Thorp-Gilman ends busy stretch at Fall Creek, Stanley


THORP-GILMAN CROSS COUNTRY
The Thorp-Gilman cross country teams completed a brutal stretch of three meets in five days with ninth-place finishes Saturday at the 13-team Knudtson Invitational hosted by Fall Creek.
Tomahawk and Durand finished first and second in both varsity races. It was close in the girls meet with the Hatchets earning a two-point 56-58 margin over the Panthers, while Colfax wasn’t far behind with 66 points.
Thorp-Gilman totaled 191 points, five more than Bloomer and nine more than Fall Creek. Freshman newcomer Shaylie Zarza led the Cardinals in her first race with a 26th-place time of 24:42.1, while Kate Schraufnagel was 41st in 26:36.1. After Cera Philson was 49th in 28:57.1, the last three Thorp-Gilman runners finished together as Pepper Werner (29:19.4), Rachel Boehlke (29:22.1) and Abby Krug (29:25.2) were 51st through 53rd.
Molly Heidorn of Colfax won the race in 21:01, just ahead of Augusta’s Bailey Peterson (21:05.5).
Tomahawk took the boys team trophy with 60 points, ahead of Durand (77) and Glenwood City (99). Thorp-Gilman compiled 206 points. The boys posted some season-best times despite the heavy workload of the week.
Jacob Barth was 33rd in a season-best 21:43.4, while Braxton Starck was 40th at 22:41.1. After Danny Mathison was 52nd in 25:02, Walker Horgan (25:39.6), Syrus Rondorf (25:40.5), Hunter Kodl (25:42.6) and Tyler Hughes (26:11.4) were 54th through 57th. Kodl and Hughes had their best times of the fall so far.
Durand’s Parker Schneider won the race in 17:58.5. Austin Nelson of Glenwood City and Andrew Lau of Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran were second and third in 18:31.7 and 18:48.5.
On Thursday, the team competed in the eight-team Stanley-Boyd Invitational, where the girls placed third and the boys were sixth.
The Chippewa Valley Lightning Bolts won the girls meet with 47 points, followed by McDonell Central (61), Thorp-Gilman (63), Cadott (70) and Neillsville-Granton (98). Eau Claire Immanuel, Owen-Withee and Stanley-Boyd were incomplete.
Schraufnagel was eighth out of 35 runners in 25:53.4, Werner was 14th in 26:57.8, Boehlke was 20th in 28:13.8, Philson was 21st at 28:54.8 and Krug was 22nd at 28:59.4. Chippewa Valley’s Rebecca Hornby won in 22:08.4, a minute ahead of Stanley-Boyd’s Janelle Schesel.
McDonell put three runners in the top seven and won the boys race with 39 points, 20 ahead of Chippewa Valley. Stanley-Boyd was third with 88 points, followed by Eau Claire Immanuel (101), Cadott (116), Thorp-Gilman (136) and Owen- Withee (161). Neillsville-Granton had only four runners.
Barth led the Thorp squad with a 24thplace time of 21:50.1, Starck was 26th at 22:04.4, Mathison was 40th in 23:51.9, Rondorf was 42nd in 24:08.6 in his first race, Horgan was 44th at 24:21.4, Kodl was 51st in 26:26.8 and Hughes was 56th in 27:38.
Dan Anderson of McDonell won in 17:43.6, 6.5 seconds ahead of Neillsville-Granton’s Taytor Lowry.