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Among the top finishers at the Greg Bell Invitational cross country lighted evening meet were the Dodgeville/Mineral Point girls and boys along with the Iowa-Grant boys.
The D/MP girls and the I-G boys both won their divisions. The D/MP boys finished second.
Following are comments from the coaches and the meet results.
D/MP Dennis McGraw
This is a fun race for the cross country athletes. Under the lights around the softball, baseball diamonds and around the outside of the Boscobel track. Glow sticks line the course and the runners and fans enjoy the atmosphere but it is still a race. The DPCC coaches felt the runners put forth a good effort throughout the race. Everyone seemed to run pretty good times. We will continue to work hard and hope to improve as we get ready for the Midwest Janesville invite coming up this Saturday the 24th.
Friday evening after practice the Dodge Point running club hosted a meal for the middle and high school runners and parents. It was a very nice event and we want to say Thanks to all the work the running club does to support the cross country and track and field programs.
I-G Jake Winkler
On Thursday evening, the Iowa-Grant Cross Country teams headed to Boscobel for the Greg Bell Memorial Night Race. This is a unique race in that not only is it run under lights, but teams are encouraged to dress up and decorate their tents. It's a lot of fun to get extra-hyped for a race. We went with a 60s-70s theme and decorated our tent with a mirrorball and lava lamps, and got matching tie-dye shirts. With the layer of goofiness, we were still there to compete. This meet has sneakily turned into one of the larger meets that we attend. In the boys race there were 18 teams represented!
On the girl's side, Hope Connolly ran a new personal best and school record of 19:57 to place 6th. Hope's been working through an injury, but was still able to have a strong race, especially the second half of the race. Our other four girls also ran season best times, which was exciting. It's definitely a fast course, the corners are all well-rounded and there's not a hill to speak of, so it's a fun course to race right in the middle of the season. I was happy that we were able to finish as a complete girl's squad, placing 11th out of 13 teams.
The boys team won the meet for our 5th straight win this season. The boys were amped to get to race and really got out exceptionally strong. Mason Aide ended up being our first finisher in this race, placing 3rd with Caden Pennekamp in 4th, and Bret Connolly in 5th. In a race of 140+ guys, to go 3-4-5 is incredible. Owen Laufenberg also had a big breakthrough for us to run a 17:56 and place 15th. I thought 1-7 everybody really impressed me with their aggressiveness and confidence. We need to continue to carry that energy with us down the stretch. We had 5 meets in 3 weeks, which I think really kept the guys motivated. There's not a lot of time in that schedule to dwell on past successes or failures, you've just got to be ready to race the next one. Now the race schedule gets a little less intense with 4 meets before the Conference meet on October 13.
We're at the point now in the season where we've already done a lot of the building of a foundation, now we get to fine-tune and add some speed into the equation I'm excited to see how the team responds.
River Valley Brian Krey
The River Valley cross country team had an outstanding race, as all five boys varsity runners had their fastest time of the year - Noah Radtke (18:03), Isaac Limmex (22:46), Ben Reis (22:49), TJ Strine (24:18), and Arie Snow (24:41). Sophomore, Noah Radtke's time of 18:03 was his fastest time in a high school race by seven seconds. Based on this year's times, Isaac Limmex lowered his personal best time for the year by 56 seconds, Ben Reis by 1 minute 4 seconds, TJ Strine by 1 minute 38 seconds, and Arie Snow by 1 minute 26 seconds.
The girls cross country team fared equally well as the boys team, as seven of the girls ran their fastest times of the year. Bobbi Ducharme (20:43), Kortney Sebranek (24:05), Aubrey Frazier (26:00), Anya Seffrood (26:25), Kylie Morrey (26:28), Grace Morrey (27:08), and Emma Knoble (27:33) all ran their personal best for the year. Based on this year's times, Bobbi DuCharme dropped her personal best time for the year by 53 seconds, Kortney Sebranek by 2 minutes and 33 seconds, Aubrey Frazier by 1 minute 12 seconds, Anya Seffrood by 38 seconds, Kylie Morrey by 1 minute 49 seconds, Grace Morrey by 1 minute 5 seconds, and Emma Knoble by 1 minute 2 seconds. Bobbi DuCharme earned a medal, as she finished 9th place overall.
Krey stated, "Not only is the team getting more fit, every single person is learning how to be mentally stronger throughout a 3.1 mile cross country race. Our focus going into the meet was never giving up, never letting up, and never being satisfied - each one of the runners really responded to that message and the tough practices we had early in the week."
BOYS RESULTS
Iowa-Grant Boys (1)
2-Mason Aide, 16:52.1
4-Cade Pennekamp, 17:09.8
5-Bret Connolly, 17:10.0
14-Owen Laufenberg, 17:56.4
22-Will Fulton, 18:17.1
31-Noah Lange, 18:51.6
34-TJ Straka, 21:47.4
Dodgeville/Mineral Point Boys (2)
2-Layne Aurit, 16:51.6
12-Joey Robinson, 17:51.4
15-Parker Owens, 18:02.6
25-Jesse Yoder, 18:23.6
27-Alex LaMere, 19:21.0
28-Lucas Sullivan, 18:38.1
30-Gabe Engel, 18:39.0
Pec/Argyle Boys (9)
8-Ridge Toay, 17:27.5
39-Jakob Orloff, 19:27.8
63-Aiden Gruenenfeder, 20:46.0
73-Trevor Doescher, 21:16.:
78-Samuel Koch, 21"28.7
90-Emerson Koch, 22:22,.7
92-Grant Kuberski, 22:29.6
River Valley Boys (16)
17: Noah Radtke, 18:03.7
96-Isaac Limmex, 22:46.0
97-Ben Reis, 22:49.8
103-TJ Strine, 24:18.2
104-Arie Snow, 24:41.4
GIRLS RESULT
Dodgeville
Mineral Point Girls (1)
1-Ellie Robinson, 18:18.4
2-Annie Robinson,19:04.9
4-Julia Thompson, 18:47.8
11-Addison Christopher, 19:47.8
12-Regan Schuette 20:59.0
13-Brienna Wasley, 21:02.2
22-Sierra Davenport, 21:58.3
River Valley Girls (10)
9-Bobbi  DuCharm 20:43.5
45-Kortney Serabend, 24:05.8
57-Aubrey Frazier, 26:00.3
59-Anna Sebranek, 26:25.4
60-Kylie Morrey, 26:28.r
66-Grace Morrey, 27:07.9
67-Emma Knoble, 27:33.4
Iowa-Grant Girls (11)
6-Hope Connolly, 19:57.4
40-Megan Cullen, 23:39.2
68-Rylee Stecklein, 37:38.1
69-AJ Jelle, 27:38.1
73-Yessica Garcia, 28:03.8