Waltz pulls away to claim Three Lakes Invite title

Nolan Waltz had home-field advantage last week at the Three Lakes cross-country invite, as he took home first place overall in the varsity boys’ division. He battled with Lakeland’s Charlie Ernst for much of the race before pulling away down the stretch. The boys’ race featured nine other teams from around the area and 79 total runners.

The Bluejays girls’ team had a strong showing overall, finishing third behind the large schools of Lakeland Union and Tomahawk.

After the middle school races ended, 79 runners toed the line for the boys’ varsity race, and all shot off the start line. As the field made its way around Big Stone Golf Course within the first mile, Waltz had a slim stride or two advantage on Ernst. Waltz also had to battle two other Lakeland runners, who in total finished in second through fourth. It wasn’t until between the second and third mile that Waltz put distance between himself and Ernst and crossed the finish line in a time of 16.20.2.

“Nolan ran his best race of the season to date, going head to head with Charlie,” stated Head Coach Laurie Levandoski. “These two senior runners have faced off several times this season. Nolan ran well, and his focus is where it needs to be with the state meet being just a little over a month away.”

With three racers, Three Lakes-Phelps did not post a team score in this event. Freshman Jaymz Comella and senior Wyatt Gebele joined Waltz in crossing the finish line at 23:05.8 and 27:36.5, respectively.

The girls’ team had stiff competition at Big Stone but still had four of the six runners finish in the top 20 despite fighting illness and injury throughout the season. Junior Erica Stauffer and sophomore Bekah Koch were nearly side-by-side heading down the chute towards the finish line and took 13th and 14th overall, respectively. Stauffer finished in a time of 22:19.7, and Koch had a time of 22:22.3. Glembin and Mandli were the next two Bluejays to cross the line in 17th and 18th overall. Glembin ran through cheers from the hometown crowd and finished at 23:16.4, while Mandli crossed the line at 23:33.7. Senior Mikayla Corbett battled for a top-25 spot with Tomahawk’s Lucy Nelson, as the two finished a second apart from each other. Corbett took home 26th, with a time of 25:35.2.

Junior Autumn Hein rounded out the group of Jays at 28:51.7. Coach Levandoski said the team will continue to work during practice to work towards some of the goals made before the season.

“Our top five are all veteran runners who know what it’s going to take in the second half,” Levandoski mentioned. “We’ll continue to put workouts together that help achieve some of the goals we set back in August.”

Three Lakes-Phelps will have had about a week’s worth of rest from competition before heading to the Rosholt Invite this Thursday, Oct. 1, starting at 4 p.m. This will be a preview run for the Bluejays, as their D3 sectional near the end of October is hosted by Rosholt.