‘Jay boys to state again

Team wins back-to-back sectionals

By Casey Krautkramer

The Athens varsity boys cross country team won back-to-back WIAA Division 3 sectional championships on Friday afternoon at Erbach Park in Athens. The Bluejays will now compete at the state tournament for the second straight season.

Athens scored a team low 56 points to win the sectional meet. Gillett had only one less point than Marathon did, 70 to 71, to also qualify for the state tournament. The Stratford boys took fourth place and Edgar finished 11th.

Bluejays senior Connor Sheahan placed second in 16 minutes, 28.3 seconds behind individual sectional champion Alex Peterson of Gillett who finished the race in 16:18.6. Sheahan was excited his boys team won the sectional title.

“It feels pretty good,” he said. “It was a big achievement for us because it was our goal all year.”

Athens junior Andrew Schaer took seventh place in 17:30.3. The Bluejays boys won sectional titles the past two years they were held at their home course at Erbach Park in Athens.

“We worked hard for this all year so it’s nice to defend our home territory,” Schaer said.

Bluejays senior Nathan Wolf placed 11th in 17:51.1. He is ecstatic to help the Athens boys advance to state again.

“We put a lot of hard work and determination into this season,” he said. “I thank everybody who supported us this year. I thank every runner on our team that put forth the effort this year to make us a good team and get us to where we are now.”

Last season, the Athens boys qualified for the state tournament for the first time in over 50 years. The Bluejays placed 13th out of 16 teams competing at state. This year’s 110th WIAA Division 3 boys state tournament race starts at 2 p.m. at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.

The Athens boys now have a year of experience running at the state tournament course, which should help them on Saturday.

“It helps to know the state course and where you need to push it or not,” Sheahan said. “You need to save some energy for the last mile because it is pretty tough.”

Schaer believes he and his teammates are more mentally prepared to run on the state tournament course this time around. Wolf is savoring his team’s second straight trip to state.

“It feels great,” Wolf said. “I’m so happy that we made it here. I couldn’t be more proud of my teammates.”

Athens freshman Riley Schultz-Becker placed 21st at Friday’s sectional race in Athens and sophomore Nicholas Pittman was 23rd. Other members of the Athens boys cross country squad are Brandon Krause, Eli Paul and Garrett Knott. Korey Rottscheit is the team’s head coach.

State qualifiers

Edgar senior girl Morgan Schnelle took eighth place at Friday’s WIAA Division 3 sectional in Athens to qualify as an individual for the state tournament for the second time in her high school career.

She also ran at state during her freshman season in 2019, in which she took 17th place at state. The Division 3 girls state tournament race starts at noon this Saturday, Oct. 29, at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.

Stratford sophomore boys cross country runner Cree DeFoe placed ninth at Friday’s Division 3 sectional in Athens to qualify as an individual for this Saturday’s state tournament race for the first time in his high school career.

Marathon senior Jaron Gage placed 10th at the Athens sectional to also qualify for this Saturday’s state tournament race. The Division 3 boys state race starts at 2 p.m. Gage previously competed at the state cross country tournament as a member of Marathon’s boys squad that qualified for state during his freshman and junior seasons in high school.

STEADY AS HE GOES- Athens junior boys cross country runner Andrew Schaer leads a pack of competitors during Friday afternoon’s WIAA Division 3 sectional championship race at Erbach Park. He took seventh place out of 91 runners competing.STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD