Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
The Merrill cross country team ran their second straight meet at the Merrill Area Recreation Center (MARC) on Saturday morning, Oct. 19, however this time for the Wisconsin Valley Conference meet. This year was the first time in many years that the Jays hosted the WVC meet and it couldn’t have been a nicer day for it.
In Merrill’s previous meet at the MARC the Jays had to battle some rainy and cold weather, however this time around the sun was shining for the runners as they competed against their conference foes. The Jays didn’t have much success as a team, placing last for the boys and girls side, however Merrill would have a few nice individual finishes.
“Although we didn’t place well team wise, the weather was an improvement from last weekend and we had a lot of athletes beat their personal records.” said Merrill head coach Alyssa Swan.
On the boys side, Ethan Cordova’s run of 18:11 was good enough for first on the team and 28th overall. Callen Hoeppner ran a time of 18:41, placing 38th overall. rounding out the Merrill boys were Ethan Schelbert (18:53), Tanner Depies (18:53) and Kyle Stellingworth (19:18).
For the girls team, coming in first for Merrill, placing 4th overall and earning a Wisconsin Valley All-Conference award was Elizabeth Schmidt with a time of 19:31. The other runners on the girls side include Maddie Drew (22:16), Maddy Vandergeest (23:47), Lily Grefe (23:56), and Madi Crossman (23:57).
The Merrill cross country team will compete in the sectional meet at Standing Rock Park in Stevens Point on Saturday, Oct. 26, with runners taking off at 11 a.m.