Elk Mound boys win E-S meet, girls place third

ELEVA-STRUM — During his speech at the homecoming festivities last week, Elk Mound cross country coach Jeremiah Fredrickson informed the crowd that his boys team had brought home their first trophy from a competition in their three year history the day before when they won the five team Eleva-Strum meet. The girls also had a good showing, taking third against four other teams.

15 of the 18 runners for the Mounder boys ran their best times of the season, according to Fredrickson. Not only did Ben Holzwarth  and Mitch Zimmer place third and fourth individually, they both broke the school record in the process. Holzwarth finished in 17:51 and Zimmer was close behind in 17:55, while Darin Lau of Immanuel Lutheran won with a time of 16:35.

“We had six runners place in the top 15 of 73 runners,” Fredrickson said. “We hope this is a step towards running faster at the conference meet this week and the sectional meet next week. The boys have been really pushing each other and have been improving by leaps and bounds.”

Shawn Lane was the third runner in for the Mounders, placing seventh at 18:38, followed by Caleb Kruger (ninth, 18:54), Lucas Winter (12th, 19:03), Andrew Zabel (14th, 19:19), R. J. Cheek (33rd, 21:06), Drew Sternecker (34th, 21:11), Hunter Henning (39th, 21:41), Hunter Hermes (47th, 22:19), Chris Jaenke (48th, 22:27), Alec Winter (55th, 23:00), Dan Bachman (58th, 23:17), Seth Kruger (60th, 23:28), Gabe LaRock (68th, 25:40), and Jon Baggs (70th, 27:18).

Emma Hayes missed the medalist honors by just 12 seconds for the girls as she finished in 16:59 while the winner, Megan Skoyen of Osseo-Fairchild came in at 16:47. Following Hayes was Samantha Jain in 15th at 18:40 and Waive Melgaard (21st, 19:10), Jamie Solem (24th, 19:23), close behind her was Danae Sternecker (26th, 19:34), Josie Hayes (36th, 20:51) and rounding out the team was Alex Hagberg (38th, 20:56). There were 49 individuals competing.

“All seven of the girls ran a personal best time,” Fredrickson said “Emma cracked the 17 minute mark and Sam and Waive are really coming on as of late.”

The Dunn St. Croix Conference meet will take place this Thursday, Oct. 11 at Mondovi.

Boys team scores: Elk Mound 35, Immanuel Lutheran 47, Black River Falls 86, Independence-Gilmanton 87, Regis 93, Whitehall 184

Girls team scores: Black River Falls 39, Regis 66, Elk Mound 81, Osseo-Fairchild 85, Immanuel Lutheran 106, Independence-Gilmanton 131