Girls place 5th, boys 7th at conference
CLOVERBELT CROSS COUNTRY
Led by an all-conference effort by freshman Shaylie Zarza, Thorp-Gilman’s girls earned a fifth-place team finish in the Cloverbelt Conference cross country championship meet, held Saturday at Fall Creek.
Zarza finished eighth out of 69 runners in a time of 22:21.8 to earn one of the 14 All-Cloverbelt Conference spots. Senior Kate Schraufnagel was two spots away from an honorable mention award, taking 23rd in 24:36. She moved up nine places over 2020.
Zarza’s time was her second-best of the fall. The only runners faster than her were champion Daisy Feiten of Colby (20:42.5), Jenna Anders of Fall Creek (20:52.5), Eydie Myers (21:09) and Carly Borst (21:27.4) of Eau Claire Regis and Trinity Severson (21:53.9), Willow Oehmichen (22:09.3) and Mercedes Sarkkinen (22:13.3) of Colby.
Abby Krug added a 42nd-place time of 26:35.9 for Thorp-Gilman. Rachel Boehlke was 47th in 27:30.7 and Cera Philson was 48th in 27:43.3.
The team scored 137 points to trail Colby (30), Regis (57), Fall Creek (79) and Loyal-Greenwood (115). Colby won its fourth straight league title. Osseo-Fairchild was sixth with 154 points, followed by Cadott (189), McDonell Central (190) and Neillsville-Granton (197). Stanley-Boyd, Bloomer, Columbus Catholic, Owen- Withee and Spencer were incomplete.
Thorp-Gilman was seventh in the boys race with 180 points, finishing ahead of the incomplete teams from Loyal-Greenwood, Eau Claire Regis, Neillsville-Granton, Osseo-Fairchild, Columbus Catholic, Owen-Withee and Spencer.
McDonell won its fifth straight conference championship, compiling 55 points to finish ahead of Bloomer (64), Colby-Abbotsford (72), Stanley-Boyd (78), Fall Creek (122) and Cadott (152).
Luke Schraufnagel led Thorp-Gilman with a 33rd-place time of 20:31.4. Braxton Starck was 48th out of 71 runners in 21:36.2, Jacob Barth was 51st in 21:51.7, Walker Horgan was 54th at 22:06, Syrus Rondorf was 63rd at 23:19.2, Danny Mathison was 64th in 23:26.9 and Hunter Kodl was 65th in 23:32.8. Tyler Hughes was 19th out of 22 JV runners in 24:02.8.
Dan Anderson of McDonell won the individual championship for the third straight fall, finishing in 17:01.9. Bloomer’s Lucas Anderson was second in 17:23.3, while Peter Weir of Cadott (17:30.7), Andrew Scheer of Columbus Catholic (17:48.6) and Anders Michaelsen of Bloomer (18:04.2) rounded out the top five.
Thorp-Gilman will be at the WIAA Division 3 Boyceville sectional on Saturday. The boys race is at 11 a.m., followed by the girls race at 11:45 a.m. at Tiffany Creek Elementary School.
