Rotering, Michalak join Ruiter with all-CC honors at championship run

Despite West Salem sweeping the individual and team titles at the Coulee Conference cross country championship meet on Saturday at Maple Grove Venues in West Salem, multiple area runners found themselves near the top of the field to earn all-conference honors.

The Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau boys ran to a second place team finish behind the Panthers, and the Red Hawk girls placed third. Arcadia finished fifth in the boys race, and senior Tegan Michalak placed sixth as the Raiders’ only female runner.

Both Arcadia and G-E-T will travel to Black River Falls for the sectional meet at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

A pair of Trempealeau County runners finished near the top of the girls competition last weekend—junior Adrianna Rotering claimed second place to lead G-E-T, finishing 13 seconds behind champion Mia Olson of West Salem (20 minutes, 19.32 seconds), while Michalak finished sixth.

Rotering said the finish was rewarding after missing some events earlier this year due to injury and illness.

“It was a really tough race, to be honest. There were a lot of parts where I felt like ‘Am I gonna make it past this?’ But I think seeing my coaches on the side and just hearing them cheer me on really helped me know that I have people supporting me and that I have people that I can’t disappoint,” she said.

For Michalak, Saturday was an accomplishment that secured four straight seasons of first team all-conference honors. She said the race started fast in the first mile, and the third mile forced her to work for a top finish.

“I’m actually fortunate to be first-team all four years and win conference one year,” Michalak said. “So, my goal was just maintain the fourth year, and I was able to. So I’m actually really proud of myself.”

AJ Parker finished 14th for the Red Hawks, which also saw Anya Wolfe, Alexis Walker and Jasmine Tarjeson finish 28th, 29th and 30th. Other runners for G-E-T included Aubrynn Rotering (38th), Nora Higgins (40th), Ellie Gold (41st), Melanie Robinson (45th) and Raylin Cooksey (48th).

Sam Ruiter of G-E-T was the first runner not donning a West Salem jersey to cross the finish line in the boys race, placing fifth in 17:29.46. Teammates Xander Burmeister (10th) and Charlie Caya (12th) were not far behind Ruiter.

Saturday was the fastest time of Ruiter’s season.

“You just have to do it,” he said of keeping up with the top runners. “Think of the race 30 meters at a time. ‘Can I maintain pace for 30 meters? Yes.’ So I do that. I can’t think of the whole way, otherwise it just gets discouraging,” Ruiter told the Times after the race. “One of my goals was to be top five all-conference, so you just do whatever you need to do.”

Arcadia was led in the boys race by a 22nd place effort by junior Payton Nelson, also seeing top 50 finishes from Cole Lockington (31st), Matthew Badillo (33rd) and Andy Monroy (35th). Ivan Aguilar (51st), Caden Dahl (62nd), Sawyer Myers (70th) and Ben Kolstad (72nd) finished in the top 75.

Girls cross country, Coulee Conference Championship, Oct. 15 at Maple Grove Venues

West Salem 26, Westby 43, G-E-T 90, Luther 100, Viroqua 102

Arcadia—Michalak, sixth, 20:51.10.

G-E-T—Rotering, second, 20:32.82; Parker, 14th, 21:34.57; Wolfe, 28th, 23:59.64; Walker, 29th, 24:04.66; Tarjeson, 30th, 24:20.86; Au. Rotering, 38th, 25:37.17; Higgins, 40th, 26:06.41

Boys cross country, Coulee Conference Championship, Oct. 15 at Maple Grove Venues

West Salem 16, G-E-T 58, Luther 83, Westby 93, Arcadia 149, Black River Falls 166, Viroqua 182

Arcadia—Nelson, 22nd, 19:00.77; Lockington, 31st, 19:28.8; Badillo, 33rd, 19:46.29; Monroy, 35th, 19:50.96; Aguilar, 51st, 20:48.42; Dahl, 62nd, 21:56.59; Myers, 70th, 22:34.79

G-E-T—Ruiter, fifth, 17:29.46; Burmeister, 10th, 18:18.09; Caya, 12th, 18:26.06; Marley, 15th, 18:37.77; Smock, 16th, 18:38.94; Giemza, 24th, 19:06.71; Gagnon, 36th, 19:51.32