Citizen Staff/James Wold
A.J. Kitchen of the Golden Beavers turned on the jets to claim Saturday's home invitational.
A.J. Kitchen wasn’t feeling his best when he ran at the Kettle Moraine Invite last weekend.
But the Beaver Dam sophomore was in much better spirits after crossing the finish line in first place at Saturday’s home cross country invitational.
“Last week, I felt as bad as I felt all year (with a small cold),” said Kitchen after he finished with a time of 16 minutes, 59 seconds. “I worked on getting healthy this week.”
Unlike the Kettle Moraine race where he ran out ahead of the pack, Kitchen trailed a group of 10 runners for the first mile to try and match a pace of 5:24.
At the mile mark, he realized he wasn’t that far behind and began to surge closer to the lead, which he claimed by the second mile.
“Once I got to the mile, I decided I could pick them off,” Kitchen said. “They were fairly close. It was a pretty slow pace.”
Wet conditions helped make the course run slower than normal but for BD coach Hans Gochenaur, everything went according to play for Kitchen.
“He ran a lot smarter today,” Gochenaur said. “Last race, he was out too fast. This time, he came out slower for the first mile and it worked for him.”
Gochenaur likes the future of his young, but promising runner.
“He has a quiet confidence about him but an extremely humble approach,” Gochenaur said of Kitchen. “Put those things together and it’s a great combination.”
With Kitchen out front, BD’s boys team finished fourth with 84 points. Sophomore Tim Drays ran his best time to take 12th (18:05). Kurt Ulrikson was 15th (18:14) with Chris Martin (25th, 18:28) and Jacob Powell (32nd, 19:22) rounding out the scoring.
“Our sophomores came up big today,” Gochenaur said. “All of our guys ran smart.”
Amanda Henningfield paced the BD girls with a 10th-place finish (16:43). Alison Bonis took 15th (16:58) followed by Haley Mayer (18th, 17:11), Alyssa Krug (19th, 17:13) and Kate Uhrich (22nd, 19:27).
As a team, BD place fourth with 84 points.
“(The girls) ran the race I asked them to do the first mile,” Gochenaur said. “Between now and conference, it will come down to desire to see what they’re capable of.”
Wayland’s top boys runner was Edgar Garcia in 49th (20:51) followed by Ryan Rabata (54th, 21:57), Enrique Galvan (56th, 23:19), Alex Bruderer (58th, 24:58) and Cole Ware (59th, 25:11).
Lieve Snellen paced the Big Red girls in 44th (21:36). Ashley Nevel was 45th (22:24) followed by Mallory Simmons (47th, 24:20), Rebecca Downey (48th, 25:19) and Lauren Meyer (49th, 25:19).
BD heads to the Wisconsin Dells Invite next Saturday. Wayland travels to Catholic Central on Tuesday.
Boys scores: Sun Prairie 43, Wauwatosa East 53, Notre Dame Academy 66, Beaver Dam 84, Hartford 114, St. Lawrence 164, Reedsburg 191, Wayland Academy 238.
Girls scores: Notre Dame Academy 47, Wauwatosa East 50, Sun Prairie 66, Beaver Dam 84, Reedsburg 123, Hartford 141, Wayland Academy 200.