at the first mile mark, ….
at the first mile mark, crossing the line in 33rd place. Oehmichen was only nine seconds behind her, but over thirty athletes separated the two teammates at that point in the race, showcasing just how crowded the field is. Reynolds came in roughly half a minute after Oehmichen, holding down 117th place for the Hornets. Roth, Schmitt and Feiten followed in 135th, 136th and 137th respectively and Mateer was not far behind in 140th.
As the race moved into the hilly second half, Herrmann and Oehmichen had opposite mile two and three performances. While the two had similar splits in mile two, Herrmann dropped 16 spots while Oehmichen picked up eight. Over the final stretch, however, Herrmann recovered eight of those positions and Oehmichen dropped back ever so slightly, falling four spots. Herrmann crossed the finish line in 20:56.2, earning 41st place and Oehmichen took 62nd with a time of 21:29.0. Both of these were improvements over their performances at the state meet last year, where Herrmann placed 81st with a time of 22:10 and Oehmichen took 68th with a time of 21:44.
The rest of the team saw consistent upward movement throughout the rest of the race, which allowed them to move up from 15th place after mile two to 13th overall. Reynolds finished third for the Hornets and 108th overall with a time of 22:51.1, overtaking nine runners over the final two legs of the race. Schmitt came in with a time of 23:24.7, moving up 15 spots to take 121st. Roth was the Hornets’ fifth runner and picked up nine spots to finish 126th in 23:46.6. Mateer and Feiten rounded out the girls’ team, with Mateer moving up 10 spots to take 130th with a time of 23:57.7 and Feiten coming in 135th with a time of 24:27.5. This gave Colby a final score of 292 points, putting them four points ahead of an Eau Claire Regis team that had beaten them at the conference meet earlier in the year.
“I’m very happy with 13th,” Graun said. “I thought everyone ran solid. It’s hard to PR at Wisconsin Rapids because it’s a tough course, but they were all within 30 to 40 seconds of their PR, so I’m happy with that.”
The sun had shifted significantly westward by the time Adams had his opportunity to take on the course. Adams started off the race with a solid 5:20.1 first mile and maintained his good pace over the second mile. He picked up 11 positions over the second leg and while a tough final mile would see some strong pushes from his competitors, Adams still finished with a time of 17:37.9, giving him 60th place.
“Max wanted to be in the top 50 and he finished 60th, so he wasn’t too far off from that lofty goal,” Graun said of Adam’s performance.
“The kids do a great job of supporting each other and having fun together and they’ve really become a family,” he added, noting how even the members of the team that weren’t competing have an effect. “And that’s big part of the season too.”
The race concluded another successful season for the Colby/Abby cross country program. The girls’ team took first or second at six out of their 10 meets, including two second place finishes at conference and sectionals. A young boys’ co-op team also displayed their potential throughout the season, taking third at four different meets, including the conference meet in Loyal. “It’s a special team with great leadership,” Graun said. “Max set a great example for the boys with all the work that he put in and Carter [Roth] and Joe [Streveler] really stepped up this year as well. On the girl’s side, Willow did a good job. Reagan Schraufnagel also stepped up; the character she showed with her injury, it was hard those last two weeks, but she showed great poise and leadership.”
While the girls’ team will be losing Oehmichen and Roth from their state varsity team to graduation, there will be many returners for both squads next year, which likely will keep expectations high.
