For a traveling trophy, it sure seems to stay in one place.
The Hatchet cross country teams made sure the Fall Creek Invite hardware for lowest combined points sticks around Tomahawk for a ninth straight year after racing to a boys title and girls runner-up finish.
The boys put all five scorers in the top 25 individually, and Bryan Tomek (4th, 18:00) and Connor Ahrens (7th, 18:19) both earned medals. Dylan Dahl (13th, 18:48), Garrett Daigle (23rd, 19:39) and Troy Salewske (25th, 19:45) also scored, and Ryan Kuehn (27th, 19:56) and Thomas Miller (50th, 20:54) competed.
“Bryan had his highest finish to date, placing fourth in a nearly 90-athlete field in a time of 18:00 over the hilly 5,000-meter course,” THS coach John Zuelsdorf said.
They racked up 72 points to tip D1 schools Eau Claire Regis (82) and Eau Claire North (97) for the title of the 13-team meet.
The girls were paced by Rachel Sudbury’s second-place finish in 15:53. Stephanie Welke (10th, 17:47) also medaled, and Jessie Harmon (20th, 18:26), Emily Miller (26th, 18:44) Taylor Laack (33rd, 19:13) topped it off. Regan Swan (50th, 20:04) also ran.
“The girls despite running short-handed for the second straight week, were able to grab the runner-up plaque behind Henry Sibley-a tough Division AA school from Minnesota of nearly 2,000 students,” Zuelsdorf said. “Sara McMahon-#2 at state last year in D3-won the event for the second straight year.”
The girls scored 91 to trail Henry Sibley (49), but finish solidly ahead of Osseo-Fairchild (106), Flambeau (126) and Colfax (137).