Hawks’ Moore, Enders both finish 7th; Erickson back on mention list

MARAWOOD CROSS COUNTRY

BY MATT FREY

SPORTS EDITOR

Prentice-Rib Lake’s Serena Moore, Kaitlyn Erickson and Peyton Enders all repeated as all-conference award winners with their performances at Thursday’s Marawood Conference cross country championships, hosted by Auburndale at the Frey Field course near Spencer.

Moore claimed first-team honors for the third straight year with a seventhplace finish in the girls’ race, while Kaitlyn Erickson earned honorable mention for the second year in a row with a 21stplace finish.

Enders made a nice jump from 13th a year ago to seventh in this year’s boys race, enabling him to bump up from the second team to this year’s first team.

Prentice-Rib Lake finished sixth in the team standings for both the girls and boys races in the nine-team event. The Hawks bumped up to spots from a year ago in the boys standings, while the sixth-place place girls finish equaled their result from 2018.

Moore got a first-hand look at a youth movement that took over the girls’ side of the conference in Thursday’s race. A third-place finisher the past two years, the Hawk junior posted a solid time of 21:03.7, which was 20.7 seconds faster than her time on this same course two weeks earlier. But ahead of her were four freshmen, a sophomore, and Edgar’s Marissa Ellenbecker, who made history by becoming a four-time Marawood champion with a winning time of 20:24.1.

The first-team freshmen were Claudia Lasiowski of Chequamegon, second in 20:33.5; Morgan Schnelle of Edgar, fourth in 20:53.4; Grace Dolan of Wisconsin Rapids Assumption, fifth in 20:53.7, and Cristin Casey of Assumption, who was credited with sixth in 21:03.7 in a photo finish with Moore.

Auburndale sophomore McKenna Zieher was third in 20:46.5, while junior Erricka Zenner got the eighth and final first-team spot in 21:06.6. Their finishes, combined with four more Apaches earning second-team all-conference spots, led their team to its third straight Marawood Conference team championship. The Apaches compiled just 45 points to comfortably outscore runner-up Assumption (80) and third-place Marathon (83). The freshman additions helped Assumption jump from seventh place last year to second.

Erickson, a senior for the Hawks, finished 19th to land right in the middle of the honorable mention list (17th through 24th). She finished in 22:19.6, a shade better than her race here two weeks earlier. It’s the third All-Marawood award for Erickson, who got the last second-team spot as a sophomore.

Hawk senior Zoei Goodrich came in 38th out of 63 runners in 23:42.5, 17 seconds faster than her previous Frey Field run. Sophomore Kylee Goodrich was 47th in 24.13.2, 20.7 seconds faster than her Oct. 3 race. Senior Brook Peterson was 61st in 26:12.7.

The Hawks scored 156 points to beat Stratford (182), Phillips (185) and the incomplete team from Athens. Chequamegon clipped Edgar 111-112 to take fourth.

In the boys race, Enders finished in 18:14.1, which was an identical time to his Oct. 3 effort on this course. The senior easily secured his spot on the eightman first team, beating eighth-place Kees Hoogland of Phillips by 15.7 seconds. Just two years ago, Enders was a 32nd-place finisher in the conference.

Enders and Hoogland joined a strong group of runners on the 2019 All-Marawood team.

Athens senior Johnathan Nowacki, last year’s third-place runner, won the title Thursday with a time of 17:17.9, keeping Assumption senior Garrett Dolan (17:29.1) the runner-up for the second straight year. Stratford senior James Heeg (17:35.1) and Auburndale junior Carl Lundgren (17:37.2) repeated as firstteamers with their third- and fourthplace times. Stratford senior Andrew Chapel (17:39.4) and Marathon senior Will Prihoda (18:06.6) jumped to the first team after taking 19th and 14th respectively in last year’s race.

CASEY KRAUTKRAMER/THE

Prentice-Rib Lake’s Peyton Enders focuses on what’s ahead during his seventh- place run at Thursday’s Marawood Conference cross country meet.

The Hawks got a nice pack finish from their next four scorers to secure the sixth-place team spot. Noah Wiitala was 29th in 19:23.2, which was 25.5 seconds faster than his Frey Field run two weeks earlier. Adam Granberg was 32nd in 19:34.1. Riley Blomberg was 34th at 19:38.1, improving by 6.8 seconds. Alex Schantner was 36th in a time of 19:48.5, 20.4 seconds faster than his time of Oct. 3.

Prentice-Rib Lake’s Reese Isaacson was 54th in 21:19.4, which was a 28.8-second improvement from two weeks earlier. Lane Blomberg was 57th at 21:46.9, improving by 9.6 seconds.

Athens won a tight three-team race for the championship with 61 points, one better than Marathon and six ahead of Stratford. Auburndale was far behind in fourth place with 78 points.

Chequamegon (105), Prentice-Rib Lake (128), Phillips (138), Edgar (258) and Assumption (incomplete) rounded out the team scoring.

In the boys JV race, Prentice-Rib Lake’ Nolan Sarkkinen was 36th in 25:12.4, Anthony Schuetz was 40th in 28:42, improving by 2:40 from two weeks earlier, and Noah Schantner was 42nd in 35:58.8.

Prentice-Rib Lake will head to the WIAA Division 3 South Shore sectional for the second straight fall. Saturday’s meet will start with the girls race at 1 p.m. at Northern Pines Golf Course in Iron River. The boys will follow at 2 p.m. The top two teams and top five runners not on qualifying teams advance to state. Moore will be shooting for her third straight state trip. Enders could contend for his first state berth.

CASEY KRAUTKRAMER/THE

Prentice-Rib Lake senior Zoei Goodrich reaches the finish line ahead of Chequamegon’s Lilah Pearson and ends up in 38th place at Thursday’s Marawood Conference meet.

Serena Moore First Team

Kaitlyn Erickson Hon. Mention