By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Saturday morning the Merrill cross country team hosted a rainy meet at the MARC. Merrill’s boys team ran hard but ended up finishing in fourth place out of five teams. The Merrill girls finished in last as a team.
Despite the team placing, Merrill had some good things happen at the meet. Dominic Laufenberg finished in first on the team with a time of 18:13.
“With only being a sophomore, he (Dominic) has the potential to keep getting better as long as he continues to put in that hard work he’s been showing us all year,” said head coach Matt Juedes, adding “Stephen Koch continues to be aggressive at meets and during practice, finishing with a 18:51. Jacob Novitch continues to impress in his senior farewell tour, with a 19:12. Tanner Depies and Ethan Cordova also ran well, getting close to their PRs with 19:25 and 19:37 respectively.”
On the women’s side of things, Merrill ran well considering the conditions. Dalie Thomas continues to pace the pack for Merrill as she gets prepared for a tournament push, running a 21:40. “Courtney Krueger continues to run hard and is learning with every meet she runs in. Claire Drew ran with a lot of fire today, as she finished #3 with a PR of 24:10. The rest of the girls varsity ran with a lot of heart. It was Autumn, Allie and Lily’s final Merrill Invite of their cross country careers,” said coach Juedes.
“With both myself and Coach Swan gone for the weekend,” Juedes added, “Merrill Cross Country had a familiar friend run our home meet this past weekend. Craig Hoffman, Coach Seefeld, and all of our parent volunteers did a great job working and preparing our student-athletes to run to the best of their abilities during the unfavorable weather. We are so lucky to have so many people committed to the success of the Merrill Cross Country program. We thank you all so much for everything you do for us!”
Merrill will be running again on Saturday morning as they go to Standing Rock Park in Stevens Point.