Harriers end season at sectionals

Brady Ambrose/Times Press

Katelynn Diske placed 18th at the WIAA cross country sectional at DeForest Saturday, with a time of 16:38.75, while Gabe Gavin led the Beaver boys with a 19:42.37 as the RAHS season comes to a close.

The Reedsburg girls placed 10th as a team at DeForest with Diske leading the way, while Sophie Roznos placed 41st (17:35.07), Rebecca Lavely was 47th (17:41.44), Becky Ratajctyk was 65th and Katie Ratajctyk was 73rd with Amanda Kinsman placing 79th to round out the Reedsburg field.

Sun Prairie's Liz Berkholtz grabbed the individual title and led her team to a state berth with a second-place finish behind Madison West on Saturday.

The Regents locked up their second straight state berth with top-five finishes from Olivia Pratt (second) and Marika Rosenblum (fourth). Their three other scoring runners all placed in the top 20 as West won with 43 points.

Baraboo junior Denise Leaver secured her third trip to the WIAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Saturday.

Gavin paced the Reedsburg boys again while Jared Wertz was 70th (19:49.26), Ben Turner placed 71st (19:59.51), Taylor Roessler was 77th (20:20.38) and Will Harrison was 79th (20:31.51).

Coach Casey Whitehurst named Wertz the "Man of the Meet" for the third time this season, saying "Jared earned his third 'Man of the Meet' this past Saturday at the DeForest Sectional because of his great individual effort to end the season on a high note. Jared's goal was to get into the nineteen minute range at DeForest. Not only was Jared able to do this, but he was also able to cut almost a complete minute off his time from earlier in the year on the same course. His determination and work ethic are top notch and I look forward to working with him for another season. Congratulations, Jared!"

 The last time Madison Memorial qualified a boys team for the state cross country meet, none of the runners on the 2009 team were even in kindergarten.

Benji Hansen (sixth), Jordan Carlson (eighth) and Aaron Heiliger (ninth) paced the Spartans, who placed their five scoring runners in the top 20 and won with 59 points. They were state runners-up the last time they sent a team to the state meet, in 1994.

Middleton (81) edged Madison West (82) for the second berth in the state meet. The Cardinals, who finished 21 points behind West at last week's Big Eight Conference meet, erased the gap Saturday and earned its first state berth since 2002 when No. 5 runner Greg Plumb finished a split-second ahead of the Regents' No. 6 runner Charlie Thompson, who didn't figure into West's score but would have forced — and won — a sixth-runner tie-breaker had he displaced Plumb.

Pete Watson of the Baraboo News Republic

 contributed to this story

Boys results

Madison Memorial 56, Middleton 77, Madison West 78, Sun Prairie 136, Sauk Prairie 165, Watertown 166, Madison East 181, DeForest 190, Baraboo 207, Waunakee 215, Beaver Dam 224, Reedsburg 354.

1. Gabe Heck (Madison East), 16:29. 2. Sam Hacker (Madison West), 16:33.27; 3. Garrett Kerska (Sauk Prairie), 16:40.25; 4. Jacob Butts (Watertown), 16:47.22; 5. A.J. Kitchen (Beaver Dam), 17:01.88.

Girls results

 Madison West 43, Sun Prairie 90, Waunakee 123, Middleton 136, DeForest 146, Baraboo 152, Madison Memorial 166, Watertown 168, Madison East 232, Reedsburg 244, Beaver Dam 247, Sauk Prairie 255.

1. Liz Berkholtz (Sun Prairie), 15:26.64, 2. Olivia Pratt (Madison West) 15:28.86 3. Denise Leaver (Baraboo), 15:33.59; 4. Marika Rosenblum (Madison West) 15:48.89; 5. Sara Heinemann (Waunakee), 15:50.18; 6. Katryna Williams (Watertown), 15:52.71; 7. Emma Crawford (Madison Memorial), 15:53.53; 8. Claire Brickson (Madison East), 15:54.88.