Plaszcz sisters lead Mounder girls to third in Fall Creek

By Cara L. Dempski

FALL CREEK — Twin sisters Alana and Brook Plaszcz finished in the top 20 at the Knudtson Invitational Saturday, September 10 in Fall Creek to lead the Mounder girls’ cross country team to a stellar third-place showing among the 14 competing schools.

Alana took fifth while Brook came in 17th overall to help the Elk Mound girls finish with an 85-point tally. Rival Colfax took the girls’ championship with 65 points as the Vikings had three top 15 runners. Tomahawk was second with 78 points.

The Mounder boys scored a 196 and finished eighth out of the 13 teams in Fall Creek. Durand copped the boys’ crown with a 34 followed by Tomahawk (46), Bloomer (83), Colfax (143), Spring Valley (187) and Glenwood City (191).

“About half our runners ran season bests on a tough, muddy, hilly course,” stated Mounders’ head coach Jeremiah Fredrickson.

Alana Plaszcz’ fifth-place finish came in a time of 22:07.3. Brook Plaszcz came in two minutes behind her twin sister to finish 17th. Victoria Fasbender crossed the line eight seconds later for a time of 24:19.6.

Kristin Martinson and Paige Romanowski also finished within seconds of each other, earning 25 and 27 points for the team. Taya Schaefer and Claudia Paul ran in the sixth and seventh spots for the Mounder girls, coming across the line in 37th and 41st place.

Fredrickson said of the girls, “Our fourth through seventh girls really stepped up and improved.”

He added that it was a pleasant surprise to see them packed together and finishing so high.

Cade Hanson led the Mounder boys, finishing 12th in 19:04.6. The next Elk Mound runner to cross the line was Nate Lind. He finished in 20:38.2 to pick up 38 points for the team. Seth Hazen was less than one minute behind Lind and finished in 50th place.

Nate Schreiber was less than two seconds behind Hazen, finishing 52nd. Jonas Kohls crossed the line at 21:52.9 to finish 57th.

The final two runners for the Elk Mound boys were Ryan Mohr and Andrew Pathos. The duo was 62nd and 65th respectively.

“Our guys did well,” Fredrickson said. “The freshmen are really pushing the upperclassmen.”

The Elk Mound coach noted, though, the boys’ times need to continue to drop in order to be competitive as a team.

The Mounders lone race this week was in the UW–Barron Invitational in Rice Lake yesterday, September 13.