GC boys finish fourth at cross country sectional, Hoffman earns state berth

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CADOTT — “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” – Robert Burns

In other words, no matter how carefully one plans, sometimes, somethings may go wrong and often do so in the most inopportune times!

Such was the case for the Glenwood City boys’ cross country team.

The Hilltoppers had not only prepared all season for a conference championship, which they won the previous week in Durand after a 17-year drought, but a return trip to the state cross country championship.

But injury and illness thwarted the plan.

With its number two runner, senior Connor Berends, sidelined with a lingering foot injury that became more severe following his conference race and its third runner, junior Ilan Anderson, waking up ill the day of the race, the Glenwood City boys’ wound up in fourth place at the WIAA Division 3 Cadott Cross Country Sectional meet held Saturday, October 21 at the

Whispering Pines Golf Course, denying the team a second straight state berth.

Only the two top teams qualified to move on to state and those honors went to Chippewa Falls McDonell, who repeated as the sectional champion, and runner-up Chetek-Weyerhaeuser.

“Saturday’s race unfortunately didn’t go as planned for the team,” said Glenwood City head coach Matthew Schutz.

“As for the team, after the conference race, Connor Berends, who originally started out as our #2 runner for the season, injured his foot more. It’s been an issue for a month. We had him stay off of it all week, but it wasn’t enough,” noted Schutz.

“The day of the race we needed to replace him.  His injury may be a hairline fracture,” he added.

“As for our 3rd runner, Ilan Anderson, he unfortunately woke up Saturday morning ill, he started the race like he should, but struggled after Mile 1 falling to the back of our pack,” Schutz said.

Those two things conspired to take the boys out of contention for their second consecutive sectional plaque and a return to state. Glenwood City, who placed second in the 2022 sectional meet, finished with 122 points. McDonell scored a 57 for the championship, Chetek-Weyerhaeuser finished second with 90 points and Cameron took third with 105 points. Of the 25 schools that competed at the sectional meet, 16 had full boys’ squads.

Fortunately, the Hilltoppers did not leave Whispering Pines empty handed as their top runner, sophomore Clayton Hoffman, earned a second consecutive trip to the state meet when he finished fifth out of 116 boys’ runners and was awarded one of the five individual state qualifying spots.

Hoffman ran the 5,000-meter course at Cadott in 17:23.0 to medal and advance to the WIAA Division 3 state championship race which is set to begin at noon this Saturday, October 28 at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.

“Clayton had a great run. His hard work during the season and especially the summer paid off,” said Schutz.

With Berends out and Anderson slowed by illness, the remaining members of the Glenwood City squad tried to fill the performance gaps.

Sophomore Garrett Gross and senior Jonas Draxler were the Hilltoppers’ second and third-place finishers in last Saturday’s sectional meet, crossing the finish line just three seconds apart. Gross ran a 19:02.4 to place 28th and Draxler clocked a 19:05.4 to take 31st.

“I felt Garrett and Jonas ran pretty good races too, but they couldn’t make up the speed and placing the other two usually would have for the team,” shared Schutz.

Junior Zeb Holden was hot on the heels of Draxler and finished in 19:07.2 to capture 34th.

Another junior, Elliott Springborn, was Glenwood City’s fifth and final scoring runner. He took 41st with a time of 19:29.33.

Ilan Anderson did finish the race taking 43rd overall in a time of 19:33 which was well off his conference meet pace of 18:25.

Completing the squad’s run was freshman Eli Oberle who was timed in 20:08.7 and finished 60th.

“Overall, we had a great season as a boys’ team, winning a lot of invitationals,” stated Schutz.  “We will have many pieces back next year and will be competitive again.”

Gavin Stewart, a junior from Ladysmith, ran away with the boys’ individual title in a time of 16:13 which was 33 seconds faster than runner-up Andrew Tate, a senior with the McDonell Macks. Besides Stewart and Hoffman, the other three individuals to earn state berths were: Flambeau junior, Dakota Nelson (3rd), Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran senior, Micah Fossum (4th), and
Eau Claire Regis sophomore, Dominic Santine (6th).

Glenwood City had three runners take part in the girls’ sectional race which followed the conclusion of the boys’ race.

Junior Elsja Meijer continued to shine for the Lady Hilltoppers as she placed 27th out of 95 runners in the sectional with a time of 22:36.9.

“Elsja Meijer continued to lead the team finishing pretty strong just like she did at the conference race,” said Schutz.

Freshman, Erica Bauman ran a 28:15.2 to finish 88th while junior, Stephanie Anderson crossed the finish line 91st after a run of 28:57.9.

Out of the 11 full squads, Eau Claire Regis finished first with 61 points and Cameron, led by individual winner and freshman Inez Schmidt (19:45.1), took second with 65 points. Both the Ramblers and Comets will move on to state as will individual qualifiers Zoey Kemmitz, a Bruce junior and the race’s runner-up, Ladysmith sophomore, Marika Gago (4th), Colfax junior, Kaysen Goodell (5th), Shaylie Zarza (7th), a junior from Thorp, and freshman Kira Dunn of Prairie Farm (9th).