C/A cross sets new PRs at Weyauwega

The Colby/Abby cross country team had one final opportunity to prepare ahead of the Cloverbelt conference meet, participating in Weyauwega-Fremont’s invitational last Thursday. The boys’ co-op team took third out of 15 schools at the meet, finishing with a final score of 107. Amherst took first with a score of 53 points and Weyauwega-Fremont narrowly beat out the Colby/Abbotsford team with a score of 100.

Of the seven runners that scored for the boys’ team on Thursday, three set new personal bests. Max Adams set a new PR for the third meet in a row, this time finishing in a time of 17:10. This earned him third place overall, just behind second place, Berlin’s Wyatt Miller. Max Voss of Amherst was about twenty seconds faster than the pair, winning the event with a time of 16:49.

Carter Roth and Joseph Streveler both ran their fastest races of their careers at the Weyauwega-Fremont invite. Roth finished third for the co-op and 26th overall, breaking the record he set last week in Athens by finishing in 19:39. Streveler was Colby/Abby’s fifth runner and, like Adams, has beaten his PR three meets in a row. His new time to beat, 20:42, earned him 42nd place.

Matthew Sprotte finished second for the co-op and 16th overall, completing the course in 19:04. Braylon Schoelzel came in right after Roth, also finishing with a time of 19:39 and coming in 27th place.

Jack Schindler and Jack Sheahan rounded out the boys’ team, with Schindler taking 45th with a time of 20:49 and Sheahan coming across the finish line in 21:12 to take 55th.

The Colby girls’ took fourth as a team. Bonduel won the meet, narrowly edging out their hosts, Weyauwega-Fremont, with scores of 72 and 73 points respectively. Amherst came in third, their 102 points only three less than Colby’s 105.

Leading the way for the Hornets was MaKenna Herrmann. The sophomore came in fourth place

STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD while taking 12 seconds off her time from the previous week’s meet at Athens. Her time of 20:27 was a new personal best. She was not far off the pace of Rory Salveson from Wittenberg-Birnamwood, the meet’s first place finisher who finished the course in 20:02.

Colby’s third, fourth, and fifth runners all set new PRs Thursday as well. Casey Reynolds placed 29th overall with a time of 22:23, which was over half a minute faster than her previous fastest race. Payton Roth took three seconds off her PR to finish 33rd with a time of 22:37. Finally, Annamarie Schmitt came in 34th with a new personal best of 22:44, which was two seconds quicker than her time set in Spencer earlier this year.

Willow Oehmichen was the second place runner for Colby, finishing in 15th place with a time of 21:38. Veronica Mateer finished sixth for the Hornets and 39th overall, coming in with a final time of 24:06.

The two teams will be traveling to Loyal for the Cloverbelt conference meet. The co-op ran there earlier this year and will be facing many of the same teams that they saw in August. The girls’ team took first at that meet and the boys finished fifth, which may bode well for similar results. However, that meet took place over a month-anda- half ago, and while the Colby/Abbotsford teams have improved over that time frame, other teams have done so as well.

The girls’ teams’ top competition for the conference crown will likely come in the form of the Fall Creek Crickets, which took second in the Loyal meet and will be coming off a team victory at the Owen-Withee meet. Cadott has also shown improvement over the past several weeks and could potentially play spoiler. That being said, head coach Bryon Graun still likes his team’s chances.

“When you look at Fall Creek or Regis or Cadott, they just don’t have five solid runners, where we are probably going to put six or seven in the top 21,” Graun said. “It’s just a matter of staying healthy and doing the right things this week and we should be where we need to be.”

In addition to the team standings, there will be Colby athletes competing for the top individual spots as well.

“The top five will be interesting to see how they shake out,” Graun added. “It’ll be interesting to see where Willow and MaKenna end up.”

In addition to Oehmichen and Herrmann, Thorp-Gilman’s Shaylie Zarza, Fall Creek’s Jenna Anders, and Eau Claire Regis’ Carly Borst will be the likely candidates aiming for the conference crown.

Meanwhile on the boys’ side, Bloomer is the odds-on favorite to win the conference title. Their main competition would likely come from McDonnell Central, though the Colby/Abbotsford co-op could push McDonnell for that second place position.

“I think that if we ran our best race, I think we could beat [McDonnell],” Graun said. “Running a mock race and going by PRs, they beat us by 12 points, which isn’t a ton to make up. If we can get everybody on the same page on Saturday, I think we have a shot to take that second place spot.”

Stanley-Boyd, Columbus Catholic, and Fall Creek will also probably be in the mix, though it certainly seems like the co-op has the best shot to knock the Macks out from that second place position.

The meet is to take place this Saturday, October 15, starting at 10:00 a.m.

ON THE FAST TRACK - MaKenna Herrmann, pictured here at the Spencer meet, came in fourth place in Weyauwega and set a new personal best.