By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
The Whitewater High School cross country team had a busy, competitive stretch this past week, with two meets taking place on Sept. 24 and Sept. 27. On Saturday, the boys and girls runners competed in the Janesville Midwest Invitational.
Over 3,000 athletes competed and 42 different high school teams were at the invite. The meet had three separate races within it, with varsity, sophomore/freshman and junior varsity races taking place.
Junior Allisan Barrett led the way for the Whippets, as Barrett earned a top-20 finish, guaranteeing her a medal. The medal is the first for a lady Whippet in over 15 years, according to head coach Chad Carstens.
“Allisan is really doing a wonderful job executing her race plan and pushing her limits in a very calculated fashion,” Carstens said. “Also running well in the varsity race was Rebekah Schumacher. As a senior, she is really wanting to not only do her best but help the team be as successful as possible. Her time of 21:49 is a lifetime best and is coming into form nicely. Maribel Alvarez also ran a very smooth, controlled race finishing with a new personal best of 24:45.”
Carstens then talked about the other two races at the invitational and Nicole Tomomitsu topped the girl runners with her third-place finish, earning herself a medal as well. In the junior varsity race, Carstens talked about both Alayna Mikulski and Nancy Espana racing well. The girls’ team finished in
For the boys, another junior in Jacob Korf led the way. Korf placed 98th in the massive field of 274 runners. The boys finished in 31st of 40 teams.
For junior varsity, Jon Brunner “absolutely destroyed” his previous-best time according to Carstens, at 19:58. Elliot McCulloch, Jack Downs, Nathan Cagney and Daniel Trost also earned positive words from the head coach.
Following the enormous Janesville Midwest Invitational, just three days later, the Whippets competed in a Rock Valley Conference North meet in Edgerton. The boys team placed fourth of six teams, while the girls took fifth out of five total teams. Multiple runners were held out due to injury and illness concerns.
Barrett and Korf continued being the top dogs in this meet for the Whippets, as Barrett finished in third, while Korf took sixth overall. Barrett’s time was 19:29.4, while Korf finished in 17:23.8.
Tomomitsu finished with a top-10 placing as well, in ninth, with her time of 20:43.7. Carstens described the team’s next race.
“Next up is the Nightfall Race in Wisconsin Dells on Friday,” he said. “The first race is at 7:30 p.m. on a totally illuminated golf course to race ‘under the lights.’ The first of its kind in the state of Wisconsin.”
