Despite what Warriors cross country coach Heather Raffel called “not our best performance,” the girls cross country team still finished second at the Smiley Invitational in Wausau on Saturday, Sep. 21.
“We did not have our best performance this weekend, but we did well considering some tougher practices this past week,” said Raffel. “The fact that we still placed second shows the great depth we have on this team. Rachel Gregorich and Keeley Stephens had great races for our varsity team and freshman Brielyn Ganske improved her time by over a minute in the JV race.”
The varsity and JV girls both placed second out of seventeen teams at the meet. Madison West, currently ranked fifth in the state, won both races. Emily Berger led the Warriors with a time of 20:22 for the 5k race. Gregorich was only one second behind. Rounding out the rest of Waunakee’s top six were Cianna Wipperfurth, Keeley Stephens, Emiline Shefchik, and Mackenzie Stephens.
“Our JV girls team crushed this race,” said co-captain Jillian Borgelt. “Our girls took second as a team and all the hard work they’ve been putting in during practice shined through today.” Freshman Brielyn Ganske finished eighth out of 249 runners in the JV race. She was followed by Jada Wills, Reese Barber, Abby Chambers, and Rachel Lin.
The boys, led by Cooper Ubert, finished tenth, improving two places from last year’s finish. Rounding out the top six for the Warrior boys were Tyler Niermeyer, Carson Jennerjohn, Simon Marx, Quinn Pfeiffer, and Troy Niles.
Niermeyer and Jennerjohn ran personal bests on what co-captain Cole Lampe described as a “notoriously difficult course.” Lampe attributed some of their success to fellow runners “cheering on their teammates at seemingly every point on the course.”
“Owen West had a great run in his first varsity race,” said Raffel. “He continues to improve each week.” West ran a time of 19:30, forty seconds faster than his previous best.
The JV boys finished sixth. Caleb Busse led the warrior boys, followed by Braydon Barbian, Egan Higgins, Lincoln Webster, and Lucas Varela. Barbian, Higgins, and Varela ran personal bests. Co-captain Cole Kleinsteiber attributed their success to “working together, pacing strategically, and pushing each other.”
The Warrior runners next race is the Midwest Invitational in Janesville on Saturday, Sep. 28.
Local News
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