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From Coach Carstens:
Both cross country programs participated in the 81st running of the Midwest Invitational hosted by Janesville Craig at Blackhawk Golf Course. Due to flooding this year a bridge was not able to be rebuilt in time for the races so the course was a 3 looped affair that made for a unique experience yet fast race times. In some ways, this was a true test of mental toughness having to run the 1-mile loop 3 times with potential for lap traffic and little variation to keep the mind engaged. Over 3000 runners competed in 6 races; Varsity boys and girls, Freshmen/Sophomore and a Junior/Senior race. This meet is loaded with division 1 programs and ranked teams in the state from all divisions.
The boys’ varsity program finished 35th out of 45 participating teams in the varsity race. Trenten Zahn led the team with a finish time of 17:06 and Aidan was the team’s second runner in 17:58. They finished 78th and 153rd overall. Senior Nick Kuzoff was the team’s 3rd runner in 19:00 (234th), Manny Rodriguez in 19:13 (243rd) and Daniel Trost in 19:59 (258th).
The boys’ frosh/soph saw Will Hofmann and Cooper Hammond really run nicely together throughout and both looked really strong with Will getting the edge by the finish line in 18:54 and 18:56, respectively. Good enough for 84th and 86th place. Evan Schepp saw the race course for the first time this season and ran 21:38 (328th) as did Carson Ellenwood who stopped the clock in 23:19 (415th). Peter Zimdars helped the team score with his time of 22:10 and 357th place overall finish. Andrew Rollette enjoyed a great day as he ran a huge personal best in 27:27 (492nd). The team finished in 29th.
The jr/sr race saw Jaden Salmieri run arguably the best complete race of the day and almost broke 20 for the first time in 20:07. His effort today afforded him the opportunity to lead the team to a 28th place finish. Jack Mayer finished in 21:17 (245th), Wesley Salverson with a significant time drop as well in 21:53 (280th). Andy Vo and Mason West were able to find each other early in the huge field and pushed each other all the way to finish with Andy beating Mason to the line in a fun team battle in 22:16 and 22:19 (290th and (292nd). Justin Mitchell finished in 26:09 which was good enough for 347th place.
In the girls’ varsity race Nicole Tomomitsu was once again the top performer for the Whippets running a time of 21:39 good enough for 156th. Crystal Chan finished in 22:20 (195th), Hailey Prager in 22:50 (213th), Trinity Nickels in 25:32 (258th) and Jenna Lee in 26:08 (263rd). As a team, they finished in 37th.
The fr/so race features Sophie Walton as the top finisher for the Whippets in 292nd place with a time of 26:43 cutting over a minute off her previous best. Jenny Villarreal crushed her race and ran a near 2 minute personal best in 28:54 placing 365th and Nikole Pelot performed a similar time drop and finished in 31:04, good enough for 398th.
The jr/sr race featured two runners with Sophia Wagner dropping 2 ½ minutes off her previous best time in 31:58 and placing 287th and Rosie Aschenbrener with a 75 second time drop in 33:09 placing 292nd.
The next event for both programs will be the Jefferson Invite on Tuesday at Jefferson Golf Course followed by the Nightfall Classic Friday night in Wisconsin Dells.
