The Whippet CC teams absolutely crushed their races on Thursday, October 13, in cold, windy, and sometimes rainy conditions at the Rock Valley Conference Meet at UW-Whitewater. It was certainly memorable as so many athletes showed such poise and grit throughout their 5000m races to achieve incredible results. All levels and genders finished 3rd or higher across the board.
To kick things off, the girls’ varsity was first and set the tone for what would amount to be a thunderous day. Mady Hefty went for it and put herself into position early with the front runners and showed no fear. It was inspirational to see Mady do her thing as soon Sophomore Athena Soto ran the race of her life and caught her teammate in the last moment to finish 9th and 10th overall and earn 2nd team all-conference honors. This was Athena’s first time assuming the number one spot, and she did so with a new lifetime best of 22:05. Mady finished a few ticks behind in 22:08. Nola Coburn had an incredible day herself and was seconds behind the top two girls placing 13th to also earn second-team all-conference honors. Nola’s time was 22:19. Senior Caelyn Caputo battled a cold throughout the week and poured her heart into the race to come home in 34th with a time of 24:37. Great pack running from junior Lauren Buehler, Sophomore Jackie Franco and Senior Emma Weigel proved to be very helpful all throughout the course as they finished 37th, 38th, and 39th with times of 24:51, 24:52, and 24:54. It was with this group of runners’ collective efforts that they catapulted themselves to 3rd place overall as a team, a significant improvement from the program’s 6th place finish one year ago.
The boys were on the docket next, and they created some fireworks of their own. Sophomore Jack Hefty rubbed elbows with the leaders for half the race before the eventual winner gapped him a bit. McFarland’s Spencer Alf set a new course and conference record with a time of 16:23. Hefty cruised to a solid runner-up finish with a time of 17:11. Meanwhile Junior Nate Holden was writing his own history as he absolutely slaughtered what he thought was possible and finished 5th overall with a time of 17:50. Both of these guys earned 1st team all-conference honors for finishing in the top 8 overall. Sophomore Miles Nickelsburg wasn’t going to let his two teammates gather all the honors as he flourished in his own right to take 20th and earn honorable mention all-conference honors with a time of 19:22. Senior CJ Tomomitsu missed some school early this week due to a tough cold but he didn’t let it hold him back from reppin’ the W one last time and giving it his all to finish as the team’s 4th runner position in 40th with a time of 21:01. Sophomore Andrew O’Toole nearly ran his lifetime best on this grueling course to be the team’s 5th runner and place 43rd with a time of 21:39. Sophomores Onyx Thompson and Xavier Zei gutted their way around the course to finish in 47th and 59th with times of 21:53 and 22:51. It was with their collective efforts that the varsity team claimed 3rd overall, also a significant improvement from last year when the team finished 7th overall.
In the JV girls’ race, the girls repeated as JV Conference champs as they bested Jefferson by 5 points, even with Sami Van Daele, finishing as the team’s 2nd runner, not counting in the results due to a timing bib issue. Isabella Aranda was the top finisher in 3rd place overall, Sami in 4th, Danielle DePorter in 7th, Silvia Harris 12th, Lucy Troxel in 13th, Adalynn Frye in 15th, Elisa Albertini in 17th, Stephanie Wence in 20th, Payton Brautigam in 22nd, Evie Troxel in 24th, and Taiya Kolb in 26th. This is the second straight RVC JV title for the girls’ program!
The boys’ JV team also did very well with this group taking 3rd overall, just like their varsity teammates. Ben McCulloch took the top spot for the Whippets in 12th overall, Yovanni Rojas-Reyes finished in 14th, Gavin LaFlash ran in 16th with a near full minute personal best, Sterling Truesdale placed 20th, Quinton O’Toole finished 35th, Payton Lyon, who also ran his personal best, placed in 37th, Keith Cameron came in 40th, Alex Clarksen with a huge personal best took 44th, and Sam Nickelsburg placed 47th.
Overall the teams all finished in 3rd place or higher on all levels, and earned 6 all-conference awards and memories that will last a lifetime. It was a great day!
The team will now look toward the WIAA Sectional CC meet next Saturday, October 22nd at UW-Parkside where the top two teams will earn a trip to the state meet, and the top five individuals not on those qualifying teams will earn a spot as well.
FULL RESULTS: https://my.raceresult.com/222789/
Article and Photos Submitted by Chad Carstens
Whitewater High School Head Cross Country Coach
ccarstens@wwusd.org
