On a cool, crisp night in Wisconsin Dells the Whitewater Whippet cross country teams were able to finish off their regular season schedule on a high note. This meet is raced after sundown and contested under strategically placed flood lights to illuminate the course and Christmas lights on the sweeping turns and trees. There is no meet like this in the Midwest. There were over 40 teams that competed in the D1/D2 and D3 races throughout the night.
In near perfect race conditions, the girls got things started off first with nearly every girl running a new personal best. Gwen Truesdale paced the Whippets with a 54th place finish out of 151 runners. Her time of 23:38 is her best ever and her competitive edge is getting sharper by the day. Sabrina Bomberg also joined Gwen in the 23’s by running 23:55 and placed 62nd. Also dropping significant time were Morgan Stillwagon in 26:22, Jenny Villareal running 27:04, Jenna Lee 27:23, Izzy Dieter 27:40, Nikole Pelot 27:59, Jeanette Falcon 28:23, and Evie Troxel 28:04. The varsity girls placed 13th out of 14 teams in the D2 results.
The boys reflected the same improvements as a slew of runners earned a new personal best. Gio Anello paced the Whippets early with a hot start that helped propel him to a new level of racing. He was rewarded with new confidence going into championship time as he rubbed elbows with some strong runners. He finished in 9th with a time of 17:06. Trenten Zahn wouldn’t disappoint as he saw his way through the field and finished with vengeance to take 6th place in 16:51. Both boys earned a medal in the meet. Cooper Hammond cracked 18 minutes for the second time in 6 days as he ran 18:40. Not far back was Manny Rodriguez running 18:57. Will Hofmann rounded out the top 5 with a time of 19:14. Also cutting time off their personal best were Jack Mayer in 20:04, Marcus DePorter 20:49, Evan Schepp 20:55, Jaden Salmieri 20:56, Broderick Frye 21:07, Josiah Holden 21:55, Andy Vo 22:20, Justin Mitchell 25:20, and Andrew Rollette in 26:02. The varsity boys placed 7th out of 16 teams. Full results: https://my3.raceresult.com/137852/results?lang=en
The team now takes the next week and a half to get ready for the championship phase of the season. The Rock Valley Conference Meet is being contested in Whitewater on the campus of UW-Whitewater on Thursday, October 17th. For all information regarding this meet, click here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IZ5KrWCVcMa5_OlOomKGeGRe8CrTcmGn_p0EcR_3KJo/edit?usp=sharing
