It was a bittersweet end to the Arrowhead cross country seasons.

The girls placed 6th and the boys took 3rd among the 16 competing teams at the state competition at The Ridges Golf Course on November 1st.

Girls’ coach Lisa Shaich commented that “the girls did a nice job overall, but the course was tough.” Stevens Point earned the championship with 84 points. Watertown finished 2nd with 121 points, and Eau Claire Memorial finished 3rd with 143. Green Bay Southwest took 4th with 153. Pulaski finished 5th with 165, just barely ahead of Arrowhead with 169.

Abbey O’Connell ran a great race to place 3rd, just half a second behind second place. She crossed the finish line at 14:28.0. Freshman Alex Haroldson finished 32nd at 15:20.6. Kristin Verre ran the 4000m in 15:31.1 to place 49th. Kelly Muenzenberger placed 94th with 15:55.7. Naomi Bong rounded out the counting scores at 100th with 16:01.1. Other competitors were Megan Fulton and Monica Sprung. Shaich was very proud of her girls’ races at State but said that Sectionals was their “ultimate meet” and that it was a good season.

“The boys had an awesome season,” commented Coach Mike Mulrooney. The boys placed third with 124 points, beaten only by Stevens Point with 98 and Madison West with 105. The boys’ varsity cross country team won every meet except State. Mulrooney said that they hadn’t run against these top two teams before, and that Stevens Point had lost only one meet to Madison West, whose team was undefeated all season.

Nick Fulton and Peter Emmerich finished in 7th and 8th place, respectively, crossing the line just a second apart at 16:07 and 16:08, both earning First Team All-State honors. Mike McFarland finished in 30th place, completing the course in 16:28, winning Honorable Mention. Other competitors were AJ Joda in 86th (17:08), John Verre in 91st (17:10), and Ian Brunner in 102nd (17:16). One unfortunate event possibly contributing to a less successful meet was the injury of Arrowhead’s fourth-ranked runner David Hogan, who pulled a leg muscle near the two-mile mark. Mulrooney said, “Things went well, but they could have gone better for us.”