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La Follette's Brill rambles at Midwest Invitational

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Cross Country Midwest Invitational

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JANESVILLE — Madison La Follette’s Alex Brill knew his Midwest Invitational finish was going to depend a lot on second mile.

So when he clocked a 10:03 after two-thirds of the 5,000-meter race on Saturday at Blackhawk Golf Course, he knew it was going to be a good showing for him.

“I have been performing well, but lately my second mile has been slow,” he said. “So when I saw that, I knew just going to be able to cruise in the third mile.”

Brill’s 15:40.60 in the 71-year-old event was good enough for first place. But if the La Follette boys team is going to repeat last year’s WIAA Division 1 state title, it has some work to do.

The Lancers finished second to Neenah by eight points in the 33-team cross country meet on Saturday.

“That certainly was a heartbreaker,” Brill said of finishing second in 2008 after La Follette took a year off from the Midwest. “We ran a great race, and we’ll be ready by the end of the year.”

The Janesville Craig boys (142 points) and girls (115) both improved on their showing from 2007 with matching third-place finishes. The boys moved up from fifth, while the girls jumped from 10th.

Craig’s Cassidi Running topped the girls team in 15:60 to finish seventh. Ryan Ahrens was the top Craig boys finisher at 16:13 for sixth place.

“The weather was perfect, and the grass was cut short, which can sometimes be a question on golf courses,” said Craig co-coach Brian Lawton. “We saw a lot of personal bests as well as a good performance from out team.”

The Janesville Parker boys finished 24th with 658, while the girls also finished 24th with 600.

For the eighth straight year, the Lake Park (Ill.) team topped the girls field with a 70. Waukesha Catholic Memorial was second at 112.

Lake Park coach Harvey Braus said it was the first time all season that he had two runners finish in less than 15 minutes.

“This might have been our best performance overall as a team this year,” he said. “We have a very good team week in and week out.”

Lake Park’s Lindsay Flanagan set a new Midwest Invitational record with a 13:54 in the 4,000-meter race, which is about 30 seconds better than the previous mark. Flanagan placed fourth in last year’s Midwest and 10th in the Illinois state meet in 2007.

“It was one of my better runs,” she said. “I knew that I could sprint for the last mile because I wasn’t going to have to worry about an extra half mile at the end.”

In meets involving Illinois schools, the girls run a three-mile course, nearly 850 meters longer than Saturday’s route.

And after a sixth-place finish in state in 2007, the win at the Midwest could be an indication of what to expect for the rest of the season from the Neenah boys team.

“We lost a lot of good atheletes last year,” said Neenah coach John Morgan. “So we’ve had a lot of people who needed to step up. It’s great to see them get that reward come back to them.”

Neenah was second in the Midwest in 2007 behind Hartland Arrowhead.

“This is the middle of the season and we’re still experimenting,” Morgan said. “We came down here to run against some good teams and that’s what we got.”

MIDWEST INVITATIONAL

At Blackhawk

BOYS TEAM SCORES

Neenah 84, Madison La Follette 92, Janesville Craig 142, Hartland Arrowhead 162, Lake Park, Ill. 183, La Crosse Logan 213, Waukesha Catholic Memorial 216, Verona 233, Madison Memorial 243, Middleton 257, Witnall 303, Platteville 350, Milton 368, Monroe 371, Fort Atkinson 436, MacArthur, Texas 462, DeForest 534, Dodgeville-Mineral Point 560, Beloit Turner 562, Stoughton 567, Elkhorn 584, Oregon 589, Albany 604, Janesville Parker 658, Lodi 663, Clinton 669, Racine Park 669, McFarland 674, Delavan Darien 733, Whitewater 784, Rockford Guilford 894.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

(5,000 meters)

1. Alex Brill (Madison La Follette), 15:40.60; 2. John Simons (Hartland Arrowhead), 15:49.10; 3. Kaiser Behnke (Neenah), 15:55.56; 4. Spencer Agnew (Fort Atkinson), 16:01.72; 5. Abdou Seye (Madison La Follette), 16:06.84; 6. Ryan Ahrens (Janesville Craig), 16:12.04; 7. John Luterbach (Waukesha Catholic Memorial), 16:17.66; 8. Bobby Glotfelty (La Crosse Logan), 16:17.95; 9. Craig Watson (Lake Park), 16:26.24; 10. Luke Nally (Lake Park), 16:29.08; 11. Tanner Beebe (Platteville), 16:35.97; 12. Kevin Emmerich (Hartland Arrowhead), 16:36.93; 13. Matt Houston (Neenah), 16:40.99; 14. Grant Sieler (Whitnall), 16:42.31; 15. Trevor Scharnke (Madison La Follette), 16:44.12; 16. Steve Krauss (Lake Park), 16:44.80; 17. Jason Ruchti (Janesville Craig), 16:45.48; 18. Jake Lincicum (Albany), 16:45.65; 19. Matt McDonald (Janesville Craig), 16:46.24; 20. Bruce Schmitz (Dodgeville-Mineral Point) 16:46.60; 21. Chris Parker (Neenah), 16:47.15; 22. Tommy Meister (Janesville Craig), 16:47.29; 23. Josh Dedering (Neenah), 16:47.59; 24. Erik Hofferber (Neenah), 16:48.24; 25. Brett Denure (Monroe), 16:48.57.

Other Craig finishers—78. Garrick Jannene 17:43; 84. Matt Bordwell, 17:50; 115. Tim Carlson, 18:24.

