Elk Mound girls take second, boys third at D-SC cross country meet

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DURAND — Despite three top-ten finishes in last Thursday’s Dunn-St. Croix Conference Cross Country meet in Durand, the Elk Mound girls’ squad found itself in second place when the final team results were announced as darkness and a cold rain began to fall.

That’s because Boyceville, who also had a trio of runners finish among the first ten, had its number four and five competitors cross the finish line ahead of Elk Mound’s at the 2023 conference meet held at Durand’s Rolling Greens Golf Course October 12 to win the Lady Bulldogs’ first D-SC championship since 2005.

Boyceville scored a low of 34 to take the title while Elk Mound finished with a 48. Only two other conference teams out of eight schools fielded full squads and received scores. Host Durand-Arkansaw placed third with 50 points and Spring Valley had a 99 to take fourth.

In the boys’ competition, Elk Mound, who came in as the defending conference champion, finished third out of six full team in Durand after scoring 71 points. Last year’s runner-up, Glenwood City, laid claim to the 2023 championship with a low score of 37. Mondovi was second with 60 followed by the Mounders, host Durand-Arkansaw took fourth with a 103, fifth-place Spring Valley tallied a 111 and Boyceville finished in sixth place with a 133.

The Lady Mounders had a pair of competitors earn first team all-conference honors by finishing in the top seven and another take home second team recognition which goes to those in the 8-14 spots.

Junior Ellie Schiszik became a three-time all-conference runner when she placed fifth on Durand’s 5,000-meter in 22:05.77. Senior Marley King also grabbed first-team all-conference honors when she finished in seventh place overall with a time of 22:32.45. Junior Jaidynn Sarauer was a second team all conference recipient as she finished tenth in 22:49.59.

Elk Mound’s fourth and fifth-place finishers, which scored team points, were freshman Rhiana Fischer and senior Caroline Gabert, respectively. Fischer ran a 24:03.8 to take 22nd and Gabert finished in 25th place with a time of 24:41.23. Rounding out the varsity were senior Carly Mohr who finished 31st in 26:38.62 and freshman Lola Jerome who ran a 27:26.99 to take 35th.

There were 37 total runners in the girls’ varsity competition which was won by senior Courtney Stadter of Mondovi who set a course record in 19:45.

Four other girls competed in the junior varsity category for Elk Mound. Freshman Lexi Solberg placed fifth (28:06.12), junior Kylee Anderson came in sixth (28:48.95), and juniors Kaelyn Zais (31:40.02) and Yolo Delgado (34:58.31) were ninth and tenth, respectively.

Senior boys Caleb Beskow and Bodie Folczyk scored all-conference awards for Elk Mound based on their finishes in Durand last Thursday. Beskow ran a 18:26.10 to take sixth place in the varsity race and earned a spot on the first team all-conference squad. Folczyk made the second team when he placed tenth in 18:54.56. 

Two other seniors, Jesse Moyer and Tyler Gagner, just missed earning spots on the all-conference second team. Moyer finished in 16th place in 19:09.05 and Ganger crossed the finish in 19:34.73 to take 18th.

Sophomore Dalton Banaszak was the Mounders fifth runner and final scorer. He took 24th in 19:54.97. The other two varsity runners, seniors Evan Lauer and Cooper Reese, were a respective 28th and 29th with close times of 20:29.45 and 20:29.86.

With 43 total runners for the boys, the varsity race was won by Landon Clark of Mondovi in 17:11.

Six Mounder boys competed in junior varsity race. Freshman Blake Niska took second in 20:45.49, juniors Brooks Burcaw (22:11.43) and Aidan Schindler (22:20.78) finished a respective sixth and seventh, senior Graycen Banaszak was 11th in 23:09.98, freshman Jacob Carstens ran a 23:10.11 to finish 12th and freshman Dru Schiszik placed 16th in 24:50.66.

In the middle school race that covered 3,200 meters, Elk Mound eighth-grader Keston Niven finished in first place with a run of 11:36.07. Finishing just behind Niven were seventh-graders Grayson  Stunkel (12:12.32) and Grady Westlund (12:19.32) who crossed in third and fifth places, respectively, to help lead the boys to a second-place finish with a score of 57, just one point more than Boyceville who won the event. Eight-grader Weston Schram was 21st in 13:40.77 while seventh-graders Emerson Gerl (15:24.0) and Noah Crossman (15:36.10) were 41st and 42nd, respectively.

Elk Mound also had three girls compete in the middle school race. Elsie Carstens finished in 11th place with a run of 14:10.67, Paisley Banaszak was 34th in 17:10.05 and Cecilia Linzmeier took 44th in 19:20.24. All three are in the seventh grade.

The Mounder varsity squads will compete this Saturday, October 21 in the WIAA Division 2 sectional meet on the UW-Eau Claire Barron County campus in Rice Lake. Racing will begin at 10:30 a.m. The first two teams as well as the first five individuals who are not members of a qualifying team will advance to the state championships in Wisconsin Rapids on Saturday, October 28.