DARLINGTON – The Darlington cross country teams each kicked off the 2017 season by earning a second-place finish at the Darlington Cross Country Invitational held at the DHS 5,000-meter course on Saturday, Sept. 2.
    Prairie du Chien unseated Dodgeville/Mineral Point as the girls’ meet champion with a 76-point showing at the 25-team event, while the Dodge-Point boys’ team repeated as champions with a 35-point effort.
    The Lady Redbirds placed three runners among the top 15 finishers to finish second in the girls’ meet with 88 points, and the Redbirds placed four runners in the top 15 in the boys’ meet to also finish as runner-ups with 67 points.
    Beaver Dam secured a pair of third-place finishes scoring 96 points on the girls’ side and 131 points on the boys’ side with sophomore Jada Donaldson winning the girls’ varsity race in a time of 20:23.3 and junior Cade Ferron running away with the boys’ individual title in 17:04 for the Beavers.
    Lancaster junior Lydia Murphy (20:32), PdC junior Amber Huser (20:41), Darlington senior Reghan Komprood (20:41), and North Crawford freshman Helen Carstens (20:46) rounded out the top five finishers in the girls’ race.
    D/MP sophomore Henry Keith (17:09) and senior Juan Navarro (17:26) placed second and third, individually, while Darlington junior Payton Heinberg (17:32) and Fennimore sophomore Ian Barry (17:34) completed the top five in the boys’ race.
    Junior Ilse Mendez placed 13th for Darlington in 21:45, followed by seniors Emma Crist in 15th in 21:59 and Erin Wolf in 21st in 22:13. Sophomore Gracie Douglas completed the Redbirds’ team scoring by placing 35th in 23:14.3.
    “Our experienced girls up front ran solid races, but now we have to start working on closing the gaps we have between our runners. We have ladies there that can get that done, it just is going to take a little time. This was a good race to begin building on,” said Darlington head coach Arnie Miehe.
    Senior Tanner Evenstad and junior Tucker Lange placed eighth and ninth, respectively, in 17:49 and 17:52 for the ‘Birds. Senior Paul King was 14th in 18:18 and junior Trae Schilling was 32nd in 19:13 to round out the team scoring for Darlington.
    “We had a couple of guys run solid, if not impressive races; but overall as a team we lacked the sense of purpose and toughness that we will need to get the job done,” explained Miehe.
    Shullsburg’s first-ever girls’ cross country team opened its season by placing 14th in the varsity race with 392 points. Freshman Hildie Sigwarth established the school record for the Lady Miners by finishing 56th in 24:17.
    Junior Kaylee Turpin was 78th (26:15), followed by senior Michelle Greenfield in 82nd (26:35), junior Maria Alanzo in 84th (27:02) and senior Nicole Teutschmann in 92nd (29:24).
    Junior Nolan Strang– the lone runner for the Shullsburg boys’ team– finished 103rd overall in 22:53 for the Miners.
    Darlington will compete at the annual River Valley Invitational in Spring Green on Saturday, Sept. 9, starting at 8:30 a.m.; and the Redbirds will also run at the Marshall Dana Waddell Invitational on Tuesday, Sept. 12, beginning at 4:30 p.m.
    Shullsburg will be in action at the North Crawford Invitational in Soldiers Grove on Tuesday. Sept. 12, at 5 p.m.
 
2017 DARLINGTON INVITATIONAL
Varsity Girls Team Scores: Prairie du Chien 76, Darlington 88, Beaver Dam 96, Wisconsin Heights/Barneveld 104, Lancaster 108, Dodgeville/Mineral Point 115, Albany 154, Cashton 193, Mt. Horeb 213, Fennimore 269, Richland Center/Ithaca 339, River Valley 343,  Belleville 386, Shullsburg 392, Saint Ambrose Academy 396, North Crawford, Holy Family, Stockton/Warren, River Ridge, Pecatonica/Argyle, Riverdale, Iowa-Grant/Highland inc.
 
JV Girls Team Scores: Dodgeville-Mineral Point 31, Beaver Dam 52, Darlington 68, Mt. Horeb 103, Tri-State Homeschool 130, Lancaster 134, Southwestern/Cuba City/Benton 200.
 
Junior High Girls Team Scores: Prairie du Chien 68, Albany 72, Beaver Dam 106, Richland Center/Ithaca 109, Lancaster 138, Darlington 163, Fennimore 175, Cashton 214, Southwestern/Cuba City/Benton 251, Tri-State Homeschool 263, Holy Family 282, North Crawford 303, Belleville 305.
 
Other Results: Vars– 36- Layla McDermott, 23:15; 49- Maddie Crist, 23:49; 64- Brooke Douglas, 24:39. JV– 2- Bethany McDonald, 23:49; 14- Aliyah Gould, 24:31; 16- Meghan Douglas, 24:57; 27- Morgan Black, 26:18; 28- Valeria Trozzo, 26:24; 43- Kelly Wick, 27:20; 52- Regan Crist, 28:11; 56- Lauren Jones, 28:34; 57- Natty Soper, 28:56; 64- Gracey McDermott, 31:06; 76- Lauren Weber, 38:08.
 
Varsity Boys Team Scores: Dodgeville/Mineral Point 35, Darlington 67, Beaver Dam 131, Mt. Horeb 144, Wisconsin Heights/Barneveld 151, River Valley 183, Southwestern/Cuba City/Benton 187, Fennimore 231, Lancaster 269, Albany 288, Belleville 293, Pecatonica/Argyle 301, Cashton 313, Holy Family 320, North Crawford 397, Riverdale 434, Iowa-Grant/Highland, Tri-State Homeschool, River Ridge, Stockton/Warren, Prairie du Chien, Richland Center/Ithaca, Shullsburg inc.

JV Boys Team Scores: Dodgeville/Mineral Point 27, Darlington 45, Mt. Horeb 70, Beaver Dam 121, Tri-State Homeschool 155, Southwestern/Cuba City/Benton 163, River Valley 164, River Ridge 202.
 
Junior High Boys Team Scores: Dodgeville 74, Darlington 86, Cashton 100, Fennimore 115, Prairie du Chien 116, Richland Center/Ithaca 139, Albany 187, Belleville 195, Tri-State Homeschool 216, Holy Family 217, Saint Ambrose Academy 287.
 
Other Results: Vars– 34- Bailey Schwartz, 19:14; 39- Miles Carper, 19:26. JV– 2- Willie Riechers, 19:06; 7- Curtis Blosch, 19:48; 8- Michael Thompson, 19:50; 13- Andrew Merriam, 20:53; 15- Cristian Guiterrez, 20:54; 18- Preston Banfield, 21:12; 35- Daniel Maurer, 22:32; 41- Michael Garcia, 22:33; 56- Alexis Cruz, 23:32; 58- Riley Jones, 23:39; 69- Seth Johnson, 24:40; 71- Brandon Hardt, 24:45.