Boys place fifth at Barron; Orysen finishes 7th individually for girls
PRENTICE-RIB LAKE CROSS COUNTRY
Kylie Orysen cracked the top 10 in the girls race, while Kaleb Scott and Ryan Buehler were well within the top 20 for the Prentice-Rib Lake Hawks during Tuesday’s Barron Invitational, the team’s second large meet in four days.
Just after competing in Saturday’s Smiley Invitational in Wausau, Prentice-Rib Lake placed fifth out of 16 teams represented in the boys race, while the girls again were one runner short of the required five to record a team score in their race, where 14 teams were represented.
The Hawks beat a handful of programs from larger schools. They tied with another, Hayward, with 116 points each, but the Hurricanes won the sixthman tiebreaker to officially finish fourth. Bloomer easily won the meet with 24 points, while Shell Lake took second with 89 and Rice Lake was third with 108.
Cumberland was sixth with 135 points, followed by Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (195), Spooner (212), Flambeau (214), St. Croix Falls (242) and Lac Courte Orielles (260). Five more teams were incomplete.
Scott and Buehler, who have been running very close to each other all season, placed 15th and 16th out of 108 finishers. Scott was clocked at 19:34.4, while Buehler hit the finish line in 19:46.6, about 50 seconds faster than he ran at Barron last fall.
Jack Regier placed 23rd in 20:17.2, about eight seconds ahead of last year, Evan Lord was 33rd in 20:59.1 and Matthew Schmidt was the fifth scorer in 22:01.9. Freshman Eliah Harding bumped up to the team’s sixth position with a 55th-place time of 22:18.8. Seniors Ben Petersen (22:26.1) and Nolan Sarkkinen (22:27.3) were right behind him and Elijah Scott was close to that pack as well, taking 59th in 22:48.7. Connor Highfill was 100th in 27:25.3.
Ladysmith sophomore Gavin Stewart won the race in 17:13.1, beating Bloomer’s Anders Michaelsen by eight seconds. Bloomer freshman Seth Rogge was third in 17:48.5, while senior Elijah Poppe of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser was fourth in 18:02.5 and Lucas Anderson of Bloomer was fifth in 18:40.1. Bloomer’s five scorers all were among the top 12 finishers.
Orysen, a freshman, finished seventh out of 78 runners in the girls race with her time of 22:37.3. She was just a half-second away from fifth, which was claimed by Rice Lake freshman Clara Drost. Bruce’s Zoey Kemmitz had the same time as Orysen but was credited with crossing the finish line ahead of her.
Barron senior Fran Peterson won the race on her home course in 20:23.1, well ahead of Ladysmith freshman Marika Gago (21:41) and Rice Lake senior Lauren Holthaus (21:42.7). Ilie Jensen of St. Croix Falls (21:44.7) was fourth.
The Hawks got a 57th-place finish from Olivia Lopez in her second-ever high school race. The junior finished in 31:18.5, about 34 seconds faster than Saturday. Lauren Schutt was 59th in 32:33.7 and Amy Espinoza was 61st in 33:14.4, more than two minutes faster than she was a year ago in this meet.
Rice Lake easily won the team title with 42 points, while Prairie Farm edged Barron 96-98 for second place. Hayward was fourth with 108 points, followed by Ladysmith (120), Bloomer (127), St. Croix Falls (147), Cumberland (163), Flambeau (218) and Shell Lake (259). The Hawks, Bruce, Chetek-Weyerhaeuser and Spooner were incomplete.
Prentice-Rib Lake’s middle school boys team scored 87 points to place second behind Hayward (53). Rice Lake was third with 118. Henry Regier placed second individually in 11:49.9, 13.2 seconds behind winner Hael Dums of Hayward. Hagan Isaacson was fourth in 12:04.3 and Jackson Schutt was 12th in 12:29.2. Molly Adams (15:01.1) and Ella Orysen (15:03.6) were 27th and 28th for the girls.
The Hawks will be at the Spencer Invitational today, Thursday, and are scheduled to be at Flambeau Saturday and Athens on Sept. 29.
