Three Lakes-Phelps runner Nolan Waltz sprints through a crowed of runners on his way to another second place finish at the NLC championships last week.
The Three Lakes-Phelps varsity cross country team won multiple medals last week at the 2024 Northern Lakes Conference Championship races and will enter the Division 3 Sectional Championship in full stride against a field of top runners representing 25 high schools this Saturday, October 26.
Only the top two teams and the top five runners in each of the boys and girls races will then advance to the WIAA State Cross Country Championship races scheduled on Saturday, November 2, in Wisconsin Rapids.
Overall, the boys team finished in third place behind Crandon and Laona-Wabeno, while the girls team took the top spot, winning four of the seven available individual medals at the NLC championships.
Laurie Levandoski, the head coach of the Bluejays, said she is happy with the position of the team as they head into sectional competition.
“We have done all of the hard work leading up to this point in the season,” she said. “It has paid off with our kids better learning how to race and reaching for personal best times. Tonight, with the vibrant background of fall colors as a backdrop, our team really performed well and it was very gratifying to see as we head to Colby this Saturday.”
Medal winners from the conference championship event included four members of the girls squad, where Rylee Glembin, Erica Stauffer, Sophie Nafziger and Abby Raddatz finished the race in second, third, fourth and seventh positions with race times of 21:57, 23:13, 23:48 and 24:44. Madelynn Hanneman just missed out on a medal but finished with a 10th-place 26:31 race time.
While the Lady Jays dominated the girls race with five top-10 finishes, the boys also experienced success as Nolan Waltz, Ethan Potrykus and Cohen Welsh all placed in the top 10 in their race, with Waltz leading the team in a 16:49 second-place All-Conference medal finish. He has completed each race this season in one of the top two spots and will head to sectionals as a likely favorite to continue this streak.
Potrykus earned a fourth-place All-Conference medal with a finish time of 18:29, while Welsh just missed out on a medal position by running a 19:14 race which was good for eighth place.
Other varsity results included Melanie Stauffer (27:41), Mikayla Corbett (28:10), Annabella Steinbach (29:09), Raqual Gebele (38:36), and Hailey Koepp (58:56) on the girls squad, while Mason Schoeneck (21:14) and Wyatt Gebele (26:12) rounded out the boys team.
In addition to the All-Conference medal haul by the varsity members of the Bluejays, the middle school competed in its final event of the year with Bekah Koch picking up her third consecutive first-place finish in the two-mile run. Other girls with a top-10 finish included Grace Mandli, Sutton Pitlik and Brooklyn Rowe, while Charlie Welsh had a first-place finish in the boys race, less than a second ahead of his teammate Matthew Potrykus. Logan Welsh and Zach DeHaan also had top-10 finishes, and both middle school squads had first-place team finishes.
“Coach (Nathan) Koch and I are proud of the entire team. I don’t think a lot of people realize the hard work and commitment it takes to be a cross country runner. It is definitely a sport of discipline, and with just a few days until our sectional meet for our varsity runners, our focus now will be to keep everyone healthy and with fresh legs,” Levandoski added.
The varsity sectional race will take place at Colby High School this Saturday, October 26, with race times beginning at 10:30 a.m.
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