Stoughton cross country battled heat, hills and a talented field at Saturday's Middleton Invitational.
Boys CC
Led by Jake Tonstad's eighth-place finish in 18 minutes, 32 seconds, the seniors were the strength of the team at Saturday's Middleton Invitational at Pleasant View Golf Course, due to trail construction near their high school on the usual course.
Nick Larson (19:32), Dan Schiferl (19:45), Andy Hentrich (19:56) and Tanner Klitzke (20:16) rounded out the Vikings scorers.
"Dan definitely had the most impressive race of the day and earned a varsity spot for the conference meet," head coach Jason Enke said. "He has been coming on strong and I look forward to a couple more big races from him."
Riley Olson finished fifth overall with a time of 18:34 in the sophomore race.
Stoughton finished second to last in the eight-team field with 102 points, while the host Cardinals (23) edged Sun Prairie (24) by a point.
The Vikings travel to Oregon's Lake Farm Park on Saturday for the Badger South Conference meet.
"As a group, we are fairly healthy and continue to maintain a nice pack in our races," Enke said. "We still need to peak well at the end here and move up our pack against other teams. If we can put it all together on Saturday we can challenge for a top-three spot as a team."
It should be a battle between Fort Atkinson, Oregon and the Vikings for the 3-4-5 spots.
Girls CC
Taylor McMillan led the Vikings pack in Kiah Ehrke's absence, placing fifth in the senior race, while helping Stoughton to a fifth-place finish out of eight teams Saturday in Middleton with 71 points.
"Taylor looked solid," head coach Patrick Schneider said. "She ran the race very relaxed and treated it somewhat as a workout. She placed several spots better than last year."
Breanna Robinson added a ninth-place finish in the frosh race with a time of 18:31, while Melissa Sasse was Stoughton's top finisher in the sophomore race, taking 16th in 18:04.
Jenny Brandt (10th in the junior race) and Kirsten Sletten (eighth in the freshman race) were very close to their personal bests and both made the varsity squad for this week's conference meet with their performances.
Stoughton travels to Oregon's Lake Farm Park on Saturday for the Badger South Conference meet. The boys varsity race goes first at 9:30 a.m. followed by the girls race at 10:10. JV races, led by the boys, begin at 10:50 with the girls concluding the morning at 11:30.
While a series of colds hit the team the past few weeks, it looks like the majority of the squad should be healthy for conference.
The three-time defending conference champions, Stoughton could fall a number of places come Saturday.
"It will take an extraordinary day to place in the top two," Schneider said. "It's certainly possible, but a lot of good things have to happen."
