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Wow! What a day Saturday at the state cross country meet in Wisconsin Rapids. I got up and had breakfast at 7:15 a.m. so I could get to the Ridges Golf Course by the 11:00 race that Iowa-Grant/Highland runner Jordan Jenks would be competing in. I hustled down to the "Bunker"where the press credentials were and hurried to the starting line only to find nobody there. Then the voice came over the speaker system saying that the races had been delayed for an hour due to frost on the course. Gee, the temperature was 30 degrees when I left Dodgeville and I spotted a lot of fields with frost on them on my way north! Anyway, that gave me a chance to walk around a little and see some of the sights I usually don't get to see. Also, for the Rapids and WIAA people, it gave them a chance to sell a lot more food and cross country souvenirs to the crowd of people who  were "early"like me!
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Oh, and above is a shot of some of the crowd alongside the finish line at the meet - note Dodgeville's own Dr. Gary Grunow and some of the Greg Stumpf family watching me take this picture! Doc Grunow's daughter, Emilee, was an alternate runner that day for the team and was on the awards podium.
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What a day "AGAIN" for the Dodgeville-Mineral Point girls cross country team. They won Division 3 for the third consecutive year and by a margin of 14 points. The group of Anna Eisenzimmer, Hannah Owens, Mairin Cahill, Brittany Rhyner, Mary Hanson, Kylie Greenheck and Megan Hottmann were the runners with Emily Philipps, Caitlyn Bauer and Emilee Grunow the alternates. This entire group (the first seven), will be back together again next year looking for a record-tying fourth straight state championship! They are also on course for a record tying number of consecutive years going to state! Great job girls!
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The Dodge-Point boys didn't do too shabby either as they finished seventh out of 16 teams. Senior Trevor Wunnicke was the third place finisher in his final cross country race for his school! That team was comprised of: Trevor and Tyler Wunnicke, Ian Ewers, Josef Frank, Jack Schickel, Payton Grunow and Tannler Ames. Trevor Wunnnicke, Frank and Ewers are seniors.
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Also hats off to the Iowa-Grant and Mount Horeb-Barneveld football teams as they move on to Level 3 of the state gridiron play-offs. Iowa-Grant disposed of Kickapoo La Farge and Mount Horeb-Barneveld took care of McFarland pretty handily. I-G looks to play a familiar foe in Darlington this weekend while Mount Horeb-Barneveld goes to Monona Grove.
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This issue marks the final one for our 35-year typesetter/layout person - Barb (Thompson) Phillips - as she is retiring. It's going to be hard to imagine coming to work and not seeing her at her computer. I think the machine she first started on was called a justowriter - it was like a typewriter that set type in columns that were justified as to the spacing at the end of the columns. She is a marval at reading and deciphering handwriting. Plus I'll NEVER match her typing speed. We'll miss you Barb!
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On my trip to Wisconsin Rapids Saturday, I spotted about a half dozen deer laying alongside of the highway and also saw that we may be hurting for Christmas trees in the near future. I was told that they didn't get much of the needed rain that the pine trees need to grow!
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Boy those round-a-bout drivers really think everybody is going east and west don't they? Terry Carroll was heading out to his place of employment - Ederer's - the other day and by doing so and coming from the west, he had to go 3/4 of the way around the round-a-bout to get to Bennett Road. Well, a woman coming from the east nearly didn't stop, but did finally stop just inches from his vehicle as I'm sure she figured he was heading west and not north!