Glenwood City boys claim Dunn-St. Croix cross country championship

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DURAND — A year ago, the Glenwood City boys’ cross country team finished second in the conference meet.

This season, the Hilltoppers were not going to be denied.

And they weren’t!

The Glenwood City boys’ quenched their thirst for a Dunn-St. Croix Cross Country championship last Thursday, October 12  when they ran away with the crown at this year’s conference meet which was held at the Rolling Greens Golf Course in Durand.

The Hilltopper boys easily finished first among the six Dunn-St. Croix schools that fielded complete boys’ teams. And in the process, Glenwood City saw five of its competitors earn all-conference distinction.

The Glenwood City boys tallied a low of 35 points to comfortably finish on top. Mondovi placed a distant second with 60 points, followed by last year’s champion Elk Mound who took third with 71 points, host Durand-Arkansaw scored 103 points to finish fourth, Spring Valley came in fifth after a tally of 111 points and Boyceville was sixth with a 133.

“We knew coming into the meet that the only way we would lose the title was if we had two or more of our top five runners perform poorly,” stated Glenwood City head coach Matthew Schutz.

“All seven (varsity competitors) got the job done running very smart races,” he added.

As he has done throughout the season, Clayton Hoffman led the Topper boys in Durand last Thursday. The sophomore finished second in a field of 43 runners with a time of 17:41.78. Mondovi’s Landon Clark was the individual winner as he clocked the 5,000-meter course at Rolling Greens in 17:11.29.

“We expected Clayton to place second and he did,” said Schutz.

Junior Ilan Anderson was the second Topper to finish placing fifth with a time of 18:25.66.

Senior Connor Berends and sophomore Garrett Gross both cracked the top ten. In his final conference race, an ailing Berends gave a gritty performance and placed eighth in a time of 18:49.30 while Gross crossed the finish line in 18:50.9 to finish ninth.

“We had Ilan step up which was good because Connor was running on a sore foot,” stated Schutz. “Given all that, Connor still placed 8th.”

“Garrett Gross wasn’t expected to break into the all-conference placing, but he ran a great race to do so. It was nice to see that he has way more to give his team,” added the coach.

Junior Elliott Springborn competed the Toppers’ scoring as he was team’s fifth runner to finish the race. Springborn placed 14th with a time of 18:57.02. 

All five of those performances were worthy of all-conference recognition.

Hoffman and Anderson, by virtue of their top seven finishes, earned spots on the all-conference first team while Berends, Gross and Springborn copped second team honors which were awarded to racers that finished in eighth through 14th place.

“Elliott has been consistently the 4th runner on the team and it was nice to see him take that last all-conference spot,” stated Schutz.

Glenwood City’s other two varsity runners were not far behind.

Junior Zeb Holden finished just some six seconds and one spot behind Springborn. Holden came in 15th after running the course in 19:04.38. Senior Jonas Draxler finished 17th in 19:28.42.

“Even though Zeb and Jonas didn’t place in the top 14, they put points on all the other teams because of their 15th and 17th placings. It’s not bad to have all of your seven varsity runners placing in the top 17,” Schutz noted.

Glenwood City also had several boys compete in the conference’s junior varsity race with four claiming spots in the top five. Freshman Eli Oberle won the 5,000-meter event in 20:45.49.3. Senior Riley Krueger finished third with a time of 21:21.43, sophomore Ben Standaert ran a  21:28.77 4 to take fourth and junior Tyler Rogers was fifth in 22:04.29.

Sophomore Micah Simmons cracked the top ten by placing ninth in 22:37.51. Evan Hojem, a junior, finished 13th in 23:36.28 and sophomore Alex Anderson placed 14th with a time of 24:00.77.

Although only three Glenwood City girls competed last Thursday, one stood out.

Junior Elsja Meijer finished eighth and earned second team all-conference honors with her time of 22:34.29.

“Elsja Meijer ran one heck of a race,” said her coach. “She was expected to place somewhere between 11th and 14th place, but she took advantage of every hill (up and down) to place 8th. She was so close at the finish line for almost a 7th (1st Team) placing.”

“She worked so hard in the last 200 meters to close the gap with the girl who took 7th, but at about 20 meters to go she ran out of gas to get by her,” he added.

Senior Haylie Hannah finished 30th in 26:35.69 and junior Stephanie Anderson ran a 29:22.41 and was the final runner to finish.

Mondovi senior Courtney Stadter, who set a course record in 19:45.44, won the girls’ race. Just four schools had complete teams with Boyceville winning the conference title, its first since 2005.

The Glenwood City middle school girls finished second to Boyceville. The team had three of its runners finish in the top ten. Seventh-grader Jaycie Oberle was the race winner as she finished the 3,200 meters in 11:53.65. Emilyn Hoffman, another seventh-grader and cousin to Oberle, placed 7th in 13:37.06 while eighth-grader Aletta Meijer finished in 14:01.47 to take ninth. Completing the team were seventh-grader Sadie Rudolph (19th, 15:29.49) and sixth-grader Sophia Giammattei (33rd, 17:09.87).

Glenwood City also had four middle school boys race in Durand. Sixth-grader Lyle Wagner had the top finish taking home sixth place in the 3,200 meter run with a time of 12:29.31. Sixth-grader George Lorenz ran a 14:21.95 to take 32nd and eighth-graders Jaiden Verdeja and Gavin Gross were 44th and 51st, respectively, in times of  15:50.25 and 17:08.88.

The Glenwood City varsity squads will compete in the WIAA Division 3 sectional meet that will be held in Cadott at the Whispering Pines Golf Course this Saturday, October 21. Racing begins at 11 a.m.