Both the Boys’ and Girls’ Whippet Cross Country Teams wrapped up their regular season schedule on Friday night, October 4, competing under the lights at the Nightfall Classic. This event is held in Lake Mills on the golf course. The terrain was rolling, which keeps a runner honest, but is also fun to run fast on. This is a truly unique event where the entire race course is illuminated by large light towers and light strings that show the way around the course. Our team competed in the D1/D2 race which had around 350 runners in it in total. However, the results separate the runners by division. Despite being homecoming week and the team being very involved in organizing events, participating in powderpuff, lip sync, and the afternoon games that were featured on Friday, the team rose to the occasion and crushed their races in a very thunderous way. The conditions were right, our training had been going well, and the team was primed to let it rip, and boy did they ever!
The girls’ race went off first at 8:25 PM and was led by Athena Soto who ran the second-best time of her career, running 21:26. This allowed her to finish in 19th place and earn a medal. The next four girls had the tightest spread of the season between Carley Boudreau, Mady Hefty, Virginia Nelson, and Nola Coburn. Eleven seconds separated them and only six places. Carley ran her lifetime best of 22:05 and placed 35th, Mady looked the best she has all season and finished 36th in 22:09, Virginia was 37th in 22:14 and Nola was 40th in 22:16. Virginia ran her lifetime best, and Nola ran her season best time. This wave of red was fun to see come across the finish so close together. Sami Van Daele ran her lifetime best of 23:34 and placed 62nd. Rounding out the top seven for varsity was Ema Aranda who also ran a lifetime best of 23:41 in 65th. The team placed 6th with 167 points out of 12 Division 2 teams in the field.
Leading the JV team was Delaney Hammack who cut over a minute off her previous personal best and placed 87th with a time of 24:10. Lucy Troxel shaved 11 seconds off her previous best time to place 91st. Payton Brautigam cut over a minute off her current season’s best time to run 27:49 and place 131st. Mya Graves-Koran battled through her cold to stop the clock at 28:20 and place 133rd.
On the boys’ side, Jack Hefty continued to put on a clinic and ran another lifetime best of 15:43, once again in convincing fashion. By winning this race, it was his third invitational win of the season. Xavier Zei ran with authority and was close to his lifetime best with a time of 17:09 and placed 11th, with a medal. Miles Nicklesburg has stayed steady as the team’s third runner and ran 17:45, strong enough for a medal as well as he finished 19th overall. The next three boys ran so well as a pack and fed off that energy. Onyx Thompson was a leader in this effort as he crushed his race and ran a new lifetime best by 33 seconds and placed 27th in 18:07. Andrew O’Toole battled with him to the finish in 18:08 and 28th overall, also a lifetime best. Luc Pomazak was just two places behind in 30th and ran 18:16. Quinton O’Toole dipped under 20:00 for the first time in his career and ran 19:52. Quinton placed 63rd. Isaiah Mendez rounded out the top 7 and also ran a lifetime best of 20:34 in 77th. The varsity team placed 2nd overall with 86 points and brought home a trophy!
Marcus Roselle led the JV team as he ran his third straight lifetime best of 20:46 in 82nd. Angel Kilar ran out of his mind shaving nearly two minutes off his season best time and ran a lifetime best of 23:23 to place 110th. Alex Clarksen also uncorked an incredible effort and ran a new lifetime best of 23:50, good enough for 116th. Sam Nickelsburg cut several minutes off his season best time to finish just behind Alex in 23:54 and placed 117th.
As you can see, it was a great day for the team and a nice confidence booster as we look to get a good solid training block in before we lace up our spikes for the Rock Valley Conference Meet which will be held at UW-Whitewater on Thursday, October 17th.
Full Results: https://my.raceresult.com/309457/results
Article and Photo Courtesy of Chad Carstens
Whitewater High School Head Cross Country Coach
ccarstens@wwusd.org
