Boys finish strong as a team on cross country course

By Kelsie Hoitomt

BRUCE/SCC – While gearing up to go back to school, the Boyceville cross country team competed in two invitationals this past week with last Tuesday, September 3 being in Bruce and then a conference meet in St. Croix Central on Thursday.

Trip to Bruce

The boys’ varsity team finished fifth out of eight schools and the girls finished tenth out of ten schools in Bruce at the Dodson’s Memorial Recreational Area.

Four of the top five runners on the boys team improved their finishing position from last season at the meet.

Senior Tanner Johnson-Hetchler led the Bulldogs as he ran a 17:58.0, which put him in fourth place. He shaved over a minute off his time from last year at the invitational when he ran a 19:00.4 and finished in 13th.

Also in the top 30 and second for the Bulldogs with almost a minute off his previous time last year was Mitchell Pustol in 23rd with a 20:20.3.

Running third for the team was fellow senior Ian Kane who finished 38th with a 21:12.0; he was 45th last year.

It was freshman runner, Maxwell Engel that ran in fourth place for the Bulldogs and finished 45th with a 21:35.5.

Following him and rounding out the top five was Tristan Debell in 49th (22:06.9), which is a big improvement from last season as he ran an extra two minutes and finished in 85th place just one year ago.

Also participating in the boys’ race was Ian Fontaine in 68th (23:49.6), Jack Kapsner in 70th (23:53.8), Micah Johnson in 71st (24:01.0), Peter Duerst in 83rd (25:19.4), Austin Wolfe in 88th (26:05.4), Kiel Anderson in 95th (26:32.4), Jerod Nelson in 97th (27:13.1), Michael Chich in 98th (27:15.0) and Alec Schaefer in 109th (32:07.0).

It was senior Michaella Kegen that led the girls’ team on the course with a run time of 20:33.9, which put her in 40th place out of 93 participants.

Freshman Emma Harnisch ran a solid race for her first year on the varsity squad. She finished second for the team in 58th place with a 22:05.0. Next for the Lady Dogs was Sandra Knorr in 60th place with a 22:42.1.

Following and also competing from last season was Katie Kegen who finished in 64th with a 23:07.2 and rounding out the top five was Anna Hagan in 82nd with a 26:38.0.

Meet at SCC

At St. Croix Central the girls struggled to finish as a team with only four runners finishing out of the 126 participants.

Individually, Michaella Kegen finished first for the Bulldogs in 65th (20:33.81), then it was Harnisch in 86th (21:22.67), next was Knorr in 88th (21:26.00) and lastly it was Katie Kegen in 94th place (22.14.32).

On the other hand, the boys’ team had enough runners to compete as a group and they placed third behind St. Croix Central and Amery out of 13 total teams.

Johnson-Hetchler finished in third place out of 138 runners with a 17:57.54. Also in the top ten was Pustol who ran a 19:19.32 for tenth place. Following him was Kane in 14th place (19:31.15), next was Engel in 34th (20:58.56) and rounding out the top five was Johnson in 69th (22:51.71).

Also competing in the 5K was Fontaine who placed 79th (23:20.72), Wolfe in 83rd
(23:27.79), Kapsner in 90th (23:42.43), Duerst in 92nd (23:50.45), Nelson in 93rd (23:51.27), Chich in 126th (26:56.03) and Anderson in 127th (27:00.16).

The Bulldogs are scheduled to compete in their next invitational this Saturday, September 14 in Fall Creek at 10:00 a.m.