Colfax boys pull off another conference title, girls return to top spot

It was just a few days before the Dunn-St. Croix Conference cross country meet that Colfax head coach Joe Doucette stated it would be really tough for his boys’ team to repeat as conference champs this year. After finishing fourth in the pre-conference meet, an awfully determined group of Vikings proved him wrong as they took six of the top 22 spots to claim their fourth straight title. The girls’ team came in as one of the favorites to win after giving up the title to Spring Valley last year, and they came back to win their sixth championship in seven years.

With the top five scores counting for team points, the Viking boys were deadlocked with St. Croix Central which means the score of the sixth runner for both teams needed to be counted. Brady Simonson was that runner for Colfax and he ended up four spots ahead of Central’s sixth runner, thus giving Colfax the championship. Simonson had just started running for the team in mid-September. Tucker Hovde was the first one in for the Vikings in eighth place with a time of 17:53 while Hunter Lieffort, still running with a sore leg was 10th at 18:06. Brett Prince continues to move up, placing 13th at 18:12 while Zack Arvold was close behind in 15th at 18:22, Jacob Larson was fifth at 18:42, Simonson was on his heels in 22nd at 18:43 and Isaac Lee was 30th at 19:19. Daniel Schneider, Grady Gibson, Nate Liebfried, Brad Foyt, Rowdy Kadinger and David Blanchard all had times counted as junior varsity scores. Ben Holzwarth of Elk Mound won the individual title in 16:48.

“I wasn’t sure we had a chance after we were fourth behind three pretty good teams last week,” coach Doucette said.”We had to have everyone run great without any mistakes to come close. We convinced the boys before the race it would be tough but we always have a shot. I am very proud of this young team to run a race like this.”

Sophomore Dempsey Fogarty led from start to finish to win the girls’ race in 16:17 to lead Colfax but her teammates filled the 3, 4, 6 and 20th spots to finish ahead of defending champs Spring Valley. Courtney Dressel was that third one in at 16:24, Dannielle Dachel was fourth at 16:26, Abbagail Schotter came in sixth teamwise and and seventh individually at 16:47 (Boyceville and Mondovi did not field complete teams), while Ally Heidorn was 20th in team standings and 23rd overall at 18:14. Heidi Lieffort was 27th individually and 24th in team scores at 18:34 and Mallie Doucette was the Vikings seventh runner in for 30th individually and 27th for the team standings. Cienna Cooper finished with a junior varsity second place at 18:59.

“The girls did what they had to do,” Doucette said. “We were the favorite coming in and we ran well. Dempsey is in great company with some of our past conference champions (Sarah McMahon and Laura Bjork) and we were solid after that. We knew Spring Valley and Glenwood City would be better this meet and they were. The girls worked hard and were very excited to win a great conference meet. It was just a great day for us and our program to win both varsity titles and a middle school title,” he concluded.

Colfax also won the girl’s middle school division with seventh grader Erica Kallstrom as the individual winner, while the boys were third, led by Dalton Schotter in eighth place.

Colfax will compete at the sectional meet Saturday, Oct. 26 at Boyceville.

BOYS VARSITY TEAM SCORES: Colfax 67, St. Croix Central 67, Boyceville 69, Elk Mound 79, Elmwood-Plum City 122, Spring Valley 149, Mondovi 151, Glenwood City 209

Girls Varsity Team Scores: Colfax 34, Spring Valley 56, Glenwood City 63, St. Croix Central 110, Elmwood-Plum City 129, Elk Mound 136.