Area runners miss state cut at D3 WIAA sectional
Taylor Sylla of Independence/Gilmanton narrowly missed the cut for the WIAA State Championship race by finishing eighth while Blair-Taylor’s Ella Halverson finished 81st at the WIAA Westby sectional on Saturday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Ashton Hanson (left) and Titus Buhl of Whitehall ran together during the first lap of the WIAA sectional race at Westby on Saturday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Blair-Taylor’s Ryan Flynn (left) and Anthony Oldendorf ran together during the first lap of the WIAA sectional race at Westby on Saturday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Eighth is often good enough to advance from the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association sectional round to the state championship race. But last Saturday’s Division Three Westby Sectional featured a top-seven with runners from six different schools, leaving Independence/Gilmanton’s Taylor Sylla one individual spot shy of qualifying for the state meet.
An eighth-place finish would’ve been good enough to advance in half of the eight sectionals, but without a dominant team at Westby High School, it just wasn’t enough for Sylla. The top three finishers — including defending state champion Addy Duellman of Cochrane-Fountain City — were all individual qualifiers. After Alexa Myre of team-champion La Crosse Aquinas finished, the fifth and sixth finishers were also individual qualifiers. Another Aquinas runner crossed, followed by Sylla.
Sylla got stuck behind the pack early in the race. As Duellman and Mondovi’s Courtney Stadter began to separate, Sylla made up ground, but couldn’t get ahead of the final individual qualifier, Royall’s Katie Fields. Sylla finished with a time of 20:51, 36 seconds behind Fields.
Duellman won the meet with a time of 19:06, 19 seconds better than Stadter while Ann Fronk of Bangor was third in 19:51. Westby’s Elizabeth Curtis was the fourth individual qualifier, finishing in 20:02.
Gracie Rombalski took 21st for the Indees, 10 spots better than Sophia Kampa. Leah Sylla was 60th, Angie Martinez, 88th and Hannah Gierok, 98th.
I/G finished eighth in the team standings.
B-T didn’t have enough runners for a team score as they were led by Kelsey Lien, who finished 57th. Jadrean Borreson finished 61st, Emmalee Johnson was 75th and Ella Halverson finished 81st.
The B-T boys team finished 11th as the top area runner in that race was Jacob Olson, who was 29th overall. Ryan Flynn finished 43rd for B-T while Thomas Brandt was 51st; Anthony Oldendorf, 78th; Riley Gunderson, 87th and Billy Miller, 104th.
Whitehall had four runners competing, led by Titus Buhl who finished 56th overall. Ashton Hanson and Nolan Thompson finished 64th and 65th, while Cayden Faldet-Platteter was 103rd.
I/G’s Charlie Baize was 71st.
Boys cross country WIAA Division Three Westby sectional, Oct. 21 at Westby High School
Aquinas 36 Bangor 92 Westby 115 Kickapoo/La Farge 118 Brookwood 133 Mondovi 151 Luther 199 Durand 225 Cashton 229 De Soto 242 B-T 257 New Lisbon 291 Hillsboro 293
B-T — Olson, 29th, 18:58; Flynn, 43rd, 19:31; Brandt, 51st, 19:49; Oldendorf, 78th, 21:21; Gunderson, 87th, 22:25; Miller, 104th, 25:40
I/G — Baize, 71st, 20:58
Whitehall — Buhl, 56th, 20:10; Hanson, 64th, 20:29; Thompson, 65th, 20:33; Faldet-Platteter, 103rd, 25:20
Girls cross country WIAA Division Three Westby sectional, Oct. 21 at Westby High School
Aquinas 63 Brookwood 95 Kickapoo/La Farge 105 Bangor 108 C-FC 120 Westby 141 Durand 162 I/G 178 Luther 228 Mel-Min 230 Cashton 247 Augusta 286
B-T — Lien, 57th, 23:53; Borreson, 61st, 24:06; Johnson, 75th, 25:17; Halverson, 81st, 26:24
I/G — T. Sylla, eighth, 20:51; Rombalski, 21st, 22:04; Kampa, 31st, 22:55; L. Sylla, 60th, 24:03; Martinez, 88th, 27:34; Gierok 98th, 29:20
