The 14-team Ashland Invite proved to be a great coming-out party for the Hatchet cross country teams. The girls captured the title from their hosts by 20 points, while the boys were a super-solid second to the Ore?dockers.
Dani Whiting was the individual champion in a career-best 15:37, fast enough to win by more than a minute.
“It was nice to run on a golf course after spending much of our early training on uneven surfaces (at Bond Falls and Bradley Park),” THS coach John Zuelsdorf said. “The athletes responded well to the rolling terrain at Chequamegon Bay and the challenges of the longer uphills. While many of the athletes from other schools faded as the race went on, we improved our individual positions and thus had solid team results. It was awesome for our boys to accomplish a runner-up finish ahead of traditionally strong teams from Superior, Northwestern, and Hayward.”
“Dani looked awfully good for an early-season race, establishing herself early in the race and coasting to her first sub-16 minute effort. Our top girls ran with a lot of confidence, a trait expected of a veteran team.”
Whiting joined on the medal stand by Claire Kuehn (5th, 17:06) and Talyn Jones (8th, 17:52), and they were backed up by Maggee Renn (15th, 18:23), and seniors Emmy Larson (21st, 18:42) and Alex Zedler (23rd, 19:00) .
For the boys, seniors Tyler Wittmann (11th, 19:20), Austin Kaiser (15th, 19:31) and Jacob McGuire (17th, 19:37), sophomores Lucas Tjugum (21st, 19:51) and Kyle Klopatek (33rd, 20:35) and seniors Andrew Olson (34th, 20:35) and Jared Kiander (37th, 20:39) fought off everyone but Ashland.
“The top Hatchet boys worked as a pack for nearly 2500 meters, but in the end it was a trio of seniors crossing the finish line,” Zuelsdorf said.
Team scores–Girls–Tomahawk 47, Ashland 67, Northwestern 69, Superior 75, Washburn 151, Hurley 166, Hayward 173, Bessemer 195, Baron 226, Dulluth-Denfeld inc. Wakefield inc., Ironwood inc., Mellen inc., Drummond inc……..Boys– Ashland-42, Tomahawk-74, Superior-90, Northwestern-103, Drummond-117, Washburn-170, Hayward-171, Ironwood-178, Barron-217, Duluth Denfeld inc., Bessmer inc., Hurley inc., Wakefield inc.