Area Teams Compete at Freedom Irish Invitational
Area Teams Compete at Freedom Irish Invitational: The Marinette cross country team got off to a great start in its season at Friday’s Freedom Irish Invitational hosted by Irish Waters Golf Course. Campbell said that she was pleased with how the runners went, as well as being happy to see that athletes were able to PR in the first meet of the season. A shorthanded Marine team had both boys and girls finish 17th overall.
With one of its girl’s runners absent, Hamilton couldn’t maintain full strength with its varsity teams. The boys team, which is younger in population compared to the girls, showed improvement with some hard work throughout their race. Overall, Hamilton was happy with their results today. Now the girls team showed a strong performance and will look to gain momentum from there.
The senior David Jezowski placed 32nd in the Large School division, with a time of 19:40.38. He was followed by 4 freshmen and a sophomore runner. The freshman runners were Hunter Schneider, Dylan Demmith, Evan Reines and Aidan Anderson.
Schneider ran 20:55.07, Demmith ran 22:23.40, Reines ran 22:29.80 and Anderson turned in a time of 24:35.07 as Peterson’s time was 28:06. Sadowski led the girls with Lacy and Kunick at 8th and 10th respectively.
Lacy finished in 22:15.57, ranking 40th overall and 30th in the Large School division. Kunick finished at 23:28.10, and Sadowski improved her time on the same course last year by finishing 26 minutes faster than she did a year ago with a mark of 26:26.27.
Three freshmen, Karissa Valitchka ran the course in 28:27.30, Peyton Decker turned in a time of 30:21.86, and Ava Loomis finished with a time of 36:12.00 all while leading their team at the Dale Philips Invitational on Thursday.
Marquette will be a harder and more challenging course, Campbell said. Campbell is excited to start the cross country season already. This group of Marquette runners are working hard with each other and genuinely want to see their teammate do well.
Gillett’s twins Alex and Evan Peterson of the Small School division finished first and second, with Alex finishing at 16:02.51 seconds to Aaron Schimke’s 15:38.41 who set a new course record. Evan finished in 17:03.48 for fifth place overall.
The Tigers advanced to the championship game on goal differential, with 63 points and also placing fourth overall, with 81 points. The team behind Winneconne, De Pere and Kaukauna finished in 3rd place.
The Peterson’s finished sixth, Bradyn Wendorff came in 18th, and Nash Stage took 18th. The Peshtigo Boys also scored well, taking fifth in the small school division with 127 points.
This year, Andrew Nelson brought home a top third place finish at 17:19.47, while Reese Yunke finished 10th at 18:55.40. Cole Grabian (20:20.71), Eli Berndt (22:58.91) and Liam Smith (23:55.11) rounded out Peshtigo’s five place scorers
Coleman was 22 points behind sixth-place finisher Peshtigo. Clarke Nowak placed 15th in 19:11.60 and lead the way for them. Earlier in the day, the girls from Gilletto made it to fifth place just ahead of the fourth ranked slot occupied by Peshtigo.
All three girls led the Bulldogs with a strong time of 20:51.30 which was good for third in the division, 16th overall. Holly Pesch was 14th at 22:35.56 and Alaina Archambault ran 23:39.67, while Shayla Boetcher, Beverly Bloch and Kylie Villas competed for the Bulldogs.
In the fourth division, Kaczmarek finished in fourth place at 21:30.56, with the top three finishing in that order in quick succession. The female runners were helped by athletes such as Sophie Limberg (23:52.98), Cheyenne Kruger (24:23.74), Laney DeBauch (25:09.20) and Lily Hanson (25:50.97).