Boyceville girls’ cross country team ends season with 4th-place showing in sectional

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CADOTT — A fantastic season by the Boyceville girls’ cross country team came to an all-too-sudden end at last Saturday’s sectional meet.

With hopes of adding some more hardware to its season collection which includes a Dunn-St. Croix Conference championship plaque, the Lady Bulldogs’ bid for a team berth to this weekend’s state championships in Wisconsin Rapids fell short when they finished in fourth place at the 2023 WIAA Division 3 Cadott Cross Country Sectional held at Whispering Pines Golf Course October 21. 

Under near perfect running conditions (an overcast sky and temperatures in the low to mid 50s), the Boyceville girls tallied 139 points, a dozen points more than third-place finisher Barron and well off the pace of the top two teams from Eau Claire Regis and Cameron who each earned the two state berths. With three of the day’s top six finishers, the Ramblers won the ladies crown with a score of 61 and were followed closely by Cameron who scored a 65 and had a trio of top ten finishers including individual champion, freshman Inez Schmidt (19:45.1). There were just 11 full girls’ squads among the 25 schools that participated in Saturday’s sectional meet.

“The girls came off an awesome race last week at Conference,” stated Boyceville head coach Jacob Peterson. “Going into this race, we wanted to try and be competitive with the top two teams. The girls went out hard and tried to hold the spots they needed, but we came in fourth behind Barron along with the top two state qualify teams.”

This year’s finish was a marked improvement from last year’s sectional where the Boyceville girls finished eighth with 195 points. 

None of the Lady Bulldog runners were able to secure one of the five individual state berths that were up for grabs in Cadott.

Boyceville sophomore Ashlyn Maska, however, came the closest when she finished 15th out of 95 runners with a time of 21:37.3 which was just six spots off the final individual qualifying spot which went to Prairie Farm freshman Kira Dunn. The other four individual state berths were taken by Bruce junior and runner-up Zoey Kemmitz, Ladysmith sophomore Marika Gago (4th), Colfax junior Kaysen Goodell (5th), and Shaylie Zarza (7th), a junior from Thorp.

Senior Jaden Stevens nearly cracked the top 20 in what was the final cross country race of her notable high school career. Stevens chased down a 21st-place finish after completing the 5,000-meter course in 22:13.8.

Sophomore Halle Tonn was Boyceville’s third runner to finish the sectional race taking home 35th place in a time of 23:05.7. 

A trio of freshmen were next to cross the finish line for the Bulldogs. Ellie Engeman ran a 23:27.7 and finished 43rd, Sydney Larson completed her run in 24:48.0 to take 64th and Layla Score ran a 25:53.4 and came in 76th.

Boyceville’s seventh and final competitor, senior Sarah Stoveren, crossed the finish in 85th place and with a time of 27:28.4.

Coach Peterson had kudos for his girls’ runners especially its only two seniors – Stevens and Stoveren.

“The girls’ team will be graduating two girls this year, Jaden Stevens and Sarah Stoveren.  Both girls have competed in cross country since 6th grade and have been a large part of the foundation of success this year. They both have brought great leadership skills to the team,” lauded Peterson. 

In the boys’ sectional race, Boyceville finished 12th out 16 full squads with 289 points.

“The boys were going into the race to improve their (sectional)finish from last year and score less points. They took advantage of the perfect racing conditions on Saturday and accomplished that by moving up from 16th with 356 points in 2022 to finish 12th with 289 points (in this year’s race),” stated Peterson.

Junior Michael Montgomery once again led the Bulldog boys’ contingent with a personal best, by a whopping 30 seconds, when he finished in 19:05.3 to place 30th.

Sophomore Isaac Williams also finished inside 20 minutes as he took 54th in 19:55 flat.

Nicholas Keely, a freshman and first-year varsity competitor, came in 72nd after a sectional run of 20:44.8.

Two other Boyceville boys recorded personal bests at the sectional meet. Sophomore Forest Bettendorf took nine seconds off his top time to finish in 21:08.8 and 81st place. Junior Dominic Anderson shaved 13 seconds from his best time with a 22:19.6 which placed him in the 100th spot.

Finishing in between that pair was Aidan Madison. The junior ran a 21:28.3 to finish 86th.

The final Bulldog finisher was freshman Jace Traxler who took 115th in 26:49.8.

Chippewa Falls McDonell repeated as the boys’ team champions after scoring a low of 57 points. The Bulldogs of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser copped second place with 90 points. Those two teams earned state berths with their finishes. Ladysmith junior Gavin Stewart smoked the field of 116 runners to win the boys’ race in 16:13.0.

Beside Stewart, the other individual state qualifiers for the boys were: Flambeau junior, Dakota Nelson (3rd), Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran senior, Micah Fossum (4th), Glenwood City sophomore, Clayton Hoffman (5th) and
Eau Claire Regis sophomore, Dominic Santine (6th).