The MHS cross country team stumbled in Saturday’s Valley Meet on the Nine-Mile Forest course. The girls ended up sixth of seven teams in the D.C. Everest-hosted event, while the boys slipped all the way to seventh.
“Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve pretty much summed up our conference performances this past week,” Merrill coach Craig Hoffman said. “We didn’t let the elements of the day ruin our day, but we just ran a stale race. I’m glad it was at this meet and not at the upcoming sectional run. We will need to run our “A” game if we want to participate at the ultimate state race at Ridges Gold Course in Wisconsin Rapids.”
“Our senior runners Sydney Harris, Svetlana Heisinger and Kendra Andreska actually ran a pretty strong race throughout the competition but just didn’t have the extra push to see better finishing times. They’ve worked hard all year and have remained pretty much focused during practices, so it was hard to see them place further back then what I expected. I’ve got a feeling that they will run the race of their lives next week to cap off the season they’ve deserved, and hopefully propel Sydney to the state meet.”
Harris led the girls with a 11th-place finish in 15:59, while Heisinger (32nd, 17:14), Andreska (40th, 17:56), Ashley Berton (41st, 18:00) and Kate Williams (43rd, 18:05) capped the scoring. Morgan Pettit (45th, 18:11), Christa Schleif (47th, 18:24) and Shelby Harris (48th, 18:27) also competed.
The boys were paced by Garrett Schmelling (27th, 17:58) and scored with Jacob Jensen (32nd, 18:26), Reese Beyersdorf (38th, 18:40), Michael Seaman (41st, 18:47) and Andrew Koch (42nd, 18:49). Andrew Seaman (47th, 19:01), Dylan Schielke (50th, 19:11) and Trevor Myers (55th, 20:28) ran.
“My earlier comment of ‘running flat’ certainly showed up in our boys competition,” Hoffman stated. “Garrett had his first ‘off’ meet this year and it just happened to be at our Conference meet. We’ll move on, hopefully learn a little but from the race and concentrate on getting him to qualify to state next weekend. There’s no use in dwelling on this past performance; we need to energize for this coming Saturday.
“Our other top finishers were sophomore Jake Jensen, junior Reese Beyersdorf, whose performance was pretty good this past week, senior Michael Seaman who came through and stepped up for us this race, and sophomore Andrew Koch who remains our steady place finisher.
“I’m disappointed in our team placing, that’s for sure, but, I know there will always be a tomorrow which keeps our runners ready for a new challenge.”
The Bluejays will compete in Saturday’s WIAA Stevens Point Sectional at Standing Rocks Park, beginning at 11 a.m.