Elk Mound cross country teams finish fourth at Amery Invitational
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AMERY — In their final competition before this Thursday’s Dunn-St. Croix championships in Durand, the Elk Mound boys’ and girls’ cross country both ran and finished fourth in the very competitive Amery Invitational held Tuesday, October 3.
The Lady Mounders finished with 166 points while the boys team scored 172 points. Both squads had a pair of top 20 runners.
There were 18 schools from the Middle Border, Dunn-St. Croix, Lakeland, Cloverbelt and Heart O’ North Conferences competing at the invitational. Bloomer won both the girls’ (26 points) and the boys’ (34 points) team championships. The Blackhawks also had the top two individual racers; freshman Ciara Hartman won the girls’ competition in 18:03.8 and senior Lucas Anderson was the boys’ winner in 16:44.2. There were 119 runners in the girls’ competition and 153 for the boys.
Juniors Jaidynn Sarauer and Ellie Schiszik led the Elk Mound girls. Sarauer finished 19th in 22:47.0 and Schiszik placed one spot back in 19th and five seconds later with a 22:53.0. Senior Marley King was the Mounders third runner to finish the race as she took home 36th place in 24:00.3, Freshman Rhiana Fischer was next to cross the finish line, placing 44th in 24:22.6. The girls fifth runner was senior Caroline Gabert who took 64th with a time of 25:35.7.
Also competing for the Mounder girls were senior Carly Mohr (93rd, 29:15.9), freshman Lexi Solberg (106th, 30:14.2), junior Yolo Delgado (107th, 30:56.6), and junior Kaelyn Zais (116th, 33:23.6).
The top five finishers for the Elk Mound boys were all seniors.
Bodie Folczyk was the first Mounders boy to complete the 5,000 meter course, taking 15th place with a run of 19:14.0. Caleb Beskow also cracked the top 20 when he placed 18th in 19:34.4. Less than 15 seconds later, Jesse Moyer finished 22nd in 19:49.9. Tyler Gagner and Evan Lauer finished within a tenth of a second of one another; Gagner placed 58th in 21:19.1 while Lauer finished 59th in 21:19.2
The races of senior Cooper Reese and freshman Blake Niska finished exactly 60 seconds apart. Reese ran a 21:33.9 to take 67th while Niska was 83rd with a time of 22:33.9.
Junior Aidan Schindler (90th, 22:54.5), sophomore Dalton Banaszak (93rs, 23:01.1), junior Brooks Burcaw (107th, 23:50.4), freshman Jacob Carstens (129th, 25:13.6), senior Graycen Banaszak (130th, 25:13.7), and freshman Dru Schiszik (148th, 27:57.9) also competed for the Mounder boys.
In the middle school race that featured over 250 runners, the Elk Mound boys finished 11th with a score of 218. Eighth-grader Keston Niven finished 11th in 9:24.8 to lead Elk Mound. Seventh-graders Grayson Stunkel placed 27th and Grady Westland was 28th with respective times of 9:44.3 and 9:44.8. The top middle school racer for the Mounder girls was seventh-grader Elise Carstens who placed 42nd in 11:13.0.
The Dunn-St. Croix Conference championships will get underway this Thursday, October 12 at 4:30 p.m. with the boys’ race. The girls follow at 5:00 p.m. and the middle school race is set to start at 5:30 p.m. Rolling Greens Golf Course will be the site of this year meet.

