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Bulldog runners dominate Smiley Invite
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Everybody was seeing red as Boscobel runners dominated the Division 3 portion of Saturday's Smiley Invitational cross-country meet in Wausau.

   Both the girls and boys squads took first place in the 18-team Division 3 team standings at the meet. They fought hard to do well.

   "A week ago, a big goal for the team was to start moving the pack forward, and I believe we have started to do that (for both boys and girls)," said Bull-dogs coach Skyler Rey-nolds. "As we start to get closer to October we need to continue to improve on that. Our kids are so com-petitive and don't want to lose. That helps us improve times and places."

   The Smiley Invitational is a big meet, and the level of talent is through the roof. Reynolds feels it was good for the Bulldogs to get a taste of elite competition, and he couldn't have asked for better weather.

   "The conditions were great," said Reynolds. "It was a very nice crisp morning. The entire trip was a great experience for the runners, and it gives us a chance to compete against some very good competition that we don't normally see."

   Leading the way for the boys was Ryan Mindham, who placed third in the boys' race, running a time of 17:19. Adhering to that "moving the pack forward" gospel that Reynolds has been preaching, Logan Wacker, Eric Mindham and Nate Boughton finished 10th, 11th and 13th.

   Wacker finished in a time of 18:03, followed by Eric Mindham (18:10) and Boughton (18:16). Jon Frazier wasn't far off his teammates, as he placed 18th in 18:25.

   Standings were also kept for Division 2 and 3 com-bined, and Boscobel kept up with the stiffer competition. The Bulldog boys finished third overall in the 35-team Division 2/3 standings, with 147 points. Only first-place Nekoosa/Port Edwards (46) and Little Chute (95) bested Boscobel.

   In addition, in the junior varsity race, Boscobel's Seth Malloy, a freshman, finished fifth in an impres-sive time, according to Reynolds.

   In the Division 3 race, Boscobel almost placed all five of its runners in the Top 20.

   Keely Foley continued her impressive 2011 freshman campaign by finishing second in 15:39. Samantha Wilcox was eighth, running a 16:22, while Shelby Davis placed 10th in 16:43. Rounding out the scoring runners for Boscobel were Brady Borowski, who was 16h (17:22), and Autumn Moret, who placed 22nd (17:51).

   As for Boscobel's junior varsity girls, they placed second.

   Overall, Reynolds was pleased with how his runners performed and the strong competition gave Reynolds a good indication of how good his teams are.

   "It tells us that we have been working hard and gives us a gauge of where we are now, but we need to continue to get better," said Reynolds.

   On Saturday, the Bulldogs take part in the Fennimore Relays. Junior varsity girls begin at 8:30 a.m. "The relays offer a great chance for each individual to run their own race and compete to win," said Rey-nolds.