Hawks’ Orysen 61st in her first state meet

The first state cross country appearance for Prentice-Rib Lake freshman Kylie Orysen was a good one Saturday in the WIAA Division 3 girls championship race held at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.

Orysen, who qualified for state by placing sixth in the previous week’s sectional meet in Phillips, placed 61st out of 149 competitors in Saturday’s race. Her time of 21:26.2 was among her better ones of the season. Orysen held a steady position throughout the race as well, something that isn’t always easy for a first-time state competitor.

Orysen hit the mile mark in a time of 6:23.8, which put her in 57th place at the time. At the mile, just 8.2 seconds separated 50th place (6:21) from 70th (6:29.2).

A split of 7:13.4 in the second mile dropped Orysen slightly to 63rd place, but she picked up a couple of spots in the third mile-plus to get up to the 61st position. She was 2.8 seconds ahead of Colby’s Willow Oehmichen and one second behind 60th-place finisher Isabel Baker of Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs.

“She did awesome,” Hawks coach Lynn Granberg said. “I am so proud of her.”

Addy Duellman, a freshman from Cochrane-Fountain City, won the individual championship in Division 3 at 18:58.1 and led her team to the state championship. The Pirates totaled 132 points to beat Oshkosh Lourdes Academy by six points. Valders was third with 151 points, followed by Dodgeland (155) and Lancaster (165). Marawood Conference champion Wisconsin Rapids Assumption was 10th in the standings with 227 points. Sectional champion Phillips was 12th at 286 points and sectional runner-up Chequamegon was 15th with 300. Colby, the runner-up in the Athens sectional, was 13th with 292 points.

Boscobel’s Nora Jillson was second individually at 19:08.4. Marawood champion Autumn Michalski of Chequamegon was third in 19:12.7, while Assumption’s Lucy Dolan was fourth in 19:23.5, just ahead of Dodgeland’s Ava Raasch (19:27.2).