Review of Fall Sports Pt. 2
Flag Football
Jonah Albrecht’s Silver Bullets were crowned the champions of the ILC Flag Football League on October 28, winning 13-6 in the championship game over 2nd-place Ned Sandhoefner’s Skippers. Zack’s Sippert’s team, the Huskies finished third and Alex Fleischer’s Wildcats finished fourth. The Huskies won the 3rd-place game 12-6.
Cross Country
Another year and another trip to State for juniors Dan Lau and Austin Karow. The two classmates both made it as individual qualifiers last year and followed up on those efforts to make it again this year. After being a part of the Sectional runner-up team in 2014, both Lau and Karow have made it to the State meet in Wisconsin Rapids all of their first three years of high school.
The girls program has been all about quality over quantity all season with only two runners. Senior Jaqi Gerbitz finished 37th and freshman Miriam Whitenight took 39th place at the Sectional meet in Durand. Season bests were 23:24.7 for Jaqi and 23:14.8 for Miriam.The guys team took fourth (second required for team to qualify for State) at Sectionals with great runs by Henry Lau (27th overall), Daniel Masker (62nd), and Jacob Hammond (76th). Levi Wittorp finished 81st and Zachary Strike 118th, but only the top five runners places contribute to the team’s score.
Karow ran a 17:49.3 race to finish the race 8th overall. To qualify for state, individual runners must place within the top five. Runners who are on teams that qualified for the Rapids meet don’t count when counting the places of individual athletes, so Austin did finish 5th (three runners from the Sectional Champion Durand Panthers were ahead of him) and made it to State. He placed 78th overall at State last year and 100th as a freshman. Karow should have a much higher placing this year as he has cut off 30 seconds and a minute from those past State races, respectively. Austin’s season best from the Sectional meet would put him at a 47th place finish in last year’s D3 Boys State race.
Dan Lau finished at a time of 17:10.1, winning the race and the Sectional Championship. Wesley Brantner of Durand took second with a time of 17:13.7; his teammate Isaac Wegner took third at 17:25.4.
As for Lau, this is his second Sectional Championship in a row. His season best and personal record happened at Eau Claire Memorial’s Old Abe Invite with a time of 16:30.3. His prior State finishes were 40th in 2014 and 7th last year. Expect Dan to make the podium again by placing tenth or higher at State, as all but one of the six runners who finished in front of him last year graduated last Spring.
These juniors have excelled since becoming high schoolers and still have a year left after this season ends on October 28. Look for them to make their mark on Wisconsin’s cross country scene.
*10/29/16 update*: Dan Lau placed 7th in the State meet and Karow finished 54th. Lau’s time was 16:45.24. Austin finished in a time of 17:50.99.