Elk Mound harriers finish season at sectional
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RICE LAKE — The 2023 running campaign for the Elk Mound boys’ and girls’ cross country teams came to a conclusion October 21 in Rice Lake as neither team nor any individuals were able to secure a berth for the this Saturday’s state championships in Wisconsin Rapids.
The Mounders boys scored a 291 to finish tenth out of 16 complete teams that competed in the WIAA Division 2 Rice Lake Cross Country Sectional held this past Saturday on the UW-Eau Claire-Barron County campus. With 15 full squads also competing in the girls’ meet, the Lady Mounder took 12th place with a score of 288.
The top two teams along the first five individual competitors from non-qualifying schools earned berths to the state meet which will be held at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids this Saturday, October 28.
Seniors Bodie Folczyk, Caleb Beskow and Jesse Moyer led the Mounder boys to the finish line in Barron. Folczyk placed 45th in his final high school cross country race as he finished with a time of 18:37.1. Beskow was the next to finish, taking 55th in 18:49.1. Some four and a half seconds later, Moyer crossed the line in 59th place with a time of 19:03.7.
Completing the squad’s scoring were sophomore Dalton Banaszak with a time of 19:27.9 for 64th and senior Tyler Gagner who placed 68th in 19:33.1.
Elk Mound’s other two sectional competitors were seniors Evan Lauer and Cooper Reese. The pair finished just one position and four seconds apart. Lauer took 82nd in 20:04.0 while Reese claimed 83rd with a run of 20:08.4.
Bloomer won the boys’ race with a score of 61 and Osceola took second with an 86 as both teams advanced to the state meet. Northwestern junior Morgan Martens finished first in the field of 111 runners as he registered the top time of 16:19.3 on the 5k course. Joining Martens at state this Saturday will be Ian Findlay of Baldwin-Woodville, Rice Lake’s Carter Kucko and Austin Pierce, and Breckin Schommer from Prescott.
Junior Ellie Schiszik was the top finisher for the Elk Mound girls. Schiszik ran a 20:55.0 at Barron to place 24th out of 107 individual runners.
It took over two more minutes for Elk Mound’s next pair of runners to finish.
Fellow junior Jaidynn Sarauer crossed the finish in 21:59.3 to take 46th and senior Marley King placed 49th after completing the course in 22:11.3.
Rhiana Fischer, a freshman, was the next Mounder girl to complete the race. She came in 77th with a time of 23:29.8. Senior Caroline Gabert finished the team scoring by placing 92nd in 24:32.1.
The Mounders sixth and seventh runners last Saturday were senior Carly Mohr who ran a 26:12.5 to finish 104th and junior Yolo Delgado ran a 30:19.2 and was the final runner the field of 107 to finish.
Bloomer also won the girls’ team competition as it collected a low tally of 65. Northwestern scored a 106 to finish ten points ahead of St. Croix Central for second place and grab the final state-qualifying spot. Ciara Hartman , a Bloomer freshman, ran a 18:25.5 to win the girls’ individual crown by nearly a minute over runner-up and fellow state qualifier senior Adison Wilde from Baldwin-Woodville. The four other individual state qualifiers were Ashland’s Adeline Bauer, Greta Peters of Altoona, St. Croix Central’s Lili Klinkhamer and Harper Sheehan from Hayward.