Colby girls place third, co-op boys fifth in Cloverbelt
By Nathaniel Underwood
Annamarie Schmitt took home first team all-conference honors, Makenna Herrmann and Matthew Sprotte won honorable mentions and the Colby girls and Colby/Abby boys cross country squads battled it out at the Cloverbelt conference meet held at Levis Mound on Saturday morning.
The girls squad placed third overall at the meet, ending the day with a final score of 87 points. Regis finished just ahead of them with 73 points to take the runner-up spot while Bloomer dominated the competition, finishing with just 18 points as they took the top four spots while their fifth scorer placed eighth. Meanwhile, the Colby/Abby boys placed fifth overall with 117 points. McDonell Central won the conference title with 39 points and Regis took second with 87 points.
Schmitt had another solid day on the course for the Hornets, coming in as the first non-Bloomer runner by grabbing fifth place. Nearly 20 seconds separated her and sixth place runner Carly Borst from Regis as she put up a time of 20:36.6, shaving off nearly ten seconds from her time on the course a few weeks prior. The performance earned Schmitt her second all-conference honor and is the first time she has made the first team.
Herrmann was the next runner to come in for the Hornets on Saturday, narrowly defeating Cadott’s Lyla Weggen at the finish line to take 18th with a time of 22:34.1. Herrmann’s race earned her yet another all-conference honor to add to an already impressive resume. The senior has now earned all-conference honors in all four seasons of her high school career, taking home a first-team all-conference award in 2022 and second-team honors in 2023 and 2021.
Veronica Mateer narrowly missed the cut on an all-conference honorable mention herself after taking 22nd place on Saturday. Her time of 22:55.6 was a new personal best for the senior, beating out her time that she set at last year’s conference meet by two seconds. She was nine seconds off the pace of Regis’s Kaylen Borst, who claimed the final honorable mention spot.
Pearl Feiten was the Hornets’ fourth runner at the conference meet, putting up a time of 23:31.8 to take 27th place. It was a nearly identical time to her season best in Loyal. Carissa Steen also set a new PR, shaving off threefourths of a minute from her prior personal best by posting a time of 24:41.0 to take 37th as Colby’s final scorer.
Jasmine Ertl and Jennelle Ertl came in as Colby’s sixth and seventh varsity runners, placing 44th and 52nd with times of 25:30.6 and 26:37.2 respectively. It was a new PR for Jasmine, taking 20 seconds off the personal best she set at Weyauwega-Fremont the week prior.
On the boys side, Sprotte’s time of 19:00.7 was just three-tenths of a second off from his personal best time that he set in 2022 in Spencer. However, it was good enough to earn him the final all-conference honorable spot, netting him 21st place over Cadott’s Saibyn Will, creating an eight-second cushion between himself and the Hornets’ runner.
Miguel Bautista-Carreon and Braylon Schoelzel nearly had all-conference performances of their own, taking 23rd and 24th places respectively. Bautista-Carreon continued his string of personal best races by putting together a time of 19:11.6, taking off nearly 20 seconds from his prior PR, while Schoelzel broke his own long-standing best time. His previous best time of 19:20.8 was set in Athens in 2022, but the senior finished four seconds faster on Saturday, putting up a time of 19:16.0.
Keeping up with the streak of PRs, Preston Belanger put together his first sub-20 minute race of his career. The junior completed the course in 19:54.4, taking off 45 seconds from his prior PR the week before to take 30th overall for the co-op. Teammates Gavin Reis and Jacob Raatz finished back to back with times of 20:05.6 and 20:10.0 to take 34th and 35th respectively and Jack Sheahan rounded out the varsity squad by taking 48th with a time of 21:19.8.
The two squads will host both the Division 2 sectional meet on Friday, Oct. 25 at 4:15 p.m. and the Division 3 sectional meet on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 10:30 a.m. They will look to keep a four-year state streak going, having sent at least one runner to the WIAA finals in Wisconsin Rapids since 2020, with the girls team going all four years and Max Adams representing the boys’ team in 2022 and 2023.
TAKING DOWN ANOTHER - Matthew Sprotte passes up another competitor at the Cloverbelt conference meet on Saturday.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
SETTING THE PACE - Annamarie Schmitt leads the Hornets on the course during the Cloverbelt conference meet. The junior took fifth overall to earn herself a first team all-conference award.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
CRUISING AT CONFERENCE - Jack Sheahan passes the mile marker at the Levis Mound just ahead of teammate Andrew Empey.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
