Bautista takes third at Coulee meet

All throughout the 2025 season, Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau junior Adrian Bautista has staked his claim to being one of the best runners in the Coulee Conference and the area in general. He further cemented that status with a strong showing at this year’s conference meet.

Bautista crossed the finish line in third place in the boys’ race at last Thursday’s Coulee Conference Championship Meet, held at Skyline Golf Course in Black River Falls. 

Despite slippery conditions due to a steady rain before the race — which continued in the early minutes of the boys’ race before finally letting up for the rest of the meet — that added an extra wrinkle to what’s already a challenging, hilly course, Bautista seemed unfazed by it all and was able to run his race.

Bautista’s time of 17 minutes, 35.7 seconds was only bested by a pair of West Salem runners: sophomore Evan Berra (16:50.7) in first and senior Carson Gronemus (17:00.8) in second.

In fact, Bautista was the lone non-West Salem runner to earn All-Coulee first-team honors by finishing in the top seven. He was followed by the West Salem quartet of junior Andrew Lorenz in fourth, senior Kaleb Spah in fifth, junior Michael Torrance in sixth and sophomore Landon Rieber in seventh.

Bautista’s top-three finish last Thursday was a culmination of all the work he’d put in since placing 12th at the conference meet a year ago. 

“I feel like I’ve improved a lot since I’ve been practicing in the offseason and everything,” Bautista said. “I focused on my breathing a lot, because that’s one of the main things, and a lot of speed work.”

Arcadia senior Alec Conrad led the pack of All-Coulee second-team honorees with his eighth-place finish. While that was one place off his showing last year, when Conrad took seventh to earn the final spot on the first team, he was still thrilled with where he ended up Saturday. Conrad missed time this fall due to an ankle injury he suffered in soccer and only had one warmup race the weekend prior to kick off the rust ahead of the conference meet.

“I knew that the hills were going to be a little bit tougher today and that it’s just very mentally hard on a lot of people,” Conrad said. “So, when I saw (the hills) I was like ‘alright, I’ve just got to power through.’ And when I realized I was keeping consistent, I was just like ‘alright, I gotta just hold it.’”

G-E-T senior Carter Giemza and junior Carson Mayer followed Conrad in ninth and 10th, respectively, to garner second-team honors as well. Rounding out the second team were West Salem senior Sawyer Stakston in 11th, Onalaska Luther sophomore Gavin Labus in 12th, Black River Falls freshman Lukas Cornelius in 13th and West Salem senior Bennett Rieber in 14th.

Four G-E-T runners were among the All-Coulee honorable mentions: junior AJ Earney in 15th, sophomore Connor McDonnell in 16th, junior Cavin Spitzmacher in 17th and freshman Logan Tibbitts in 21st.

In addition to Conrad, Arcadia had senior Diego Ortiz in 23rd, junior Nathan Badillo in 29th, senior Bryan Simon in 42nd and junior Reese Kujak in 51st.

The West Salem boys comfortably won the conference championship with 18 points, well ahead of G-E-T in second with 51 points.

In the girls’ race, G-E-T junior Isabella Tibbitts nabbed the final spot on the list of All-Coulee honorable mentions by finishing in 21st. The Red Hawks also featured sophomore Ruby Johnson in 23rd, senior Nora Higgins in 28th, freshman Kinley Giemza in 29th and sophomore Charlee McCutchen in 30th.

Arcadia finishers were sophomore Shaylah Rodriguez in 48th, freshman Samantha Bustos-Sandoval in 55th and sophomore Shannon Cruz in 58th.

Arcadia and G-E-T runners will compete at a D2 sectional this Friday starting at 3:30 p.m. at the Tri City Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.

Boys cross country, Coulee Conference Championship Meet, Oct. 16 at Skyline GC

West Salem 18, G-E-T 51, Viroqua 110, Luther 114, Arcadia 127, BRF 152, Westby 179

G-E-T — Bautista, third, 17:35.7; Giemza, ninth, 18:55.4; Mayer, 10th, 18:56.2; Earney, 15th, 19:25.8; McDonnell, 16th, 19:27.6; Spitzmacher, 17th, 19:28.9; Tibbitts, 21st, 19:47.2

Arcadia — Conrad, eighth, 18:49.6; Ortiz, 23rd, 19:49.0; Badillo, 29th, 20:06.4; Simon, 42nd, 21:46.9; Kujak, 51st, 22:43.2; Aguilar, 59th, 23:25.1; Ortiz, 60th, 23:26.1

