Colby girls take second, C-A boys fourth at home

The Colby-Abby boys and Colby girls cross country teams held their home meet in Colby this past Saturday, playing host to athletes from 14 other schools. The boys team took fourth place overall and the girls team took second, putting forth solid team performances in their second meet of the season.

The boys team finished the meet with 113 points, putting them just behind third place Medford, which ended the day with 112 points, and second place Rhinelander, which finished with 105 points. The Pacelli Cardinals paced the rest of the field, finishing with 68 points to take first place. Isaac Scheer of Columbus Catholic claimed first place, posting the only sub-17 minute time by finishing the 5K race in 16:40.95.

Six of the seven Colby-Abby varsity runners improved on their times from last year’s home meet and four set new personal bests.

Max Adams notched his second top-10 finish of the season after finishing in eighth place for the co-op. The senior cut well over half a minute off his 2022 time at Colby, finishing his final home meet with a time of 17:32.67.

For the second week in a row, Jack Schindler recorded a new personal best time. He shattered his previous record by 27 seconds, putting up a new best time of 18:58.44, placing second for the co-op and 19th overall. Matthew Sprotte recorded a time of 19:19.26 to come in as the team’s third runner. His time was 20 seconds faster than his time on the course last season and earned him 28th place.

Also setting new personal bests for the varsity squad were Gavin Reis, Joseph Streveler, and Caine Maldonis, who finished as the co-ops fourth, fifth and sixth runners respectively. Reis took off 49 seconds of his previous PR to finish 39th overall with a time of 20:20.88. Streveler was not far behind, posting a time of 20:29.25 to take 40th and Maldonis shaved off over a minute of his time from the prior meet to come in at the 21:23.52 mark to finish in 51st. Jack Sheahan rounded out the varsity team with a time of 22:43.80 to earn himself 60th place.

On the girls side, the Colby team had another good early season showing, finishing second and ending the meet with 51 points. They beat out third place Stratford, a team that they will likely be competing with for a team state bid in mid-October on the same course. Medford took first place, finishing the meet with 30 points and their top runner, Meredith Richter, winning the girls’ race with a time of 19:23.11.

Casey Reynolds put up her best time of her career while finishing first for the Hornets, coming in with a time of 21:11.52. She took off 33 seconds from her prior PR which she had set at last year’s sectional meet and finished fourth place overall.

MaKenna Herrmann finished in sixth place as Colby’s second runner, putting up a time of 21:40.84 and Annamarie Schmitt took over a minute off her time at last year’s Colby meet to finish in 13th place with a time of 22:31.48. Reagan Schraufnagel also took a minute off her 2022 time in her final regular season home meet, recording a time of 22:35.70 and earning herself 14th. Ali Adams took off 24 seconds from her Loyal race to set a new personal best with a time of 23:18.97 to take 19th as Colby’s final scoring runner.

Pearl Feiten and Jenelle Ertl rounded out the varsity team’s finishes, with Feiten taking 25th with a time of 24:04.26 and Ertl placing 42nd with a time of 27:34.29.

The two teams will travel to what will be their largest regular season meet on Saturday, Sept. 16 when they travel to Wausau for the Smiley Invitational hosted by Wausau East. The start time for the first race is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.