Elk Mound boys win first D-SC cross country meet, Colfax girls second
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COLFAX — The Elk Mound boys, two-time defending conference champions, had three runners finish in the top four spots to capture first place in the inaugural 2020 Dunn-St. Croix East Pod cross country meet held at Colfax High School last Thursday, September 10. Meanwhile, Colfax sophomore sensation Molly Heidorn won the girls’ race by nearly a minute over her nearest competitor to help lead the Viking girls to a second-place showing.
While Durand’s Parker Schneider took home the individual title with a fast run of 16:06.40 on the 5,000 meter course, the Mounders’ Aiden Schiferl, Ian Hazen and Trae Schaefer finished in second, third and fourth places respectively and Elk Mound saw two other of its runners finish in the top ten as the team won the meet by 22 points over runner-up Durand. Elk Mound tallied a low winning score of 25 points compared to 47 for the Panthers of Durand and 71 points for the Colfax boys. Mondovi had an incomplete score as it had only three runners compete.
State medalist Molly Heidorn picked up where she left off last season copping gold in this year’s first cross country meet. Colfax also got top-ten finishes from Ansley Olson (4th) and Jasmine Best (8th) to boost the Viking gals to a second-place finish with 47 points. Durand won the girls’ race as all five of its runners finished in the top nine giving it a final tally of 29 points. Elk Mound was third with 83 points and Mondovi’s girls also received an incomplete score.
Colfax hosted another 4-team East Pod meet this past Tuesday, September 15. Then next Thursday, September 24, Durand will welcome Colfax, Elk Mound and Mondovi for the third East Pod conference meet.
Elk Mound
Aiden Schiferl ran a 17:52.10 to take second place in the boys’ race for Elk Mound. Just two seconds later, teammate Ian Hazen crossed the finish line to place third with a time of 17:54.6. A little over half a minute later, Trae Schaefer broke the timeline in 18:28.40 for a fourth-place finish.
The Mounders also had a pair of top-ten finishes from Carter Sundeen and Cooper Reese. Sundeen ran a 19:23.3 good for eighth while Reese came in tenth after running the course in 19:49.0.
Elk Mound also had nine other runners compete in the field of 28 boys. Their results were as follows: Avery Lauer (16th), 21:23.8; Evan Lauer (18th), 21:48.9; Jackson Gehweiller (19th), 21:53.9; Caleb Beskow (20th), 22:04.8; Jesse Meyer (21st), 22:15.6; Will King (22nd), 22:16.9; Toby Westcoff (26th), 24:01.5; AJ Miller (27th), 24:19.6; and Walker Banaszak (28th), 24:25.2.
Marley King had the best finish for the Elk Mound ladies. She completed the course in 24:23.1, good for 13th place. Madison Lehman (25:36.1), Kyra Hadenfeldt (25:37.1), Lilly Tanula (25:59.5), and Carly Mohr (26:04.1) came in 16th through 19th place respectively.
Olivia Schreiber (26:22.9) and Aleya Hadenfeldt (27:03.4) rounded out the Mounders competitors with finishes of 21st and 24th.
Colfax
Coming into not only this meet, but this season, most everyone knew that Colfax’s Molly Heidorn was the conference’s top runner and the sophomore did not disappoint last Thursday on her home course.
Heidorn burned the competition with a sizzling first-place run of 19:56.2 to best runner-up Kendall Hagness of Durand by 53.4 seconds.
“Molly Heidorn came into the year in good shape,” said Colfax head coach Joe Doucette. “She is going to be great.”
Ansley Olson ran a 21:37.70 to place fourth while Jasmine Best took 8th with a time of 21:51.6 over the 5,000 meter run. Jaclyn Olson provided the Colfax girls with a 14th place showing after turning in a time of 24:43.2.
“Ansley and Jasmine also were very good and Jaclyn was solid,” noted Doucette of their performance in the year’s first meet.
“But everyone tried hard and contributed,” added the longtime coach.
Jenna Goodell came in fifth for the Vikings with a time of 26:15.0, good for 20th place and Emilee Burcham-Scofield ran across the line in 26th place.
“Durand won at sectional and went to state last year and we were closer to them than last year,” said Doucette of the 18-point margin between his girls and the Panthers.
On the boys’ side, senior Noah Heidorn led the way for Colfax as its only top ten finisher in the race. Heidorn ran a 18:39.9 to come in fifth.
“Noah Heidorn has quietly had a great career for us he is going to have another good year,” stated Doucette.
“From there we were solid,” continued Coach Doucette. “It was a small team with no room for error but the boys always improve.”
Ashton Yarrington and Luke Blanchard were the next two Colfax boys to cross the line. Yarrington placed 11th with a time of 19:52.6 and Blanchard was just one place back, taking 12th in 19:57.3.
Rounding out the squad were Jadent Buchholz and Mark Sonnentag with finishes of 15th and 23rd. Buchholz ran a time of 21:14.1 while Sonnentag crossed the finish in 22:23.1.
Overall Doucette seemed pleased with the first meet saying, “Just great to run and compete again, the coaching staff was fired up. We ran pretty well, we are not in great shape, yet, but we have improved from this time last year.”
“We are super excited again we have a bunch of great kids,” concluded Doucette. “They work hard and always improve.”