The 113th running of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Boys Cross Country Championships and the 51st Annual Girls Cross Country Championships will take place Saturday, Nov. 1, at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.
The boys and girls will both run a 5,000-meter course. The following is a listing of the scheduled start times for each race:
Boys
Noon - Division 3
12:35 p.m. - Division 2
1:10 p.m. - Division 1
Girls
1:45 p.m. - Division 3
2:25 p.m. - Division 2
3:05 p.m. - Division 1
There are 20 teams contending for the State championship in Division 1 for boys and girls, and 16 teams competing for the boys and girls Divisions 2 and 3 team titles. Teams competing for the titles qualified last weekend at their respective sectional meets. The top two teams in each of the 10 Division 1 sectionals and the top two teams from each of the eight Divisions 2 and 3 sectionals advanced. In addition to the qualifying teams, the first five individual finishers at their respective sectionals, who are not a member of a qualifying team, also qualified for the State Meet.
This year’s Division 1 field features nine of the top 10 squads that competed last year. Three-time defending champion Stevens Point is back to contend for a fourth-straight championship. The other programs in this year’s meet that finished in the top eight a year ago are Marquette (2nd), Green Bay Preble (3rd), DeForest (4th), Hartford Union High School (5th), and Madison West (6th), Oconomowoc (8th), Hudson (9th) and De Pere (10th). The Panthers return four runners that compiled 77 team points to win the title a year ago. Marquette appears to have the experience to contend for the team title with six returning runners from last season’s team.
The Division 1 individual competition has four runners back in the field that placed in the top eight a year ago. Senior Grady Lenn of De Pere is the top returner, racing to a runner-up finish last season after placing third in 2023 and seventh in 2022. Other contenders for the crown include junior Will Pongonis of Eau Claire Memorial, who placed sixth after finishing 29th in 2023; senior Lucas Tanner of DeForest, who placed seventh after coming in 24th in 2023; and senior Reed Grotenhuis of Slinger, who was eighth after placing 32nd in 2023. Sectional champions that will compete for a position on the awards stand are senior Ben Weston of Arrowhead; junior Noah Gailey of Hartford Union High School; senior JeMekhi Tally of Homestead, who was 16th last year; junior Ryan Keller of Hudson, who placed 11th last season; junior Ethan Mattek of Wauwatosa East, who was 17th in 2024; and seniors Pavel Vorontsov of Oregon and Landon Franke of Racine Horlick.
The top four finishers in last year’s Girls State Meet return in pursuit of the team championship; furthermore, 12 of the 20 qualifying teams participated last year, including the top two teams in Division 2 last year moving up a division. Neenah, the defending team champion in Division 1, returns a squad with plenty of experience returning to contend for a repeat title. The Rockets have five runners back that earned the gold last season. However, Wauwatosa East is also loaded for a run at the title with six returning racers from last season’s runner-up squad. The same can be said of Slinger, which also returns six runners following a third-place finish a year ago after the program won the championship in 2023 and finished runner-up in 2022.