Girls cross country, Coulee Conference Championship Meet, Oct. 16 at Skyline GC

West Salem 32, Westby 40, Viroqua 52, G-E-T 119, BRF 153, Luther 173

G-E-T — Tibbitts, 21st, 22:55.5; Johnson, 23rd, 23:09.2; Higgins, 28th, 24:10.5; Giemza, 29th, 24:26.3; McCutchen, 30th, 24:38.3; Graham, 35th, 25:15.8; Thompson, 39th, 26:07.8

Arcadia — Rodriguez, 48th, 27:26.0; Bustos-Sandoval, 55th, 30:03.8; Cruz, 58th, 31:44.7

Indee girls take second at DC championship meet

By Andrew Dannehy

Times Editor

The Independence/Gilmanton girls cross country team had four runners finish inside the top 10, but it wasn’t enough to win the Dairyland Conference Championship meet.

The Indees have been trailed Cochrane-Fountain City for much of the season and that was the case again at the Taylor Rod and Gun Club last Thursday. C-FC matched I/G with four runners in the top 10, including the first- and second-place runners — the sister duo of Addy and Paxtyn Duellman. 

I/G’s top runner was Taylor Sylla, who finished third, while Allie Sylla was fourth. Anna Kent took eighth and Sophia Kampa was ninth. The team’s fifth runner was Lia Sandoval, who finished 35th overall. 

The Indees scored 52 team points, behind C-FC’s 31. Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran was third with 81, followed by Melrose-Mindoro with 90; Augusta with 102 and Whitehall with 133.

Lexi Kurth was the top Whitehall runner, taking 19th overall. Hailey Koch was 32nd, Natalee Herber was 34th, Marisol Guzman was 39th, and Cryslynn Smith was 40th.

B-T only had three runners compete, as Jadrean Borreson finished 13th, Kelsey Lien was 14th and Allie Jorgenson took 28th. 

A few area boys runners cracked the top 10 in that race, though the teams finished in the bottom half of the standings. 

Blair-Taylor’s Alex Sygula finished third overall, about 20 seconds behind champion Caleb Arneson of Mel-Min. Whitehall’s Kole Kulig was sixth and I/G’s Theo Gutendorf finished eighth. 

Whitehall placed highest in the team standings, taking fifth with 115 points. B-T was sixth with 119 and I/G didn’t have enough runners for a team score. ECIL won the team competition with 41 points. 

Ashton Hanson finished 22nd for Whitehall, six spots better than Christopher Mann, while Erick Aguilar took 29th. Warren Stenulson rounded out the top five by taking 40th overall, while Finn Anderson and Frank Juresh were the team’s sixth and seventh runners, taking 46th and 52nd.

Landen Kidd finished 13th for B-T, while Ciaden Lien was 25th, Wyatt Schrock 47th, Robbie Brandt 51st, and Harley Sweet 55th.

Jaydan Harz was I/G’s second runner, taking 26th overall while Owen Gierok was 38th and Maddox Pronschinske was 42nd. 

Most of the Dairyland Conference teams will compete at the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Three Durand Sectional at Rolling Hills Golf Course. From there, the top two teams and top five individuals who are not on qualifying teams will advance to the state meet in Wisconsin Rapids on Nov. 1. 

Girls cross country, Dairyland Conference meet, Oct. 16 at Taylor Rod & Gun Club, Taylor

C-FC 31 I/G 52 ECIL 81 Mel-Min 90 Augusta 102 Whitehall 133

B-T — Borreson, 13th, 22:51; Lien, 14th, 23:00; Jorgenson, 28th, 27:11

I/G — T. Sylla, third, 19:41; A. Sylla, fourth, 20:08; Kent, eighth, 21:27; Kampa, ninth, 21:30; Sandoval, 35th, 29:20

Whitehall — Kurth, 19th, 24:01; Koch, 32nd, 28:32; Herber, 34th, 29:02; Guzman, 39th, 35:30; Smith, 40th, 37:16

Boys cross country, Dairyland Conference meet, Oct. 16 at Taylor Rod & Gun Club, Taylor

ECIL 41 Mel-Min 77 E-S 99 O-F 114 Whitehall 115 B-T 119 Augusta 127

B-T — Sygula, third, 17:59; Kidd, 13th, 19:45; Lien, 24th, 20:32; Schrock, 47th, 23:48; Brandt, 51st, 24:36; Sweet, 55th, 28:14

I/G — Gutendorf, eighth, 19:00; Harz, 26th, 20:33; Gierok, 38th, 22:19; Pronschinske, 42nd, 23:04

Whitehall — Kulig, sixth, 18:33; Hanson, 22nd, 20:24; Mann, 28th, 20:33; Aguilar, 29th, 21:12; Stenulson, 40th, 23:03; Anderson, 46th, 23:45; Juresh, 52nd, 25:25