By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
The Elkhorn Area High School boys and girls cross country each finished in the top 20 Sept. 3 in the Rebel Invitational at the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course on the campus of UW-Parkside in Kenosha.
The Elks girls finished 15th out of 22 full teams and the boys finished 19th out of 25 full teams.
Elkhorn competes today in the Southern Lakes Conference Relays at Badger High School in Lake Geneva.
Elks coach Randi Wulf said Saturday’s cool and dry weather was perfect weather for running.
“Our girls team was led by two freshmen and two sophomores, which shows the youth of our team,” Wulf said. “Gwen Richardson led the team, and continues to gain experience and improve.”
Richardson, a freshman, finished the four-kilometer girls course in 17:43.3 – good for 83rd place in a girls varsity field that numbered more than 160 runners. Freshman Piper Sleider finished 99th (18:12).
Sophomores Kassie Thompson finished 106th (18:24.2) and Alex Moreno 114th (18:52.4). Elizabeth Gottshcalk finished 130th (19:31.0), Alexandria Gonzalez 135th (19:44.8) to round-out the Elks’ varsity.
“It was encouraging to see that all of our returning runners ran much faster times this year compared to the same meet last year,” Wulf said.
The Elks girls scored 532 points as a team. The boys scored 464 points. Caleb Hembree finished 25th in the boys five-kilometer varsity race in 17:00.8.
Derek Davey finished 84th (18:07.5), Sam DiVarco finished 104th (18:19.3) and Arandu Huerta finished 122nd (18:56.5). Peyton Sanders finished 129th (19:07.7), Dakota West finished 150th (19:43.8) and Spencer Ingersoll finished 165th (20:29.2).
“This is the deepest boys team I’ve coached, which really helps push the whole team to improve,” Wulf said. “Some other big personal records, besides Caleb and Ben, were Sam DiVarco, Derek Davey and Peyton Sanders.”
Freshman Ben Tuescher finished fourth in the freshman boys race (14:23.3).
Oswego (Ill.) won the boys varsity title with 98 points. Among Southern Lakes Conference teams Badger finished 11th (311), Waterford 15th (423), Wilmot 22nd (556) and Union Grove 25th (771).
Waukesha West won the girls race (57). Among SLC squads Badger finished 12th (324), Waterford 15th (355), Union Grove 16th (385) and Wilmot 20th (576).
Filip Pajak of Prairie Ridge (Ill.) won the boys race in 15:44.9. Olivia Schmitt of Lakes Community (Ill.) won the girls race (14:53.8).
