Sports

Lady Hawks finish in fifth place at BNC meet in Kingston

BY BRIAN WEIDMAN bweidman@saukvalley.com

Between chasing Indians and dodging deer, it was an interesting, but productive day for the Dixon and Rock Falls girls cross country teams at the Big Northern Conference championship held Oct. 17 at Walcamp Outdoor Ministries in Kingston.

The Duchesses had five of the top 12 finishers to amass 44 points and take second place, while the Rockets were next with 103 points. They were all looking up at Winnebago, the defending Class 1A state champs who had seven of the first nine runners, including the first four, on its way to a mere 17 points.

The event was split into three races, due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Taylor Hills finished 15th for Dixon with a time of 19:23.34, and had a close encounter with nature just before the homestretch. A deer missed her by about a foot.

“I saw two deer out of the woods to my right, and I thought they were done because they passed me,” Hills said. “Right as I was starting to speed up for my finish, there was another one that came out of nowhere. I had to stop in my tracks for a second because I didn’t know if it was coming in front of me or behind me. It was a little scary.”

Rock Falls’ Bryahna Ganther was another runner who had an unexpected obstacle in her way. She was 16th in 19:53.98.

“There was a deer that ran out in front of me that scared the crap out of me,” Ganther said. “I feel like that helped me a little bit because it got my mind off of everything. At the beginning, I was back a little bit, but I knew that in the middle, I was going to kick again, like I usually do.”

Oregon was fifth among nine teams with 146 points. Leading the way for the Hawks was Leah Watters, 21st in 20:23.52.

The other counting scores for the Hawks came from Faith Marquardt (23rd, 20:25.24), Katlyn Ramirez (27th, 20:44.75), Jennica Ciesiel (37th, 22:19.43) and Ellen Hodson (38th, 22:20.37).

Rounding out the Oregon lineup were Ava Wight (42nd, 22:44.93) and Katelyn Bowers (49th, 23:13.65).

Alex T. Paschal/Shaw Media

A deer leaps on the course behind Dixon’s Paige Stees and other runners during the girl’s Big Northern Cross Country Meet in Kingston.