In the 55th edition of the Angel Invitational on Saturday, September 16, the Whippets didn’t disappoint as they came to compete hard and leave it all out on the course. It was the second race of the week for them and the only time this season when the team will do this race combination.
On the girls’ side, the varsity team finished 15th out of 33 teams. Mady Hefty cut over a minute off of her time at this race last year and placed 28th with a time of 21:22. The trio of Nola Coburn, Carley Boudreau, and Athena Soto packed it up well throughout the race with Carley emerging as the team’s second runner on this day to place 81st with a time 22:52, Nola in 82nd with a time of 22:54, and Athena ran a gutsy race as she rolled her ankle in the warm up and brought herself to the finish line in 86th with a time of 23:00. Silvia Harris emerged as the team’s fifth runner today by placing 146th with a time of 25:30, followed closely behind by at the line by Isabella Aranda who placed 147th with a time of 25:32. Lauren Buehler rounded out the top 7 varsity athletes by placing 152nd with a time of 26:16.
The JV girls placed 13th out of 33 teams. Freshman Ema Aranda competed in her 2nd race of the year and paced the team by crossing the line as the first Whippet in 50th with a time of 25:09. Sami Van Daele placed 77th with a time of 26:04. Lucy Troxel placed 95th in 26:59. Payton Brautigam ran faster today than she did on Tuesday on a much more difficult course at Parkside to place 117th with a time of 28:06. Hailey Keltesch ran her personal best time of 30:07 to take 163rd. Danielle DePorter placed 159th in 30:28. Mya Graves-Koran finished 163rd in 30:55.
In the boys’ race, Jack Hefty raised some eyebrows by finishing 3rd overall in a very tough meet. His time of 16:35 is very strong on this course and at this point in the season. Nate Holden and Xavier Zei raced tightly together for much of the race before Nate was able to pull a bit ahead to place 32nd in a time of 17:49. Xavier ran a lifetime best to place 35th in 17:57 on this tough course that features a lot of hills. Miles Nickelsburg crossed the line in 61st in 18:32. Onyx Thompson, Quincy Boudreau, and Andrew O’Toole ran three-wide for much of the race before Onyx unleashed a strong surge near the end of the race to cross the line 121st with a time of 19:43. Quincy came next in 125th in 19:45 and Andrew in 146th with a time of 20:09. The varsity team placed 8th, which is the strongest finish the program has seen in years at this meet.
The JV boys saw the return of Chad Hein who led the team with a 61st place finish with a time of 21:25. Wyatt Esch wasn’t too far behind in 68th with a time of 21:33. Sterling Truesdale kicked the snot out of his time from Tuesday by stopping the clock in 22:38 in 98th place. Parker Genskow was 107th in 22:37. Marcus Roselle gutted out of a tough day to place 113th in 22:50. Gavin LaFlash and Quinton O’Toole finished together placing 126th and 127th with times of 23:10 and 23:12. Isaiah Mendez placed 137th in 23:21. Sam Nickelsburg and Dante Baker duked it out and finished only .7 away from each other in 182nd and 183rd with a time of 25:07. Luc Pomazak stormed home in 25:24, good for 190th. Alex Clarksen took 204th in 26:19. Angel Kilar competed in his first race of the year with a nice sub-30 effort to place 237th with a time of 29:17. The JV team finished 13th out of 33 schools.
Whitewater was recognized at the awards ceremony for having attended this invite for 45 years in a row.
Next up for the Whippets will be the Midwest Invitational in Janesville on Saturday, September 23rd. The first race is scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM.
Full results: https://wisconsinrunner.com/results/2023/2023angelinvite/
Article Submitted by Chad Carstens
Whitewater High School Head Cross Country Coach
ccarstens@wwusd.org
