Bautista, Sylla cross finish line first at G-E-T meet

Trempealeau County runners were well represented at a meet in their own backyard, with Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau’s Adrian Bautista and Independence/Gilmanton’s Taylor Sylla each winning their respective races.

Bautista crossed the finish line first in the boys’ race and Sylla did the same in the girls’ competition at last Thursday’s G-E-T Red Hawk Invite at Ettrick Golf Course.

Baustista’s time of 17 minutes, 24 seconds made him just one of two runners to complete the race in under 18 minutes, ahead of Mauston’s Weston Pouillie (17:47.0) in second.

The G-E-T boys settled for second in the team standings with 64 points behind only Mauston (42). In addition to Bautista, the Red Hawks had Carson Mayer in 12th, Ayden Aschenbrener in 14th, Connor McDonnell in 15th and Mitch Caya in 22nd.

Arcadia took fourth as a team with Alec Conrad and Nathan Badillo each registering top-10 finishes in sixth and 10th, respectively. The Raiders also featured Diego Ortiz in 16th, Jonathan Aguilar in 42nd and Bryan Simon in 49th.

Runners for sixth-place Whitehall included Kole Kulig setting the pace for the Norse in eighth followed by Ashton Hanson in 28th, Christopher Mann in 31st, Colby Santos in 47th and Frank Juresh Jr. in 57th.

Blair-Taylor finished in eighth with Alex Sygula in ninth, Landen Kidd in 33rd, Caiden Lien in 44th, Robbie Brandt in 56th and Billy Miller in 59th. Independence/Gilmanton had Own Gierok in 37th and Jaydan Harz in 50th.

Though the Indee girls were a runner short of qualifying for the team standings, all four of their runners finished in the top 10 (including Taylor Sylla’s win): Allie Sylla in third, Sophia Kampa in fourth and Anna Kent in eighth.

Taylor Sylla’s winning time of 19 minutes, 15.1 seconds was more than a minute better than Cochrane-Fountain City’s Paxtyn Duellman (20:22.6) in second.

The G-E-T girls also took second in the team standings with 73 points, behind only C-FC (34) in first. The Red Hawks had strong pack running with Bella Tibbitts in 18th, Kinley Giemza in 19th, Nora Higgins in 21st, Charlee McCutchen in 25th and Lily Graham in 28th. Claire Breidenbach’s 29th-place finish allowed G-E-T to break a tie with Mauston for second in the standings.

The Whitehall girls finished sixth with Lexi Kurth in 15th, Hailey Koch in 42nd, Natalee Herber in 45th, Marisol Guzman in 49th and Keymileth Mojica Zay in 53rd.

Blair-Taylor and Arcadia each only had four runners and didn’t qualify for the team standings. The Wildcats featured Jadrean Borreson in 17th, Kelsey Lien in 20th, Ally Jorgenson in 38th and Brielle Ressel in 48th. The Raiders had Shaylah Rodriguez in 39th, Malanie Moreno in 43rd, Samantha Bustos in 44th and Shannon Cruz in 50th.

Boys cross country, G-E-T Red Hawk Invite, Sept. 11 at Ettrick GC

Mauston 42, G-E-T 64, Alma/Pepin 87, Arcadia 119, Luther 132, Whitehall 163, Mel-Min 165, B-T 187, Eleva-Strum 194

G-E-T — Bautista, first, 17:24.0; Mayer, 12th, 18:57.0; Aschenbrener, 14th, 19:10.9; McDonnell, 15th, 19:16.4; Caya, 22nd, 19:54.0; Earney, 23rd, 19:59.0; Tibbitts, 34th, 21:54.0

Arcadia — Conrad, sixth, 18:20.0; Badillo, 10th, 18:38.0; Ortiz, 16th, 19:17.8; Aguilar, 42nd, 22:49.1; Simon, 49th, 23:20.0; Luque, 62nd, 28:26.0

Whitehall — Kulig, eighth, 18:26.0; Hanson, 28th, 20:47.0; Mann, 31st, 21:15.8; Santos, 47th, 23:11.0; Juresh, 57th, 25:41.0; Anderson, 65th, 29:26.0

