Viking boys and girls will head to state cross country meet

BOYCEVILLE — The Colfax girls won the 12 team sectional cross country meet held in Boyceville Oct. 24 and the boys were second in a field of 17, allowing both teams which includes eight seniors,  to finish their season at the WIAA State meet this Saturday in Wisconsin Rapids.

“Everything went the way we needed,” coach Joe Doucette said. “It was great to see so many excited people with both teams really helping each other.”

The girls were led by Courtney Dressel and Erica Kallstrom who finished nearly hand in hand for third and fourth place individually, but with the first two runners coming from teams that did not qualify for state, Dressel was first in team scores at 20:31.2 while Kallstrom was second in 20:31.5. (Kassye Todd of Elmwood-Plum City, who won the D-SC Conference meet won this race too in 19:58). Dempsey Fogarty and Abbagail Schotter kept each other company as Fogarty was sixth overall and fourth for team scores in 20:50 while Schotter was three seconds behind in 20:53 for seventh overall and fifth in team scores. Hailey Prince was 23rd and 20th for the team points in 22:26 and Ally Heidorn finished 30th overall and 26th for the team in 23:06.

“We were the favorite coming in and sometimes that can be tough,” Doucette said. “Our top four were great all season but today they took it to a higher level. And that helped our fifth and sixth runners,” he added.

The boy’s race kept everyone in suspense as the first six runners to finish included two from Immanuel Lutheran, two from McDonell Central and two from Durand. But Tucker Hovde, who has led the Viking boys all season came in seventh at 17:58 and Zack Arvold was close behind for 11th at 18:18. Brett Prince was 17th overall but 16th for team points while Brady Simonson was 24th individually but 22nd in team points. At this point, Colfax was behind Immanuel Lutheran for team standings but those all important 5-6-7 runners made the difference as Jacob Larson, who was 30th overall but 28th in team points at 19:03 was 39 spots ahead of the IL runner and Hunter Lieffort was 40th for the team and 42nd overall in 19:38 while the sixth runner for IL was 98th. Issac Lee was on Lieffort’s heels for 43rd overall and 41st for the team in 19:41.

“We knew McDonell was the big favorite but we thought we had a chance for second,” Doucette said. “Our strength was a solid first three but the way it developed, our 4-7 guys were even stronger and our depth won it for us. It’s tough to get to state and it is a great atmosphere to run in. We really want to run good and see how many teams we can beat and represent our school and community as best as we can. We have a lot of fan support and that is great to see.”

GIRLS TEAM SCORES: Colfax 32, Glenwood City 77, Fall Creek 122, St. Croix Falls 131, Eau Claire Regis 138, Elk Mound 141, McDonell Central 190, Chetek-Weyerhaeuser 205, Durand 220, Boyceville 234, Spring Valley 251, Cornell-Lake Holcombe 263

BOYS TEAM SCORES: McDonell Central 52, Colfax 84, Immanuel Lutheran 114, Durand 128, Chetek-Weyerhaeuser 158, Augusta 159, Glenwood City 175, Spring Valley 194, Boyceville 241, Elk Mound 279, Cadott 293, St. Croix Falls 327, Cornell-Lake Holcombe 340, Elmwood-Plum City 370, Thorp 390, Eau Claire Regis 402, Stanley-Boyd 406