Lady Chiefs dominate
By Jim den Hollander
Before they started the season, Wisconsin Dells High School varsity cross country runners Taylor Hickey and Stacey Swatek projected lofty team and individual goals for their team. At this point in the season, only the loftiest appears to remain a question mark. Running at a Quadrangular meet at the Mauston course, where Sectionals will be held exactly two weeks from today, the Lady Chiefs gave a preview of what was to come at Conference. With all but Westfield and Wautoma teams on hand, the Lady Chiefs dominated their event, placing five team members in the top six positions, six of seven in the top 20 and all seven of its varsity runners in the top half of the field. The boys team showed it too will be a force to be reckoned with at the conference meet, Max Mattei claiming his second race win of the season and leading the team to a second place showing, 20 points behind defending champion and state ranked Nekoosa. Both Mattei and Hickey, a senior who won her sixth race in seven entered this season, established new course records on the mostly flat layout near the Mauston Hospital. Hickey crossed the line in 16:02 and fans got plenty used to the Columbia Blue over the next two minutes. Swatek was next, 18 seconds later and third place went to sophomore Teresa Madland in 17:42. A Nekoosa runner finished fourth with junior Kiersten Norgard crossing the line fifth in 18:01 and senior Jessica Sweet one second later. That rounded out a near perfect 17 point score for the Chiefs who served notice Mauston’s days as perennial conference champs will soon be at an end. The other three teams stated an exciting battle for the runner up spot that could carry over into the conference meet, Nekoosa and Mauston ending this day even in second, four points up on Adams-Friendship. Junior Tesa Barney turned into another solid effort, well under the 20-minute plateau this time at 19:13 while freshman Abby Vandenlangenberg rounded out the varsity finishers 20 seconds later. Freshman Hallie Hackl Frank making just her second junior varsity start carved some three minutes off of her earlier time and is within sight of the 20-minute marker herself at 20:30. Mattei runs away After winning his event at Lodi earlier this season, Mattei said he was happy to finish in front of all of the Nekoosa runners, a team he couldn’t touch just a year ago. This time Mattei left no doubt, his course record time of 17:57 putting him to the tape a dozen seconds in front of runner up David Linsmeyer from Mauston and nearly a minute in front of the Nekoosa contingent that grabbed third, fourth, sixth and seventh spots. Seniors Dakota Grimsled and Jared Funmaker appear to both be on all-Conference pace, finishing ninth and 10th respectively in 19:13 and 19:20. Freshman Jacob Synott was 14th in 19:44 leading a Dells pack including Billy Leonard (17th –20:12), David Biffert (18th –20:15), Jake Johnson (19th - 20:16) and Max Hocker (21st - 20:22). Dakota Hammerly finished in 21:38, Grant Lee in 21:53, Joe Trojan crossed the line in 22:23 and Nick Vodiden rounded out the team effort in 22:54. The Chiefs are off to Nekoosa today, then play host to its final pre-Conference tune-up, the Dells Invitational next Saturday.