Athens strives to add more runners this year
By Casey Krautkramer
This season is Athens senior cross country runner Brianna Sheahan’s last shot to qualify for the state championship race for the first time.
Sheahan is a talented runner who took sixth place at the Marawood Conference race last season to earn first team all-conference honors. She barely missed the chance to compete at state last season. She took 12th place at the WIAA Division 3 sectional in Colby. Abbotsford junior Azul Diaz was the only other girl ahead of Sheahan at sectionals who didn’t qualify as an individual runner for state. The top five girls who place at sectionals who aren’t on the top two sectional teams qualify for state in Wisconsin Rapids.
Korey Rottscheit is in his 10th year as the Athens varsity boys and girls cross country head coach. His assistant coach is Karla Erickson this season. Rottscheit believes Sheahan has a good chance to make it to state this year.
“Brianna has been running a lot this summer and doing good mileage,” he said. “Her goal has always been to make it to state so hopefully this can be the year.”
Besides Sheahan, Athens’ other top returning girl cross country runners are senior Aleah Frahm, junior Isabella Zastrow and sophomores Ellis Baer and Terah Schreiner.
Rottscheit is excited to have Baer for this entire cross country season after she earned honorable mention all-Marawood Conference last year.
“Ellis Baer joined midway through the season last year and has a lot of potential,” he said. “Getting some running in over the summer and being with us to start the season this year will hopefully set her up for even more success this season. She has the potential to be a top runner in our conference in the future and possibly make it to state as well.”
Athens boys cross country runners Andy Schaer and Drew Haines graduated in spring after earning all-Marawood Conference last season. Rottscheit is hoping that despite losing Schaer and Haines that the returning boy runners will step up to achieve all-conference this season.
See BLUEJAYS CROSS COUNTRY/ page 22 Bluejays cross country
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“I hope and expect to have all-conference boy runners this season as long as we can stay healthy,” he said. “Last year, we had some injuries and sickness come at the wrong time, but as long as the training goes as planned, we will hopefully have a couple all-conference boy runners.”
Johnathan Nowacki was a senior on the Athens boys cross country team that won the school’s first conference championship in 2019. He is currently a redshirt freshman on the Division 2 UW-Parkside men’s cross country squad, so it’s been a while since the Bluejay boys last won the Marawood Conference title. Rottscheit outlines what needs to happen for the Athens boys cross country team to return to winning conference championships.
“The biggest thing for us is participation,” Rottscheit said. “At the moment we don’t have a full boys team this year with only four boy runners. If we can get more boys out, there’s always that chance. We are noticing a shift happening on our girls team though. The number of boys participating in cross country went down this year but the number of girls went up.”
The Athens girls cross country team won its only Marawood Conference championship in 1996, which was several years ago. Rottscheit describes the winning formula for the Bluejay girls to compete for a conference title in the future.
“The biggest thing is to keep participating numbers up,” he said. “The girls team is starting to grow and there are some good athletes at the middle school level that will have great potential by the time they make it to high school in the future. Hopefully they all will stick with cross country and possibly bring new friends into the mix. I can see the girls having some great success in the future as long as they keep putting in the work.”
