Verona cross country traveled to Janesville's Blackhawk Golf Course Saturday for the Midwest Invitational.
Boys CC
Being the Wildcats third meet in eight days, Verona boys head coach Randy Marks admittedly was worried his team would be tired following a hard race at home on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
The guys responded very well, however, led by sophomores Trent Bartholf and Rob Warren, each cracking 17 minutes at Saturday's Midwest Invitational.
Paced by Bartholf's 16:54, which earned him 30th place, Verona finished eight overall with 233 points - 10 ahead of Big 8 rival Madison Memorial and 24 ahead of Middleton.
Warren was a mere five seconds off his teammate's pace in the varsity race, finishing 36th overall in 16:59.
Dan LaCroix and Dan Thoresen followed close behind to give the Wildcats a solid pace, placing 43rd and 47th in 17:09 and 17:10, respectively.
"Our top four are very solid," Marks said. "The next three are still open to competition and hopefully someone will step in to fill the 4-5 gap."
Dan Schuchardt rounded out the scores, placing 77th in 17:42.
Led by the second- and third-place finishes of Eric Biggers (17:46) and Kyle Bennwitz (17:56), each PRs, Verona's JV team finished runner-up to Neenah with 93 points.
Nick Runde, Bryan Kloosterboer and Tyler Phelps finished out the top five.
Holding three races for both the boys and girls, the Wildcats placed 13th in the fresh/soph race, led by Eric Pynnonen and Tim Kise's 38th- and 39th-place finishes in 18:45 and 18:46, respectively.
Corky Carpenter, Kevin Johnson and Brandon Falk capped the scoring.
Girls CC
In case anyone forgot, as she took off last week's Verona quartet meet, sophomore Nicole Kollman is still pretty darn good.
Kollman's return to Saturday's 4k Midwest Invitational in Janesville was an impressive one, finishing fifth overall in 14 minutes, 49 seconds, while helping lead the Wildcats to a sixth-place finish out of 28 teams. A finish which made her the third girl (joining Asia Myrland and Emma Spoon) in Verona cross country history to break 15 minutes since the state moved to the 4K distance 15 years ago.
As a whole, head coach Dave Nelson said, "The girls definitely benefitted from a flatter course as many girls ran lifetime PRs.
"This year, more than in years past, we have the willingness to be aggressive early on in the race."
More importantly Verona put together a solid pack behind Kollman, as No. 2 through 5 runners Janna Wise, Kelsey Sweeney, Becky Burton and Kayla Anderson all finished within 18 seconds of one another.
Wise was the best of the group, finishing 39th overall in 16:02, while Sweeney (16:17), Burton (16:18) and Anderson (16:20) battled all the way to the finish line, placing 52nd, 54th and 57th, respectively.
Jackie Saley paced Verona in the JV race, finishing 15th overall in 17:27, helping the Wildcats finish third overall out of 20 teams with 126 points.
Teammate Brooke Weigel followed three seconds off the pace in 17:30, earning 17th place.
Brittany Weist also slipped into the top 20, taking 19th in 17:35.
Dana Janssen and Meghan Phillips rounded out the top five in 17:52 and 18:00, respectively.
With the team's top runner, Kollman, leading the varsity, Verona still managed to finish in the front half of the pack, taking 12th in the Fresh/Soph race.
A newcomer to the team, Sarah Millholland ran nearly 50 seconds faster on the Janesville course than she did 10 days ago, turning in a 19th-place finish in 17:07 as the Wildcats placed 12th overall with 240 points.
Rebecca DuCharme, Lindsey Pielage, Courtney Mobley and Veronique Yeo rounded out the top five.
"The key over the coming weeks will be for the kids to either get or remain healthy and bring a lot of confidence into their races," Nelson said.
