DEFOREST 鈥 The Milton boys and girls cross country teams took their talents to DeForest, Wisconsin, on Wednesday to take part in the 40th annual Norski Invitational hosted by DeForest High School at the Linde Fields Soccer Complex.
The Red Hawks had a number of top performers on the day, including a trio of boys runners that captured top 10 finishes. Ultimately, the Milton boys team finished with a third-place score of 74 points behind first-place Baraboo and second-place DeForest, while the Milton girls team ended up finishing seventh with 170 points.
In the boys 5000 meter race, a trio of Milton runners all finished within five seconds of one another to grab seventh, eighth and ninth place finishes for the Red Hawks.
Junior Matthew Noble led the pack for Milton, logging a time of 18:21.00 to finish in seventh. Right behind him was fellow junior Conner Adams, who grabbed eighth after running an 18:25.20. Sophomore Joshua Grossen rounded out the trio鈥檚 times with an 18:26.60, just over a second behind Adams, to finish in ninth place.
Other Milton runners included Conner Adcock, whose time of 19:18.30 was good enough to finish in 19th, Caleb Baker, who ran a 20:46.50 to end up in 38th and Owen Keiser, who earned a 40th-place finish with his time of 20:51.50.
Elliott Hahn (47th), Devin Garrity (48th), Eli Bilhorn (56th), Nolan Adams (63rd), Matthew Grossen (68th), Dayne Van Horn (69th) and Jackson Whitehead (74th) were also top 75 finishers for the Red Hawks. Only Hahn鈥檚 finish ended up counting towards Milton鈥檚 overall team score.
For the Milton girls team, the junior-freshman tandem of Claudia Astin and Elle Suehring paced the team with Astin earning 27th and Suehring earning 28th in the girls 5000 meter race. Astin ended up running a 24:20.70 while Suehring finished just three second behind her with a time of 24:23.10.
Further down the field, senior Jennifer Jacobs ran a 27:28.80 to finish in 45th for the Red Hawks while Allison Case鈥檚 time of 28:24.90 was good enough for 49th. A couple ticks behind Case was Elsa Lien, whose time of 28:56.00 earned her 52nd overall.
Selina Zhang and Caroline Watson rounded out Milton鈥檚 counting scores by running times of 31:44.60 and 33:11.90, respectively. Zhang鈥檚 time saw her finish in 64th with Watson following closely behind in 67th.
Brooklyn Fernette (69th), Evelynn Kreuger (70th) and Teagan Osbourne (73rd), all underclassmen, were also top 75 finishers for the Milton girls squad.
The Red Hawks will now look ahead to Saturday, September 5, with both teams traveling to take part in the Lodi Invitational hosted at Lodi Middle School.