Four G-E-T runners crack top ten in first XC meet
Above: Sophomore Sawyer Smock finished inside the top 25 while the Red Hawk boys took fifth place.
Below: Sophomore Anya Wolfe ran toward the finish line during an invitational cross country meet at Maple Grove Venues in West Salem on Saturday. The Red Hawk girls placed sixth as a team. (Times photographs by Benjamin Pierce)
Four different runners donning Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau jerseys took home top 10 honors at the Red Hawks’ season opening meet last Saturday, the Gale Johnson Kick-Off at Maple Grove Venues in West Salem.
Coach Don Foley’s team is coming off a successful 2021 season that saw both the boys and girls squads take second in the Coulee Conference championship meet and culminated with a trip to the state tournament for the boys. Both the boys and girls teams return multiple top runners from last season.
The Red Hawk boys finished fifth as a team on Saturday with the girls coming in sixth at the event, which saw both the boys and girls run in the same heat to avoid heavy rains that traveled in and out of the venue throughout the day.
The Red Hawks were scheduled to join Blair-Taylor, Whitehall, Arcadia and Independence at an invitational at Cochrane-Fountain City on Thursday.
Gale Johnson Kick-Off
Junior Adrianna Rotering led all G-E-T runners in placement on Saturday, taking third among the girls. Sophomore Oliver Marley ran the fastest time for the G-E-T boys, finishing sixth in the boys race.
Onalaska’s Manny Putz was crowned as the boys’ champion with a brisk run of 15:53 while Aquinas’ Nora Jillson won the girls race as the only runner to beat 21 minutes, finishing in 20:28.2.
The Red Hawks also got an eighth place finish from junior AJ Parker in the girls race and a 10th place finish from Xander Burmesiter on the boys’ side.
Sawyer Smock cracked the top 25 with a 21st place run for the G-E-T boys, followed by Ethan Gagnon (39th), Carter Giemza (44th), Charlie Caya (45th) and Quinn O’Neil (47th).
Onalaska took the top team honors in the boys race, followed by Wisconsin Dells, Boscobel and Aquinas. The Red Hawks defeated La Crosse Central and Sparta.
The Red Hawk girls also got runs from Delilah Boberg – who took 13th – as well as Anya Wolfe, Alexis Walker, Ellie Gold and Aubrynn Rotering.
Boys cross country, Gale Johnson Kick-Off, Aug. 27 at Maple Grove Venues
Onalaska 20, Wisconsin Dells 88, Boscobel 96, Aquinas 100, G-E-T 120, Central 138, Sparta 154
G-E-T – Marley, sixth, 18:46.7; Burmeister, 10th, 19:16.2; Smock, 21st, 20:07; Gagnon, 39th, 21:37.6; Carter Giemza, 44th, 22:04; Caya, 45th, 22:18; O’Neil, 47th, 22:35.8.
Girls cross country, Gale Johnson Kick-Off, Aug. 27 at Maple Grove Venues
Onalaska 67, Sparta 72, Wisconsin Dells 89, Aquinas 89, Boscobel 100, G-E-T 101, Central 145
G-E-T – Ad. Rotering, third, 22:21.3; Parker, eighth, 23:18.5; Boberg, 13th, 23:41.1; Wolfe, 38th, 26:03.7; Walker, 39th, 27:47.2; Gold, 44th, 28:25.1; Au. Rotering, 46th, 31:25.2.
