Foursome heading to state

By Casey Krautkramer

Stratford junior Cree DeFoe will run at this Saturday’s state meet for the second straight season. He took fifth place in 17 minutes, 19.4 seconds at Saturday’s WIAA Division 3 sectional race in Colby to qualify for state as an individual.

DeFoe will be joined at the state meet by Stratford junior Kayla Casperson, who took seventh place at the Colby sectional in 21:04.4 to qualify for state as an individual for the first time in her high school career.

Stratford head coach Kevin “Tiny” Michalski is elated to have a pair of runners competing at state this season.

“It is great to see two athletes who work so hard at their sports make it on to state,” Michalski said. “I couldn’t be happier for them.”

The top five boy and girl individual cross country runners at each sectional that aren’t members of the top two teams that place at sectionals also earn a trip to the state meet at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids. The WIAA Division 3 state boys race starts at noon and the Division 3 girls race is at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday.

The Stevens Point Pacelli boys won the sectional team championship in Colby with a low score of 60 points, followed by Iola-Scandinavia in second place with 96. Marathon placed third with 119 points. The Wisconsin Rapids Assumption girls won the sectional team championship with a low score of 49 points, followed by Colby with 83. The Stratford girls barely missed earring a trip to state by placing third with 87 points which is only four more than Colby. The Marathon girls placed fourth with 136 points.

Pair of Raiders going to state

Marathon junior Shilo Blake took third place at Saturday’s Colby sectional in 20:14.4 to qualify as an individual for the state cross country meet for the first time in her high school career. Marathon senior Jacob Smith placed ninth in the boys sectional race in 17:34.4 to also qualify as an individual for the state meet. He competed at state as a sophomore on the Marathon’s boys squad that qualified for state that season.

Red Raiders head coach EJ Otto has a lot of praise for his two runners headed to state.

“Both Shilo and Jacob were the number one runners on our team for the entire season,” Otto said. “Both our boy and girl teams had a very successful year due in part to these two leading the way by getting us out at the start of each race and helping set a pace for the others to follow. Both kids are great examples of hard work in the offseason and doing what is needed to be done in practices during the season. Their running times came down dramatically as we approached the end of the year. You absolutely wish the team could be with them but they will be in Wisconsin Rapids cheering them on.”

Cree DeFoe

Jacob Smith

Shilo Blake

Kayla Casperson