Cross country squads set for new season
The start of autumn also heralds the beginning of the high school cross country season and runners from the three local teams have already hit the course. The Colby/Abbotsford combined boys varsity squad will have plenty of familiar faces from last year while the two girls’ teams will have a mixture of experience and some newcomers this season. All three teams competed at their first meet of the season in Pittsville last Thursday.
While there is plenty of returning talent, there will also be some significant holes to fill from last season’s lineups. The Colby girls will be short all-conference honorable mention Makenna Herrmann as well as Veronica Mateer, Pearl Feiten and Jenelle Ertl, who finished as the Hornets second, third, fourth and seventh runners at their conference meet last season and most of whom have been solid fixtures in the varsity lineup in years prior as well. Meanwhile, the Falcon girls will be missing first-team all-conference award winner Azul Diaz, who has led the Abbotsford team since its reinstatement in 2022, as well as varsity fixtures Azalea Atkinson and Angie Chavez. Even with their large number of returners, the Colby/Abbotsford boys will also be missing some key contributors, as their second and third runners from last year’s conference meet, Miguel Bautista-Carreon and Braylon Schoelzel, have graduated.
Both the Colby girls and the co-op boys will be returning their top runners from 2024. Senior Annamarie Schmitt continued the Hornet girls tradition of sending at least one runner to state after she qualified last season. Schmitt established herself as Colby’s top threat with an impressive junior campaign, one that saw her earning first-team all-conference honors, breaking the Hornets’ school record and taking 28th at the Division 3 state meet. Another state appearance in 2025 would make it four straight for the senior runner and six for the program.
Meanwhile, the co-op’s top runner from 2024, all-conference honorable mention Matthew Sprotte, once again looks poised to lead Colby/Abby on the course as a senior this season. Sprotte took 21st at the conference meet last season and third for the co-op at their sectional meet, coming in behind only Schoelzel and Bautista-Carreon.
Fellow seniors Jack Sheahan, Gavin Reis, and Preston Belanger also return to Colby/Abby after being part of the varsity squad’s top-seven last season, as does junior Jacob Raatz. There is a packed field to fill in the two spots left by Bautista-Carreon and Schoelzel, thus far filled by senior Marco Garcia and freshman Beckett Buchanan, who took sixth and seventh for the team at the Pittsville meet last Thursday.
“There’s a different dynamic this year,” Bryon Graun, who coaches both the Colby girls and the co-op boys, said. “They’re a lot more reserved. I think it’s just that kind of group, they are all good friends, especially the boys. There’s a lot of seniors, so that makes a difference. Most of them have been together for four years at least.”
On the girls side, in addition to Schmitt, the Hornets will have senior Ali Adams back after an injury-shortened junior campaign, as well as juniors Jasmine Ertl and Carissa Steen, who worked their way into the girls top-seven last season. Sophomore Nicole Verhoef is new to the squad but is poised to step into a scoring role to open the season for the squad.
For the Falcons, junior Monse Ochoa and senior Asia Atkinson are both back after solid 2024 seasons where they typically finished in Abbotsford’s top-three. Junior Esmeralda Altamirano and freshman Jocelyn Jimenez are new to the varsity team.
“Asia Atkinson is going to be our senior this year,” Abbotsford girls head coach Dillon Novak said. “She’s been on the team all four years, so she knows how things go at this point. Monse Ochoa is our other returning runner and she was our number two runner last year as a sophomore, so I kind of expect her to lead the team this year in terms of running.”
“There’s going to be a little bit of inexperience on the team,” he added. “The ones who are new have done some distance in track before, so not brand new, but are new to cross country which is obviously a little different.”
Numbers will be the strength of the co-op boys team as they look to improve upon their fifth place team finish in the conference last season.
“We’re going to have a solid pack of boys,” Graun said. “I don’t know if anyone is going to be a real standout, upper 18 minutes, lower 19 minutes, but there’s clearly a group of six already and then we have a couple guys competing for that last spot. Safety in numbers is always nice, something could happen, especially if they all work together to get into the middle 18 [minutes]. It would make a big difference.”
Meanwhile, the two girls squads are looking at the opposite side of the spectrum in 2025. With four athletes, the Falcons won’t be able to officially score as a team this season and while Colby will have enough to get on the final team tallies at most meets, they do not have the same depth that the program has enjoyed over the past several years.
“Now it’ll feel more individually based,” Novak said of his Abbotsford team. “Which it already somewhat is, but now it’ll definitely be more so.”
While there are some drawbacks to the smaller numbers, there are also benefits as well.
“It’s definitely got its pros and cons,” Novak added. “Some of the pros are that you definitely get more oneon- one with the kids, you get to know them. Especially in a sport like cross country, I feel like we do bond a lot over the season. So that’s kind of the nice part of having a small team.”
Even with their smaller squad, Graun believes that the Colby girls can still compete near the top of the conference.
“Bloomer is probably going to win and then Regis would probably be second, but with our team we could likely be third or fourth,” he said. “By the end of the season, I think they will have it figured out and we will see what they can do.”
The trio of teams started off their season with a trip to Pittsville last Thursday afternoon. The co-op boys placed third overall with 103 points while the Colby girls took fourth with 112 points. Marathon grabbed the top spot in the boys team competition, ending the day with just 18 points to finish ahead of Stratford. In the girls race, Wittenberg- Birnamwood beat out Auburndale for the top spot, ending the day with 31 points.
Marathon’s Logan Peters set the pace for the boys, taking first with a time of 17:14. Pittsville’s Kailyn Grossman led the way on her home course, winning the girls competition with a time of 20:57.
Of the eight runners who scored for the Colby girls or co-op boys who had times recorded at the Pittsville meet last season, seven of them had a faster pace than they did in 2024.
Schmitt had the top finish amongst the three Colby and Abbotsford squads. The senior started off her season with a fifth place finish after posting a time of 22:22. This was a minute and a half faster than her time at the Pittsville meet in 2024, setting a good starting mark for the Colby girls’ lead runner.
Sprotte had the next highest finish, taking 12th in the boys race. His time of 19:52 was also about a minute and a half faster than his time on the same course last season, giving him a solid opening to his senior season.
Jimenez and Atkinson finished back-to-back for the Falcon girls, coming in 27th and 28th respectively. Jimenez posted a time of 27:36 while Atkinson finished shortly after at 27:45. Altamirano came in third for Abbotsford, taking 42nd with a time of 30:08 in her first varsity race.
Adams was the second runner for Colby, taking 21st with a time of 25:59 and Ertl came in as the Hornets third runner with a time of 28:00 to take 29th place, both of which were improvements over their times in 2024. Verhoef placed 36th with a time of 29:40 and Steen rounded out the Colby girls squad with a 52nd place finish and a time of 35:12.
Sheahan was the co-op boys’ second runner on Thursday, crossing the line in 21:10 to take 21st place. Raatz grabbed 27th with a time of 21:38 and Reis and Belanger finished back-to-back with 22:30 and 22:31 to grab 31st and 32nd respectively. All posted times faster than their previous race on the Pittsville course.
Garcia and Buchanan rounded out the top-seven for the co-op varsity squad, the former taking 38th with a time of 24:27 and the latter grabbing 42nd with a time of 24:34.
