SPRING GREEN — The Bulldogs had a successful meet at the River Valley Invitational in Spring Green last Saturday. The boys team took second place and the girls fourth, running against Fennimore, Iowa-Grant, Southwestern, Belleville, Necedah, Prairie du Chien, Richland Center, Lancaster, Dodgeville, Brookwood, Cassville, Hillsboro, Viroqua, Middleton, Holmen, St. Ambrose Academy, Prairie du Chien MS, Wisconsin Heights, Albany, and River Valley on the Spring Green Municipal Golf Course.
Dakota Kauffman took first place individually for the boys with a time of 16:26.29. Jordan Molzof took third individually with a time of 17:11.87 and Seth Laxton grabbed sixth place with a time of 17:20.77.
Mackenzie Kauffman came in fourth for the girls with a time of 20:10.91, followed by Rachel Davis at 20th in 21:52.21 and Abby Manning in 23 with 22:00.14.
“It was a really great morning to race,” said coach Skyler Reynolds. “After more than a week of working through the heat, it was nice to race in comfortable conditions.”
The team is focusing on working hard. They are putting in big workouts, and trying to not worry about where their times are right now, according to Reynolds.
“With that said, we saw awesome drops in time from last week to this race. We had most runners drop between 1:00 and 3:00, which is just incredible,” Reynolds said. “Our team as a whole is just getting better each week. The junior varsity runners are making tremendous strides and getting so much better. We were super excited about how they raced.”
The varsity boys placed second behind Darlington, the number one ranked team in the state.
“The varsity girls placed 4th,”Reynolds said. “Our pack raced well together, and dropped some time from last week, but when we finish the last half mile of the race we can be really good. We're close to getting there”
The coach anticipates the teams will perform their best in late October, as practices and competition help improve performance.
“It’s still early in the season,” Reynolds noted.
The team travels next to the Smiley Invitational hosted by Wausau East on Saturday, Sept. 19. Smiley is the oldest cross country meet in northcentral Wisconsin, now in its 59th year.
