Colby girls second, C-A boys third in Cloverbelt
There were high expectations heading into the Cloverbelt conference meet held in Loyal this Saturday. The defending Cloverbelt champion Colby girls were the favorites to take the title and the coop Colby/Abby boys were aiming for their first top-two finish since 2014. While there were some solid performances from both groups, neither would quite reach the goals they had set for themselves entering the meet. The girls’ team would take second place by the smallest of margins and a tough McDonell boys’ team ran one of its better races to put distance between themselves and the third-place Colby/Abby team.
Heading into Saturday, the stage seemed set for Colby to win their fifth consecutive Cloverbelt conference championship. The team produced mostly as planned, with Willow Oehmichen and MaKenna Herrmann placing in the top five and Casey Reynolds, Annamarie Schmitt, and Payton Roth turning in top twenty performances.
They actually improved on their score of 59 points from a meet in Loyal earlier in the year, where they had faced off against similar competition and won fairly handily. The next closest team at that meet in August had been Fall Creek, which had ended the day with 70 points. Going into the meet, the Crickets appeared to be the team that would have the greatest chance of overthrowing the Hornets, though Colby had little issue outscoring Fall Creek. Colby ended the day with 53 points; the Crickets, meanwhile, finished with a distant 81.
However, those 53 points left the defending champs one away from victory. It turned out not to be Fall Creek or even an improved Cadott squad that overturned four years of Colby dominance. Rather, their biggest challenge came in the form of last year’s second place finisher, Eau Claire Regis. The Ramblers, led by Carly Borst, Sylvia Spangler and Ava Moore, finished with 52 points to claim the conference championship, beating out Colby by the narrowest of margins.
While the talents of Regis’ top four runners certainly kept them on most teams’ radars, they lacked an all-important fifth runner. Throughout the season, the Ramblers had either not qualified for scoring at certain meets due to only competing with four athletes or saw their point totals rise when a fifth was added. Heading into the conference meet, all signs seemed to point to a similar fate for Regis, at least outside of the Ramblers’ camp.
What quickly became apparent on Saturday was that Regis was not running with not four or even five runners, but six. The Ramblers had gained the services of Ashley Chilson, who had spent much of the 2022 fall season competing for the Regis tennis team. Chilson, who ran for the Regis track team in the spring, gave the Ramblers another top 15 runner and was ultimately the difference maker.
Oehmichen and Herrmann finished fourth and fifth respectively for the Hornets. Oehmichen posted a time of 21:10.6 and Herrmann finished shortly after with a time of 21:17.6. As expected, the pair battled with the front runners for much of the race, though couldn’t quite match the pace of Thorp’s Shaylie Zarza, who won the event in 20:30.4.
The next four Colby runners all set personal bests on Saturday. Reynolds turned in a personal best with a time of 22:03.7, taking 20 seconds off the pace she set at Weyauwega the week prior. Her performance earned her 14th place. Schmitt was not far behind, finishing 15th with a time of 22:08.4. Roth rounded out Colby’s top five with an 18th place finish, completing the course in 22:28.8. Veronica Mateer was the Hornets’ sixth runner and ran six-tenths of a second faster than her previous PR to finish with a time of 23:35.0 and finish 25th overall.
Reagan Schraufnagel rounded out the varsity team, turning in a time of 24:47.2 and earning 42nd place.
The Colby/Abbotsford boys’ team would have needed to have an incredible day to compete for one of the top two spots. Both Bloomer and McDonell ran solid races, with Bloomer’s highest scorer placing 11th and McDonell’s top five all placing in the top 20. The Blackhawks ultimately defeated the defending Cloverbelt champions to take the title, scoring 34 points to McDonell’s 50. The Colby/Abbotsford team finished with 136 points, holding off the likes of Fall Creek and Columbus to take third overall.
Max Adams led the way for the coop, taking seventh place with a time of 17:53.5. This earned the junior his first all-conference honor. Braylon Schoelzel finished second for Colby/Abby, coming in 26th overall and recording a time of 19:21.7.
Carter Roth set a new PR for the third meet in a row by finishing in 19:38.5. This personal best earned him 28th place.
Jack Schindler was the fourth Colby/ Abby runner to cross the finish line, taking 36th place overall with a time of 20:10.6. Joseph Streveler and Jack Sheahan rounded out the varsity team. Streveler came in 46th with a time of 21:09.2 and Sheahan ended the day with a time of 21:11.2 to finish in 48th.
The two teams will be traveling to different locations this week for their sectional meets. The girls will be competing in the Division 3 sectional being held in Athens on Friday, October 21. The meet is to start at 4:00 p.m. Meanwhile, the co-op boys will be headed to Black River Falls for their Division 2 sectional this Saturday, October 22. Their start time is set for 12:00 p.m.
