Sophomore Thorn, freshman McCabe help Panthers to second-place finish at sectional

By Nate Beier

Special to the Coulee News

The names have changed, but the results have a familiar ring.

Outside of junior Kelsey Novak, the West Salem High School girls cross country team is a team of virtual unknowns.

Anonymity may be a thing of the past for this team, however, following its second place finish at the WIAA Division 2 sectional cross country meet on Saturday in Ettrick. The finish earned the Panthers a spot in the state cross country meet on Saturday in Wisconsin Rapids.

“It’s good,” said Novak about the team’s finish. “We knew it’d be harder this year.”

Novak, who finished 13th overall with a time of 16 minutes, 24 seconds, said the team was trying to add up the scoring points following the race but wasn’t sure if they had scored enough to make a repeat trip to the state meet. When the announcement was made, the team let loose with plenty of emotions.

“What makes us run harder is that people don’t appreciate cross country,” Novak said. “They don’t think it’s hard. Everything we’ve done so far has built up to this point.”

Youth Movement

Even though West Salem’s No. 4 and No. 5 runners, Katie Henriksen and Catey Greenwood, helped shore up the sectional runner-up plaque, perhaps the most notable finish was that of sophomore Kathleen Thorn. Thorn placed eighth in 15:43 and edged Westby’s Alyssa Clemment by a step. That helped the Panthers fend off Ellsworth 103-109 for second place.

“There was talk of me qualifying as an individual, but I wanted to qualify as a team,” Thorn said. “I knew I had to run strong and that I had to watch out for Westby.”

Thorn said that she was surprised to find herself among the race leaders partway through the race but said that the mental imagery technique that coaches Liz Faller and Grant Reynolds utilized the night before helped her deal with the shock.

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to be up here, but I am. I’m glad I was able to give it an extra little kick at the end,” Thorn said.

Freshman Glenn Kelley McCabe also showed much improvement, 12th in 16:17.

“It’s a huge confidence booster,” McCabe said. “I knew that if I ran like I did at conference, I’d help the team to state.”

Koepnick’s late surge continues

Christian Koepnick tried a slightly different strategy at Saturday’s Division 2 boys sectional cross country meet in Ettrick. Instead of waiting to pick off runners during the last leg of the race, the West Salem senior picked a spot early on and maintained it.

“I established my spot and held on,” Koepnick said.

Koepnick finished in sixth place in 17:01 and said that he was surprised to beat Durand’s Jed Dodge (ninth, 17:09).

“I wasn’t concerned with him during the race,” Koepnick said. “I was more concerned with sticking with the group ahead.”

The group ahead of Koepnick included runners from a very strong Nekoosa team. The Papermakers won the sectional after posting a team score of 23. Westby took second place (86), and West Salem (117) came in third.

Koepnick said, “Coming in here and running right — beating Viroqua and hanging with Westby — it’s a big accomplishment.”

Arentz closes in but falls short in state bid

Bangor freshman Molly Arentz finished the WIAA Division III cross country meet with a time of 18:14, enough for 18th place but not enough for a state berth.

For the Bangor boys, Andrew Parr finished 23rd in a time of 19:31.