B-T — Sygula, ninth, 18:34.0; Kidd, 33rd, 21:42.7; Lien, 44th, 22:58.0; Brandt, 56th, 25:27.0; Miller, 59th, 26:32.0; Schrock, 61st, 27:18.0; Sweet, 67th, 29:55.0

I/G — Gierok, 37th, 22:16.0; Harz, 50th, 23:29.0

Girls cross country, G-E-T Red Hawk Invite, Sept. 11 at Ettrick GC

C-FC 34, G-E-T 73, Mauston 73, Alma/Pepin 87, Mel-Min 89, Whitehall 127

G-E-T — Tibbits, 18th, 24:25.7; Giemza, 19th, 24:30.0; Higgins, 21st, 24:49.1; McCutchen, 25th, 25:04.3; Graham 28th, 26:18.6; Breidenbach, 29th, 26:21.4

Whitehall — Kurth, 15th, 23:45.3; Koch, 42nd, 30:26.7; Herber, 45th, 32:11.6; Guzman, 49th, 34:40.6; Mojica Zay, 53rd, 42:16.0

I/G — T. Sylla, first, 19:15.1; A. Sylla, third, 21:13.5; Kampa, fourth, 21:42.5; Kent, eighth, 22:24.6

B-T — Borreson, 17th, 24:17.8; Lien, 20th, 24:46.3; Jorgenson, 38th, 29:31.0; Ressel, 48th, 34:31.3

Arcadia — Rodriguez, 39th, 29:41.2; Moreno, 43rd, 31:14.0; Bustos, 44th, 31:18.8; Cruz, 50th, 34:50.0

Area runners top Tri-County meet

By Andrew Dannehy

Times Editor

Runners from Trempealeau County took the top two spots in the boys race at the Tri-County Invitational on Monday of last week.

Blair-Taylor’s Alek Sygula won the race with a time of 18:47. Coming in behind him was Whitehall’s Kole Kulig in 19:05. 

Despite the high individual finishes, the squads finished fifth and sixth in the team standings as B-T scored 90 points and Whitehall finished with 114. Chippewa Valley won the meet with 53 points ahead of Eleva-Strum, 76; Black River Falls, 78 and Melrose-Mindoro, 84. 

B-T had another top-10 finish as Landon Kidd took sixth. Ciaden Lien was 22nd; Billy Miller, 30th; Wyatt Schrock, 32nd; Robbie Brandt, 33rd and Harley Sweet, 48th. 

Ashton Hanson was Whitehall’s second runner, finishing 14th overall. Christopher Mann took 29th for the Norse while Colby Santos was 38th; Warren Stenson, 39th and Frank Juresh, 41st. 

Chippewa Valley also won the girls’ competition, though there were just two teams with enough runners to qualify. 

B-T’s Jadrean Borreson finished third overall, Kelsey Lien was ninth, Ally Jorgenson took 25th and Brielle Russle was 30th. Lexi Kurth took eighth for Whitehall and Rani Waldera was 11th. 

Boys cross country, Tri-County Cross Country Invitational, Sept. 8 at Skyline Golf Course, Black River Falls

Chippewa Valley 53 E-S 76 BR Falls 78 Mel-Min 84 B-T 90 Whitehall 114

B-T — Sygula, first, 18:47; Kidd, sixth, 21:03; Lien, 22nd, 23:53; Miller, 30th, 25:01; Schrock, 32nd, 25:17; Brandt, 33rd, 25:26; Sweet, 48th, 31:32

Whitehall — Kulig, second, 19:05; Hanson, 14th, 22:08; Mann, 29th, 24:59; Santos, 38th, 25:56; Stenson, 39th, 26:47; Juresh, 41st, 27:52

Girls cross country, Tri-County Cross Country Invitational, Sept. 8 at Skyline Golf Course, Black River Falls

Chippewa Valley 20 Mel-Min 39

B-T — Borreson, third, 23:31; Lien, ninth, 25:23; Jorgenson, 25th, 31:28; Russle, 30th, 37:26

Whitehall — Kurth, eighth, 25:23; Waldera, 11th, 26:30