E-S's Christ one of the top runners in region

Freshman cross country runner Elsie Christ has finished in the top 10 of each meet she's competed in this season for Eleva-Strum High School.

This past Saturday, Oct. 10, Christ took fifth in the Holte Invitational at Schultz Farm in Arcadia. She crossed the finish line in 20:54 on the 5000-meter course. Teammate and senior Avery Glenz finished 18th in 24:42, seniors Grace Hulett and Lili Ross finished 53rd and 54th respectively with times of 37:33 and 39:29.

The pattern's been the same for the Lady Cardinals in the meets they've run in the past three weeks.

Eleva-Strum hosted their own meet during Homecoming Week at Central. Christ won the girls’ race, stopping the clock at 20:56 to break the 21-minute mark for the first time. Glenz came in seventh place with a time of 23:45—a 20-second personal-best. Hulett and Ross also had personal-bests as Hulett beat her best time by three minutes with a time of 32:37, good for 26th place and Ross beat her best time by a similar margin with a time of 32:34, for 24th place.

At the Wendell Williams Invite in Melrose on Tuesday, Sept. 29, Christ led the Cardinals with a second place finish, running a time of 21:11. Glenz finished ninth overall with a time of 23:46 while Hulett finished 20th with a time of 34:01. Then E-S competed in the Lincoln Invite at Levis/Trow Mounds Park near Neillsville in a rare Friday meet on Oct. 2. Christ placed second in 20:20. Glenz nabbed fifth place with a time of 23:36, Ross came in 21st with a time of 35:42 followed closely by Hulett in 22nd with the time of 35:47.

Christ didn't run in the Blair-Taylor Invitational at the Taylor Rod & Gun Club on Tuesday, Sept. 22 due to illness. Glenz led the team in the girls race with a time of 25:12, earning her fifth place overall and a medal. Fellow senior Grace Hulett crossed the finish line in 34:25.

If Christ keeps this up there's a good chance she could sneak her way into the Top 5 as a member of non-qualifying team runner in the WIAA Division 3 Sectional meet being hosted by Unity High School in Balsam Lake on Saturday, Oct. 24. There's a good chance to she'll make the all-conference team at this Thursday's Dairyland Conference meet at Cochrane-Fountain City as well beginning at 4 p.m. Glenz too.

The E-S boys have enough runners at times to compete as a team and had their best showing this season at Mel-Min finishing second. At their own meet the Cards took fifth as a team out of seven teams competing. Kempf was 13th in 19:38.61, McConnell 17th in:20:26.74; Lahn 21st in 20:47.61; Nelson 31st in 22:26.88; Gehrke 33rd in 23:14.30 and Jack Acevedo 37th in 28:41.50.

The Cardinal boys had five runners finishing in the top 20 led by sophomore John Kempf fourth individually with a time of 19:49. He was followed by sophomore Nolan McConnell seventh in a time 20:23. Sophomore Michael Lahn finished 13th in 21:32, junior Samuel Gehrke placed 18th in 22:24. and sophomore Brayden Nelson finished 20th in 23:21. E-S placed fifth at Blair-Taylor but Kempf won the race in won the race in a time of 19:22 across the finish line. Fellow sophomores McConnell and Lahn were close behind with times of 20:14 and 20:39, finishing third and eighth, respectively and Nelson finished with a personal best time of 22:51, nabbing him 14th place.

Had they had a full team E-S could have easily won the Blair-Taylor Invite as Kempf won the race with a time of 19:22. Fellow sophomores McConnell and Lahn were close behind with times of 20:14 and 20:39, finishing third and eighth respectively and Nelson finished with a personal best time of 22:51, nabbing him 14th place.

E-S was short-handed again recently in the Lincoln and Holte meets. At Lincoln, Kempf had his best time of the season finishing fourth in 18:31 on the 5000-meter course. Lahn was 15th in 20:38; McConell 17th in 20:48 and Gehrke 24th in 21:43. In the Holter Invite, Kempf took eighth on the challenging Schultz Farm course in 19:50 followed by McConell, 17th in 20:52; Lahn 29th in 21:55; Gehrke 40th in 22:52. The potential; is there for E-S for a good conference finish in the boys' team standings if they're healthy this Thursday, Oct. 15 at C-FC.

Eleva-Strum student media contributed to this story