River Ridge Cross Country teams run at Darlington
Timberwolves junior Luke Patterson pushes himself towards a 19th place finish at the 2023 Darlington Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 2. (Natalie Dillon/The Monroe Times)
By A.J. Gates
DARLINGTON – Competing in their first cross country meet of the season, River Ridge coach Shane Sperle got a ninth-place finish from his boys’ squad and an eighth-place finish from his girls last Saturday at the Darlington Invitational.
Finishing with a score of 245, the River Ridge boys finished ninth of 15 teams, as Fennimore took home the boys’ title with a low score of 45, followed closely by Dodgeville/Mineral Point at 52.
Leading the Timberwolves was junior Luke Patterson, whose time of 19:12.2 was the 21st best time of 111 total runners.
Rounding out the top five finishers for the River Ridge boys were sophomore Mason Pecinovsky with a time of 21:09.3, junior Colton Moris with a time of 21:28.9, junior Wyatt Bausch with a time of 21:39.6, and senior Rylan Linder with a time of 23:24.1.
On the girls’ side, River Ridge finished with a team score of 198, which earned them eighth place of nine competing teams. This is the first time in three seasons that River Ridge has had enough girls to score as a team.
Freshman Leah Patterson led the team with a time of 21:40.8, which was 16th in a field of 84 runners, and was the second-fastest time in school history.
Rounding out the top five finishers for the River Ridge girls were freshman McKenzie Taylor with a time of 28:17.2, junior Lydia Mason with a time of 28:31.6; senior Areli Tepole with a time of 28:32.4, and freshman Chloe West with a time of 28:32.7.
Following this past Tuesday night’s meet at Boscobel, the Timberwolves will next compete at Spring Green this Saturday.
