Two individuals advance to State Cross Country

By Kelsie Hoitomt

BOYCEVILLE – After the Sectional meet in Boyceville last Saturday, October 26, the Glenwood City and Boyceville cross country teams will each be advancing one participant to the state meet; Glenwood City’s Taylor Drinkman and Boyceville’s Tanner Johnson-Hetchler.

Drinkman is getting a taste of her first state competition in cross country as she is only a freshman. She has been leading the pack of Lady Hilltoppers throughout the majority of the season.

“A girl has not qualified for state since 2005 and the last freshman to qualify was Anne Steffen in 2002. Taylor was so determined that she beat out two others at the finish line to come from tenth to eighth place. She is a mentally strong runner with a lot of determination,” shared head coach Matthew Schutz.

Taylor ran nearly ten seconds faster in her sectional race than just a week prior at the conference meet with a 16:36.5. This was good enough for eighth place out of 99 participants. She was :29.6 away from Dempsey Fogarty of Colfax who placed first.

Drinkman was the lead runner for the girls’ team, which placed sixth out of 14 others with a team total of 186. First place went to Eau Claire Regis with a total of 58.

The rest of the team all crossed the finish line within a minute’s time. Kaitlin Konder ran second in 37th place with a 18:01.8, then Jennifer Kopacz placed 44th with a 18:11.2, Jenny Lindquist was 48th with a 18:19.5, Macie Rasmussen was 50th with a 18:28.2, Morgan Kadinger was 56th with a 18:43.4 and Maya Petersen was 59th with a 18:50.6

The Boyceville girls’ team had three runners participate including Emma Harnisch in 70th with a 19:47.6, Katie Kegen in 85th with a 21:11.2 and Sandra Knorr in 87th with a 21:40.5.

In the boys’ race, Tanner ran a 17:24.8 to put him in seventh place out of 111 total runners. He was just over a minute behind Darin Lau of Immanuel Lutheran who was in first place.

As a senior, this is Tanner’s second consecutive trip to the state meet in his high school career. Last year he finished in 87th place out of 152 individuals with a time of 18:04.51.

Tanner was a member of the boys’ team that placed just one spot shy of going to state as they were third with a team score of 121. First place went to Chippewa Falls McDonell with a total of 53.

Completing the team was Mitch Pustol in 17th with a 18:18.1, Ian Kane in 23rd with a 18:39.0, James Lindo in 34th with a 18:59.5, Tristan Debell in 40st with a 19:13.9, Ian Fontaine in 55th with a 19:49.0 and Max Engel in 56th with a 19:50.4.

“Our goal was to be third and if one of the top two teams had a bad day, we could possibly go to state. We lost to two respected teams that will have a chance to place top five in the state. The boys should hold their heads up high,” expressed head coach Corey Day.

The Glenwood City boys’ team competed as well, but landed in the final spot in 15th place. They were led by Jack Kremer who placed 52nd with a 19:44.3. Following him were Derick Huebner in 60th with a 19:59.3, Andrew Bauman in 65th with a 20:12.9, Corey Klatt in 82nd with a 21:14.9 and Cody Huebner in 96th with a 23:43.7.