Topper girls claim fourth Dunn-St. Croix cross country championship in six years
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TOPPERS’ TRIO — Glenwood City runners, from left to right, Kinzie Strong, Kendall Schutz and Emily Bethell ran as a group throughout the 2019 Dunn-St. Croix conference cross country meet in Spring Valley on October 17. All three finished in the top ten with Strong taking fifth, Schutz seventh and Bethell was eighth. That helped the Glenwood City girls claimed the championship for the fourth time in six seasons. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
SPRING VALLEY — For the fourth time in six years, the Glenwood City girls’ cross country team has captured the Dunn-St. Croix Conference title.
The Hilltopper girls blew their competition away scoring just 26 points, besting number two Durand by 18 points. The meet took place on Thursday, October 17th at the Spring Valley High School.
Toppers’ head coach Matthew Schutz was beyond ecstatic as his team redeemed themselves from last year’s second-place finish just one point behind Elk Mound and one point ahead of Durand.
“The girls executed exactly what was planned and needed,” commented Schutz.
“I told them to guarantee the conference championship that they would all five need to be in the top eight. They did exactly that. Durand is a great team and full of depth right now. Our five ran with a lot of heart because they didn’t want a repeat of last year, losing by one point because more than one of them didn’t beat their competition coming down the finish,” continued Schutz. “This year Kinzie did beat her runner down the finish, but the rest were ahead enough of other competition not to worry about that this time.”
Bella Simmons led the Lady Toppers with a second-place finish in a time of 20:59.9. Izzy Williams came in fourth followed by Kinzie Strong in fifth, Kendall Schutz seventh and Emily Bethell less than four seconds behind in eighth. Gabby Moede and Annika Bauman completed the Hilltopper top seven finishing in 22nd and 36th respectively.
Colfax’s freshman Molly Heidorn won the girls’ race with a time of 20:35.4.
The Glenwood City boys had a good showing finishing in third place after scoring 84 points behind powerhouse Elk Mound, who won their second straight D-SC championship with 21 points with host Spring Valley coming in second with 72 points.
HILLTOPPER freshman JJ Williams was the first Glenwood City boy to cross the finish line at last Thursday conference cross country meet in Spring Valley. Williams placed eighth in a time of 18:21.9.
—photo by Shawn DeWitt
JJ Williams once again was the top runner for the Hilltoppers with an eighth-place finish in a time of 18:21.9. Next it was the trio of Elijah Simmons, Elek Anderson, and Brady McCarthy crossing the line in 16th, 17th and 18th, respectively. Jabin Hojem took the 25th spot while Austin Nelson was just a second behind in 26th. Brendan Booth was the seventh Topper to cross the line in 41st place.
Parker Schneider of Durand was the boys’ champion with a time of 17:20.6.
About the boys, Coach Schutz stated, “I feel we ran closer to Spring Valley (2nd place) than we have all year. It was our goal to beat them as we knew Elk Mound was too deep for any of us. We have another chance against them this Saturday.”
With this race also comes All-Conference honors. Six Hilltopper runners were bestowed with such an honor. Bella, Izzy, Kinzie, and Kendall all took home first-team honors while Emily and JJ made second team All-Conference.
Although happy with this achievement Schutz said, “We were hoping for a second [boy] runner on the All-Conference team, but we came close placing 16, 17 and 18.”
The Hilltoppers look to continue their success at Boyceville this Saturday, October 26th when they compete in the WIAA Division 3 Sectional meet at Tiffany Creek Elementary. The girls race begins at 11:00 a.m. followed by the boys at 11:45 a.m. The top two teams along with the first five individual runners from non-qualifying teams will advance to the state cross country meet at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids next Saturday, November 2.
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS:
Girls: 2. Simmons 20:59.9, 4. Williams 21:23.5, 5. Strong 21:46.2, 7. Schutz 22:10.7, 8. Bethell 22:14.6, 22. Moede 23:36.5, 36. Bauman 25:27.5, 44. Peterson 26:13.5, 46. 26:41.1, 58. Swanepoel 27:55.8, 63. Wittmer 33:35.8.
Boys: 8. Williams 18:21.9, 16. Simmons 19:03.8, 17. Anderson 19:11.7, 18. McCarthy 19:15.7, 25. Hojem 19:54.9, 26. Aus. Nelson 19:55.8, 41. Booth 20:43.9, 50. Wallin 21:52.5, Eggert 21:57.4, 54. Bauman 22:18.9, 58. Hager 22:41.5, 66. Hansen 23:48.3, 71. Ant.Nelson 24:43.6, 74. Draxler 25:18.3, 76. Peralta 25:38.4.
TEAM RESULTS:
Girls: 1. Glenwood 26, 2. Durand 44, 3. Colfax 83, 4. Spring Valley 107, 5. Elk Mound 111, 6. Boyceville 146.
Boys: 1. Elk Mound 21, 2. Spring Valley 72, 3. Glenwood City 84, 4. Boyceville 105, 5. Durand, 6. Colfax 147, 7. Mondovi 188.