The Menomonie Girls Cross Country team was crowned BRC Champions this past Saturday at New Richmond. It was a fitting end to a regular season in which they dominated, winning every race.
Junior Lauren McCalla was the individual conference champion with a time of 18:26. Freshman Bree Barfknecht finished 3rd (18:56), and Junior Bennett Schmitt was 8th (19:38). McCalla, Barfknecht, and Schmitt made BRC 1st team all-conference.
Rounding out the scoring runners for Menomonie were Sophomore Bella Drake, who finished 10th (19:42), and Freshman Addison Schuler, who finished 13th (19:45). Drake and Schuler made 2nd team all-conference.
The Mustangs' other varsity runners are Juniors Kyah Barnhart and Sara Palmer, and Senior Anika Schoenberger.
The Menomonie girls have won five of the last seven BRC conference titles, and this is the eleventh year in a row that they have finished in the top two.
"The runners that came before built a great culture; our girls are really benefiting from this, and they continue to carry the fire." said girls' coach Craig Olson. "As for the race, the girls won handily, and we really didn't have a great day; everyone was still a little tired and sore from workouts. Lauren had a great day to win, and Bree finishing 3rd was outstanding for the young freshmen. Overall, though, our best races are yet to come, and we're really looking forward to sectionals on Saturday."
The Boys Cross Country team finished 2nd at Saturday's BRC conference meet. While the Mustangs had only one top-ten finish, all five of the scoring runners finished within 25 seconds of each other.
"When we started the season, I told our boys that we needed to learn to run as a pack because that would be our strength and our key to doing well in Championship meets," said boys' coach Adam Topper. "When you race as a pack, you have some room for error. This pack mentality got us the second-place finish at the BRC meet. We've had some injuries and illnesses, and guys just stepped up, and we keep moving forward. It was a great team run at the Conference meet."
Leading the pack was Sophomore Evan Olson, who finished 10th (16:43), followed by Freshman Logan Topper in 12th place (16:52), Senior Peter Cimino in 13th place (16:54), Sophomore Owen Pelzel in 15th place (16:57), and Junior Luke Ray in 19th place (17:08). Olson, Topper, Cimino, and Pelzel made 2nd team all-conference, and Ray made honorable mention all-conference.
Other varsity runners for the Mustangs are Seniors Grant Burns and Ben Bowman, and Sophomore Noah Winder.
In the JV race, the Mustang girls finished second and the boys finished 3rd.
Menomonie will host the WIAA Division I Sectional Championships on Saturday, October 26th. Menomonie's course is behind the High School. The girls will race at 12:00 pm and the boys at 12:45 pm. The top two teams will advance to state, along with the top five finishers whose teams did not qualify.
The entry fee is $5 per person (under five is free). Pay cash at the gate or purchase an electronic ticket at Go Fan.
All photos by Karl Palmer or Joel Anderson.
