Rutz first, Meyer second, boys and girls teams earn gold at Blooming Prairie

Eighth grader Griffin Rutz (above) won his first varsity 5K last Tuesday at the NRHEG Invite and led the Loyola-Cleveland/Clair Crusader boys team to a decisive gold-medal finish.

The Crusader girls team also took first place. Nursing a sore knee, Charlotte Meyer was second with an 18:13.6 finish.

With flooding in New Richland, the meet moved down the road to the Blooming Prairie Country Club.

“With two meets already in the last seven days and running a new course that none of us had ever seen before, our focus was on mentality, not time or race strategy,” said head coach Casey Olson. “But the course was fast despite being somewhat hilly, and the kids attacked it and earned their spots today.”

Trimming nine seconds off his previous personal best, Rutz, just an eighth grader, bested the second-place runner by a second and a half. There were sixty-six competing.

The Crusader boys totaled 32 points, 39 better than second-place Blooming Prairie. TCU was third with 86 points. Rounding out the field were JWP/WEM (90), USC (135), and Maple River (156).

Rollie Matejcek was third (17:48.7), Reece Nelson was fifth (17:56.0 and an 11-second PR), Breydon Stoffel, a senior in his first race, was 11th (18:43.3), and Cason Fahrforth was 16th (19:10.2). Luke Kortuem finished in the top third with a 19:23.4 for 21st place. Jackson Bilitz was 32nd with a 20:18.2. Running up a level, Anthony McCabe was 58th with a 24:06.3 finish and a PR of a whopping two minutes faster of his previous best. Andrw Bales was 63rd with a 25:58.7.

The Crusader girls totaled 27 points, 24 better than second place Blooming Prairie. Maple River totaled 75 points, JWP/WEM 93 and Randolph 138.

Lila Quast was fifth (19:49.0), Riley Quigley was sixth (20:03.8), Brooks Waagner was eighth (21:09.2) and Kate Anderson was 10th (21:17.4). With a 22:00.7 finish, Maddy Siewert was 13th. Lily Phillips was two spots behind her with a 22:14.7. Reese Nyekker was 29th (24:35.7), Charlotte Kirschner was 35th (24:14.4), Lea Taylor was 40th (25:45.3), Harper Rutz was 47th (30:49.4), Ella Holub was 50th (32:09.1) and Aubryn Siebert was 51st (33:58.4). The winning time among the 52 runners was 18:06.4.

In the boys C squad 1.75 mile, Jase Blaschko’s 11:55.6 finish was good for seventh place The winning time was 10:55.2. Thirty-six runners competed.

Reid Johnson crossed the finish line in 12:10.5 for 11th place. Blaschko’s pace was 40 seconds faster per mile than his PR pace while Johnson’s pace was over a minute faster per mile than his PR pace.

Seventh grader Parker Stoffel, in his first cross country race, finished in 14:40.2 for 28th place.

“He joined midway through the year, and it'1s been a blast to have him and his energy at practice,” Olson said. “He works hard and has fun and just takes everything in stride.”

Just six runners competed in the girls C race. Quinn Vidden was third with a 13:33.0. The winning time was 11:18.3.

Olson said it would have been easy for the Crusaders to have sub-par efforts at Blooping Prairie and then give the excuse they were tired after a busy week and a half of training and racing, but neither happened.

“They pushed themselves and didn't give in, which is something I'm very proud of. We'll finally get a little rest after this one, so we can heal up and get ready for the stretch run into conference and sections.”

The Crusaders return to action tomorrow (Thursday) at the Grizzly Pie run on the Prairie Ridge Golf Course, just south of Janesville.

Crusaders in the top 10 Signaling their place in line are the Crusader varsity top 10, from L-R: Riley Quigley, Brooks Waagner, Kaitlyn Anderson, Charlotte Meyer, Lila Quast, Reece Nelson, Rollie Matejcek and Griffin Rutz. (Photo courtesy of Casey Olson)