cody Yoder in 19th, running an even 17:00. Gabe Engel came in 25 seconds later in 33rd, already much faster than last year. Ethan Hook and Parker Owens were next in 43rd and 63rd respectively. Jesse Yoder finished just 4 seconds after Owens, earning him 65th. Rounding out the varsity was Johnny Robinson in 114th place. This was Robinson’s first varsity race, and he is the only freshman on the boys varsity team. Senior Alex Lamere led the JV team with a 30th place finish. He had a strong start and led the race for about 5 seconds before settling in. Rhet Spurley crossed the line next in 47th place. Mac Busser was next in 135th. Carson Schroeder finished 203rd, Elliot Hesseling 252nd, and William Brainbridge rounded out the JV boys in 255th.
