Rain doesn’t stop home team at Colby

Adverse weather conditions have become a staple of the Colby cross country meet over the last couple years and 2022 continued the trend with its fair share of cool temperatures and rain. Despite the precipitation and slippery terrain, everyone on the varsity teams, both the girls and boys, posted career or seasonal bests at Saturday’s home meet.

“Many people would say conditions were less than ideal,” head coach Bryon Graun said, “but for us it was a perfect day. We love mid 50s. And the little bit of rain just made it fun.”

The Colby girls and Colby/Abbotsford boys teams played host to seven other schools on September 10. The Colby girls took second overall in a tightly contested race with Stratford, just falling short of winning their second straight meet. Meanwhile, the boys team took third overall, scoring after first place Mauston and second place Stratford.

“I keep saying it over and over again, I am very proud of the how our teams ran,” Graun said. “To have the whole team do so well on the same day is awesome. Having a great race at home is so exciting too.”

The season best performances almost pushed the Colby girls’ into first place, even though they were down two of their regular varsity runners, Willow Oehmichen and Pearl Feiten. The team finished with 36 points and they had all five of their scoring athletes place in the top 10. However, a tough Stratford team was ever so slightly better, taking three of the top four spots and having their final two runners finish 11th and 12th. This gave the Tigers 31 points, which was just enough to hold off the Hornets.

MaKenna Herrmann came across the finish line as the first runner for the home team. The sophomore posted a personal best, beating the time she had recorded at last year’s sectional race by over 15 seconds. Her time of 21:39.9 was second only to Stratford’s Kayla Casperson, who won with a time of 20:48.1.

After Herrmann, Colby blocked off the seventh through 10th positions, all of whom finished within 20 seconds of each other. Junior Reagan Schraufnagel finished with her season best time of 23:39.4 and came in seventh overall as Colby’s second runner. Following her was freshman Annamarie Schmitt, who placed eighth overall. Schmitt has set a new PR in each race this season and this race was no different. She shaved nearly two minutes off her previous personal best, finishing in 23:45.5. Junior Casey Reynolds and senior Payton Roth both had their fastest times in 2022, coming in at 23:47.9 and 23:48.1 to finish ninth and 10th respectively.

Rounding out the girls’ varsity team, sophomores Veronica Mateer and Jennelle Ertl both had seasonal bests. Mateer finished 14th overall with a time of 24:35.7 and Ertl came in 21st with a time of 24:50.5.

“The girls really stepped up in the absence of Willow and Pearl,” head coach Bryon Graun said. “And it was all of them. I can’t pick out one person to highlight. Each one worked hard with their running partner to move up in the field as the race went along.”

The boys’ team also showed continued improvement, with six of their top seven varsity runners posting PRs.

Junior Max Adams finished sixth overall with a personal best time of 18:10.6, inching ever closer to the 18 minute mark. Freshman Matthew Sprotte finished second for the Colby/ Abbotsford co-op, cutting over two minutes off his time at Loyal to finish under 20 minutes with a time of 19:39.5. He would come in 15th overall. Finishing neck and neck were sophomore Braylon Schoelzel and junior Jack Schindler. Schoelzel finished with a seasonal best time of 19:43.3 and Schindler set a new personal best at 19:54.1. They came in at 17th and 18th respectively. Junior Carter Roth was not far behind at 20th position, setting a new PR with a time of 20:00.8 Freshman Jack Sheahan and junior Joseph Streveler also set new goalposts for themselves. Sheahan finished 29th overall with a time of 21:20.7 and Streveler came in 30th with a time of 21:53.3.

“Our goal was to make some gains on Marshfield Columbus and we did that,” Graun said of the boys’ performance. “They were without their top runner but it felt good to get past them this weekend too.”

Next up for the team is the September 17 Smiley Invitational hosted by Wausau East. This meet tends to be one of the largest events that the team attends outside of the potential state meet, with runners from 20-30 schools usually attending. The JV boys team is to start at 8:30 a.m., the boys’ varsity tentatively at 9:00 a.m., the girls’ varsity at 9:25 a.m., and the girls’ JV at 10:00 a.m.