By Jed Buelow
Co-Editor, Sports, Nature Editor
After unsafe course conditions canceled their meet at Fall Creek, a quick revision allowed the Hatchet co-ed cross country team to travel to Shawano on Saturday for a 27-team invitational against several state-ranked teams.
The girls and boys varsity both placed in the runner-up spot in D2, while the JV squads both placed 3rd overall out of all D1-2-3 teams. Overall the varsity girls placed 3rd of 26 teams, while the boys placed 4th of 27 teams.
“We were very proud of how our athletes handled the changes and transition to the new weekend
venue in Shawano to a course they had never seen or competed on. Although much of the competition
was similar to the weekend before at Freedom, it was nice to get a chance to see all the D1 Green Bay
schools, Manitowoc Lincoln, Hortonville, and Appleton East. To see our athletes across the board be able to successfully compete against those much larger schools was exciting,” stated Hatchet head coach John Zuelsdorf. “The course had a lot of turns and loops and we had issues in both the JV and Varsity Girls races where some of our athletes were even led the wrong direction by the lead vehicle or simply had to go back around a flag they had missed. This cost us a couple of places, but the lessons learned in the process are better learned at this stage of the season!”
Drew Bolder was the top Hatchet speedster as he placed 4th in D2 (15th overall in the 177 runner field) with his 17:27 5K effort. He was the lone D2 medalist for the Hatchet boys. Teammate Noah Buckwalter (D2-14th-17:55), Garron Albrent (D2-18th-18:18), Keaton Jed (D2-22nd-18:31), Trey Baalke (D2-25th-18:39), Arden Ziert (D2-28th-18:45), and Jack Lacina (D2-43rd-19:37) completed the varsity scoring for the runner-up D2 finishers.
“We really like how our boys varsity scorers utilized the “pack-style” running in the large field of runners and kept a tight scoring split from #2-5 throughout the race,” coach Z stated. “That will be so important at races like Smiley and Sectionals moving forward.”
Seniors Haley-Voermans-Dean and Meagan Berg led the lady Hatchets with their 4th and 9th place D2 medalist efforts. Haley covered the 5K course in 20:01 and Meagan went 20:56. They were followed closely by sophomores Emily Lacina (D2-12th-21:05), Macey Mann (D2-18th-21:47), Kate Reilly (D2-19th-21:51), and Geena Wanta (D2-33rd-23:24). Also, contributing on the varsity level was freshman Neenah Fuste as she placed 43rd in 24:12.
“Our girls were a bit disappointed with their runner-up title, especially to a team (Winneconne) that they had beaten the week prior at Freedom, but give the Wolves credit, they came in ready for a re-match and really stepped their race game up compared to last week. It really wasn’t a matter of us running any different. It was all about how Winneconne improved.”
The girls JV squad started the invitational off in the first race of the day by placing 3rd overall out of 18 teams. They were led by freshman Greta Tjugum’s personal best 5K effort of 23:19. Greta finished as a6 th place medalist. She also shared space on the medalist podium with teammates Serena Reinke (10th-23:28 PR) and Gillian Buckwalter (15th-23:49 SB). Other JV finishers included: Autumn Peissig (25th-24:30), Leslie Vance (38th-25:16 PR) and Ava Dragosh (68th-26:30).
The boys JV squad was led by Alex Norman’s 9th place medalist PR effort of 18:48. Hunter Borchardt (17th-19:22 SB), Hunter VanRyen (30th-19:58 SB), Reed Zedler (43rd-20:19 PR), Brady Tjugum (53rd-20:42SB), Jacob Towle (81st-21:14 PR), Taje Casey (119th-22:23 PR), John Mark Hawley (154th -23:39 PR), Trey Miller (193rd) and Henry Calhoun (194th) were the final Hatchet JV finishers.
Top three varsity boys’ (D2) team scores were New London (31), Tomahawk (79) and Winneconne (97). Top three varsity girls’ (D2) teams were Winneconne (43), Tomahawk (59) and Xavier (89).
The Hatchets are back in action this Saturday, Sept. 21, as they travel to Wausau’s Tribute Golf Course for the prestigious Smiley Invitational, one of the largest cross-country invitationals in the Midwest. The Smiley gets started with the boys JV race at 8:30 a.m.