The Scenic Bluffs Conference will be well represented at this year's WIAA state cross country championships.
Six individuals and one team from the league will run this Saturday at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.
Three-time individual SBC champion, Cooper Powell won last weekend's Division 3 sectional at Boscobel with a time of 16:16.1 while two-time league winner, Katie Field of the Royall/Wonewoc-Center co-op, was second after posting a time of 18:55.9. Both enter Saturday's race as four-time state qualifiers.
Joining Field will be teammate Troy Hafemeister who placed eighth overall at Saturday's sectional.
Hillsboro had two individuals narrowly claim tickets to the season's final meet as Dominick Kirkpatrick and Olivia McCauley both advanced. Kirkpatrick qualified for state a year ago also.
Bangor's Kenli Gollnick earned a second-straight state appearance after taking fourth at Colby in a Division 3 sectional Saturday. Grayson Truskowski also earned a return trip to state after missing out a year ago following an sixth place finish at Colby.
"It is definitely a strong conference to run in," said Cashton head coach Jim Herricks, regarding the abundance of representation from the Scenic Bluffs Conference at this year's state meet, "and I'm glad to see that a smaller conference can be so well represented in a sport that is somewhat overlooked."
"We want to congratulate the runners in our conference on an amazing year and wish them good luck at state."
FALCONS FOCUSED
The Brookwood boys cross country team will once again run together at the WIAA state meet following a sectional-winning performance last weekend in Boscobel. The Falcons' five scoring runners finished no worse than 15th. Cooper Powell and August Rueckheim placed first and third, respectively.
"Our approach is to treat it as any other meet," said Brookwood head coach Mindy Waddell.
"Like I said before, they tend not to get too emotional about these sorts of things, which allows them to really focus on the race itself and not all the added pressure and expectation that goes into a big meet like state."
Waddell, who helped the boys team capture a second place finish at state in the fall of 2020, is eager to see how the team will stack up against the state field and top-ranked Marathon.
"I do want them to enjoy the moment," said Waddell, "but we are definitely wanting to make some noise! This is hands down the best team I have ever coached and we have had high expectations since last year."
Brookwood finished sixth a year ago in Division 3 after scoring 166 points. Powell posted a team-best seventh place finish. Marathon was 14 points better while both were plenty behind eventual state champion, St. Ambrose Academy (113). Earlier this season, Brookwood and Marathon dueled in the middle of the season with the latter winning by six points.
Waddell said, "Aside from the two freshmen, the top five all ran this course last year and know what to expect with the difficulty of the course and the pace itself."
STATE SCHEDULE
The WIAA state cross country championships will start with the Division 3 girls at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31. The D2 and D1 girls will follow. The Division 3 boys are scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. kickoff with D2 and D1 after.