Parker finishers—42. Duncan Brose, 17:08; 112. Ryan Riley, 18:20; 143. Jeremy Ploof, 18:47; 163. Cody Speaker, 19:11; 198. Brandon Summerbell, 20:21; 205. Josh Bartz, 22:37.

Milton finishers—62. Jacob Brown, 17:29; 67. Michael Roherty, 17:34; 73. Joe Haske, 17:38; 75. Logan Brown, 17:41; 91. Alex Fernan, 17:58; 127. Stephen Kernien, 18:35; 138. John Ziegler, 18:44.

Other Fort Atkinson finishers—94. Jacob Enslin, 17:59; 108. Marc Erickson, 18:17; 111. Spencer McCombs, 18:20; 119. Sam Fitgerald, 18:28; 180. Josh Lemke, 19:39; 193. Seth Klienschmidt, 20:07.

Whitewater finishers—107. Noah Mielke, 18:16; 155. Derrick Schleis, 18:59; 161. Sean McKenzie, 19:08; 179. Ian Anderson, 19:36; 182. Connor Mulcahy, 19:43.

Other Elkhorn finishers—86. Chad Simmerman, 17:51; 113. Taylor Kielty, 18:22; 173. Bryce Schmieden, 19:28; 184. Nathan Bluhm, 19:52; 187. Trevor Doetsch, 19:56; 201. Zach Miller, 20:38.

Clinton finishers—118. Daniel Banh, 18:28; 125. Sean Lavery, 18:33; 132. Brian Gilbank, 18:39; 144. Craig Smith, 18:49; 150. Brad Hesebeck, 18:53; 167. Michael Uffenbeck, 19:15; 186. Zach Wisowaty, 19:56.

GIRLS TEAM SCORES

Lake Park, Ill. 70; Waukesha Catholic Memorial 112; Janesville Craig 115; Hartland Arrowhead 158; Madison West 202; Verona 207; Dodgeville-Mineral Point 208; Neenah 219; Lodi 285; Whitnall 299; Middleton 301; DeForest 335; Oregon 335; Madison Memorial 340; Madison La Follette 453; Rockford Guilford 479; Monroe 507; Platteville 511; Stoughton 513; Milton 517; Fort Atkinson 542; Whitewater 554; Albany 569; Janesville Parker 600; McFarland 660; Delavan Darien 739; Washington Park 773; Clinton 792;

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

(4,000 meters)

1. Lindsay Flanagan (Lake Park), 13:54.40; 2. Morgan Sickels (Catholic Memorial), 14:23.33; 3. Maggie Bollig (Middleton) 14:25.16; 4. Gabby Levac (Arrowhead) 14:36.69; 5. Nicole Kollman (Verona), 14:48.74; 6. Juliet Vogel (Lake Park), 14:51.36; 7. Cassidi Running (Janesville Craig), 15:05.33; 8. Olivia Pratt (Madison West), 15:09.02; 9. Amanda Bauer (Arrowhead), 15:10.85; 10. Rachel Gilmore (Janesville Craig), 15:11.16; 11. Elizabeth Riggio (Lake Park), 15:15.05; 12. Lydia Fahrenkrug (Neenah), 15:17.39; 13. Mikey Bogdanske (Lodi), 15:26.92; 14. Jessa Hackman (Catholic Memorial), 15:28.16; 15. Tess Seichter (Monroe), 15:31.98; 16. Kellie Tutkowski (Whitnall), 15:32.08; 17. Sarah Baltisberger (Madison La Follette), 15:32.68; 18. Rebecca Angermeier (Catholic Memorial), 15:34.72; 19. Morgan Engelhart (Oregon), 15:35.76; 20. Emma Crawford (Madison Memorial), 15:38.53; 21. Jessica Roh (Dodgeville-Mineral Point), 15:40.74; 22. Ashley Prochazka (Lake Park), 15:41.66; 23. Vienna Behnke (Neenah), 15:44.02; 24. Hannah Williams (Rockford Guilford), 15:44.48; 25. Analiese Cramer (Lodi), 15:47.54.

Other Craig finishers—28. Stephanie Perleberg, 15:51; 29. Regina Griffith, 15:55; 41. Megan Muhs, 16:05; 65. Jessie Finnane, 16:27; 105. Emilie O’Donnell, 17:06.

Parker finishers—83. Nicki Bakke, 16:51; 98. Erica Heitsman, 16:58; 133. Catie O’Leary, 17:47; 140. Danielle Flood, 17:53; 146. Mollie Brady, 18:01; 150. Jackie Benish, 18:08.

Milton finishers—38. Angela Gauger, 16:03; 70. Chelsea Roth, 16:36; 107. Laura Martinelli, 17:08; 142. Kate Fernan, 17:55; 160. Jacquelyn Schuh, 18:32; 165. Sarah Christensen, 19:02; 166. Emily DeRosier, 19:04.

Other Fort Atkinson finishers—37. Courtney Lanza, 16:01; 87. Megan Gang, 16:53; 115. Carley Hayes, 17:22; 145. Erica VanderMause, 18:00; 158. Tess Wilson, 18:24; 169. Dani Meyerhofer, 19:15.

Whitewater finishers—80. Lindsey Schulte, 16:49; 99. Jessica Shelbourn, 16:59; 111. Courtney Trewyn, 17:14; 121. Kelsey Harms, 17:24; 143. Angela McKenzie, 17:55.

Clinton finishers—106. Katelyn Harsevoort, 17:07; 161. Melissa Ligman, 18:37; 173. Laura Popanz, 19:28; 174. Catherine Boudreau, 19:50; 178. Sarah Chermack, 21:08.