Hawks see big time drops at Nine Mile
MARATHON CC INVITATIONAL
As is usually the case, the transition from meet number one at Timm’s Hill to meet number two on the flatter ground of the Nine Mile Recreation Area was a good one Thursday for Prentice-Rib Lake’s cross country team.
Times improved dramatically for just about everyone as the Hawks placed sixth in the girls meet and seventh in the boys meet during Thursday’s Marathon Invitational.
Adam Granberg earned the Hawks’ highest finish, placing 15th out of 99 runners in the boys race with a time of 19:13. He was 59 seconds faster at Nine Mile than he was at Timm’s Hill.
Freshman Jack Regier was 32nd in 20:21.6, about 1:18 faster than his first meet, senior Will Hartke was 39th in a solid 20:33.3 in his first race of the season and junior Ryan Buehler was 44th in 20:44.7, about 51 seconds faster than the Aug. 26 Timm’s Hill race.
Freshman Elijah Scott was the team’s fifth scorer and dropped more than two minutes while taking 52nd in 21:30.4. Ben Petersen placed 61st in 21:53.6 in his first race of the new season.
Matthew Schmidt knocked off 1:42 while taking 67th in 22:20.1, Reese Isaacson was 69th in 22:33.8 to set his first mark of 2021 and Connor Highfill was 90th in 25:09.3, cutting 1:51 off his initial time.
The Hawks finished with 171 team points to beat Colby-Abbotsford by one and Wittenberg-Birnamwood by 10. Waupaca was 10th with 224 points. Marathon edged Auburndale 84-89 to win in the meet, ahead of Tomahawk (94), Merrill (110), Athens (127) and Pittsville (149). Assumption, Nekoosa, Three Lakes and Port Edwards were incomplete.
Auburndale’s Charles Jewell was the individual champion at 17:59.9, 1.7 seconds ahead of Marathon’s Jaron Gage. Sam Bowden of Pittsville (18:12.4), David Golisch of Merrill (18:17.7) and Nathan Wolf of Athens (18:24.5) rounded the top five.
In the girls race, senior Kylee Goodrich led the Hawks with a 40th-place time of 24:31.1 and was 24 seconds faster than her opening mark at Timm’s Hill. The rest of the team’s seven runners slashed their times dramatically.
Abby Schuetz and Leah Thums were 56th and 57th out of 104 runners in 25:34.1 and 25:41.4 respectively. Schuetz dropped her time by 2:23 and Thums cut nearly 1:40. JeAnn Johnson knocked off nearly three minutes by taking 64th in 26:13.8 and Lydia Holm cut 2:07 at 27:52.5, good for 81st.
Cristy Hartmann was 97th in 30:50.9, an improvement of about 1:45. Amy Espinoza was 102nd in 33:06.8 and dropped her time by well over six minutes.
The Hawks scored 179 points to finish behind Tomahawk (39), Assumption (59), Colby (72), Marathon (73) and Merrill (136) and ahead of Wittenberg-Birnamwood (210) and Pittsville (211). Auburndale, Nekoosa, Athens, Three Lakes and Waupaca were incomplete.
Merrill’s Elizabeth Schmidt ran away with the individual championship at 19:10.4 Assumption’s Ainara Sainz De Ro was second at 19:53.8, followed by Kallie Volk of Three Lakes (21:03.6), Rachael Reilly of Tomahawk (21:10.3) and Jordyn Karl of Auburndale (21:15.1).
