As the WIAA post-season nears the DeForest High School girls' and boys' cross country teams have picked up the pace.
Both Norski squads looked sharp in Invitationals at Tomah and Wisconsin Lutheran. They placed in the Top 10 at both events.
The Norskies will now set their sights on the Northern Badger Conference Meet on Saturday. Sauk Prairie will host the meet at Devil's Head Resort at 9:30 a.m.
TOMAH INVITE
The Lady Norskies put together a tremendous effort in Tomah, and they claimed the title with an impressive team score of 27.
"We love the course. It rained but we had a good day in terms of our goals which were to win the meet while running as a pack and rehearsing our hill running technique," said DHS coach Chris Smith. "Compared to the high power competition of most of our meets it was nice to get a win and use it as a workout at the same time."
DeForest had all five scoring runners finish in the Top 10.
Chippewa Falls was second with 39 points.
On the boys' side, DHS finished second with 51 points, while La Crosse Logan garnered the title with 23 team points.
"We did a nice job racing individual race plans. It was our last tune-up with hills to find a managable rhythm to maximize our performance. We took second to a very good Logan team," said DeForest boys coach Joe Parker.
Taylor Legried led the way for the Lady Norskies after coming in second place with her time of 16 minutes, 17 seconds.
Anna Howery (16:30) was the second DHS runner to cross the finish-line, and she earned fourth place overall.
DeForest closed out its scoring when Rachel Campbell (16:58), Katie Williams (16:59) and Larissa Schlitz (17:04) finished back-to-back-to-back in sixth, seventh and eighth place, respectively.
Josh Knuteson used a late kick to lead the DeForest boys team with a fifth place finish. He recorded a time of 17:32.
Kyle Eisler (17:34) was not far behind Knuteson in seventh place.
Adam Woods also placed in the Top 10 for the Norskies as his time of 18:19 left him in 10th place.
Closing out the scoring for DHS was Tyler Grinstead (13th, 18:19) and Matt Engelhardt (16th, 19:10).
WISCONSIN LUTHERAN INVITE
The talent level was very high at the Wisconsin Lutheran Invite on Friday, but neither Norskie squad backed down.
The DeForest boys team ran to an eighth-place finish, while the Lady Norskies captured 10th place.
"It was a big performances on a big stage. We replicated times on a fast course that we had set at Portage without having the luxury of running from the front," said Parker.
The Norskies earned the eighth-place finish after recording 275 team points.
Neenah claimed the boys title with 51 points, while rounding out the Top 5 was Marquette (57), Brookfield Central (107), Wisconsin Lutheran (132) and Waukesha Catholic Memorial (133).
Meanwhile, the Lady Norskies registered 233 points to finish in 10th place.
"There were seven ranked teams and couple more honorable mention in the 16 complete teams that ran. We figured we should beat a couple of teams for sure then it was up for grabs as to where we would finish. Earning 10th place was very respectable for us against this competition," said Smith.
Brookfield East ran away with the girls' title after turning in a total tally of 76, while closing out the Top 5 was Wisconsin Lutheran (92), Oconomowoc (109), Divine Savior (143) and Baraboo (174).
On the boys' side, the first DHS runner to cross the finish-line was Kyle Eisler. He finished the course in 16 minutes, 56 seconds to take 18th place overall.
Josh Knuteson was not far behind Eisler in 25th place with his time of 17:15.
The Norskies' Adam Woods came in 60th place after clocking in at 17:59, and then teammate Tyler Grinstead came across at 18:30 to take 81st place.
Matt Engelhardt (18:38) closed out the scoring for DeForest after taking 91st place.
Justin Hageman (104th, 19:09) and Casey Paplow (109th, 19:15) also competed for the Norskies but they did not factor into the team score.
The Lady Norskies were paced by Anna Howery, who came in 31st after finishing the course in 16:11.
With her time of 16:14 the Norskies' Taylor Legried finished in 33rd place, while teammate Sarah Hoekstra (16:35) was 49th.
Lissa Schlitz (16:44) and Lizzy Owen (16:50) finished in 58th and 62nd place, respectively, to close out the Norskies' scoring.
Katie Williams (70th, 16:55) and Rachel Campbell (76th, 17:03) also represented the Lady Norskies at the Invite but they did not count toward the final team score.
