Middle school harriers host annual invite

Three athletes take part in State competition

For the Tomahawk Leader

TOMAHAWK – The Tomahawk Middle School cross country team hosted its annual invite, and three athletes took part in the State competition.

Invite

On Thursday, Oct. 10, the middle school runners hosted their annual invite. The weather was perfect for running and just simply enjoying being outdoors in general to watch these young athletes put on a great performance.

The boys challenged the area's best teams and held their own with a 6^th-place finish behind the efforts of Connor Zorn, who would cross the line first for the team in 14th place with a time of 13:10. He was followed closely by a pack of three teammates: Kamron Ristau (30th), Hector Luna Perez (31st) and Max Micke (32nd), with Max Childers (41st), Levi Cerkas (42nd) and Chastin Dziura (50th) closing out the scoring for the team.

The girls continue to bring the scoring pack together by running and bonding as a team, led by race winner Charlee Lund in a new career best time of 12:38. The next four Hatchet scorers would finish within 39 seconds of each other, led by Victoria Towle (22nd), Leigha Vassar (28th), Alyse Arndt (29th) and Elaine Huber (33rd). Veteran Lucy Nelson (49th) would lead her younger teammate Allie Reiff (50th) to the line, completing the Hatchet 4^th-place scoring efforts.

In addition to the top seven scoring runners for the Hatchet program, there were fantastic performances by Tripp Tabbert (52nd), Lily Meurer (57th), Nora Bubolz (60th), Nevaeh Mathis (61st), George VanAsten (62nd), Gabby Ulrich (62nd), Kortney Busterud (66th), Finn Childers (67th), Vallyn Ott (72nd), Zach Scott (74th), Eli Scott (75th) and Colton Welke (77th).

State Championships

There were three athletes who took a chance and wanted to head to Weyauwega-Fremont High School for the Wisconsin Middle School State Championships on Saturday, Oct. 12.

Charlee Lund, Victoria Towle and Connor Zorn took to their races, lining up alongside 37 schools and a total of over 450 competitive runners from all over the state with no large school/small school designation, just one race to decide who all goes home with the awards. The girls left the line first on the day, and with such a short turnaround from our home meet, it was clear these two girls were still ready and willing to compete.

After the dust settled on the two-lap, two-mile course Charlee Lund would become a State Championship Medalist, placing 14th out of over 230 runners in a time of 12:48. Victoria Towle would cross the line next in 109th place, well within the top half of the field and with her career best time by over 10 seconds in 14:50.

The last race of the day featured over 220 boys, and Connor Zorn was one of them, taking off from the start a little more conservative, which paid off down the stretch, moving up from being around 70th at the 800m mark to 47th at the finish line and also earning a career best time of 12:40 over the fast two-mile course.

The Northwoods area was represented well in the standings, with the Phillips teams taking 1st for the girls and 3rd for the boys. Northland Pines would also have a medalist, with Ryleigh Thompson placing 28th overall.

“Congratulations to all of the area athletes and especially Charlee, Victoria and Connor for a great effort at the State Championships,” said coach Justin Lund.