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Louisburg girls capture Prairie View meet crown

Photo courtesy of Michelle Holtzen
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The Louisburg High School girls cross country team won the Ramsey Invitational on Thursday at Prairie View High School for the second straight season. Members of the team (from left) are Kaitlyn Lewer, Emily Williams, Madelynn Yalowitz, Alex Miller, Isabelle Holtzen, Trinity Moore and Reilly Alexander.


LA CYGNE – Just a year ago, the Louisburg High School girls cross country team made program history when it won its first ever team competition.

History repeated itself Thursday when Louisburg won the Ramsey Invitational for the second consecutive year at Prairie View High School. The Lady Cats scored 16 points and finished 33 points ahead of runner-up Blue Valley.

Louisburg had four runners finish in the top 10, but the entire team stepped up as a freshman ran her first varsity race and another runner moved up from junior varsity due to an injury. Freshman Emily Williams moved up to varsity after running well on the junior varsity level all season, while sophomore Alex Miller also moved up to varsity due to an injury to fellow sophomore Shaylor Whitham.

“It was awesome to finish first as a girls team again,” Louisburg coach John Reece said. “We are definitely going for the three-peat next year.

“The young runners continue to step up when called upon as Emily and Alex did a great job. Emily has found a spot on the varsity squad even with Shaylor returning to the group for next week. It is great to see them working hard and putting the team first.”

Individually, the Louisburg boys and girls teams shined. Freshman Trinity Moore won the girls race as she ran a season-best time of 21 minutes and 51 seconds to win by 46 seconds.

Moore has finished in the top 10 in all four races this season and has made a big impact in her first year as her time on Thursday is the second-fastest time in program history.

She is getting pushed by a pair of upperclassmen as junior Isabelle Holtzen (23:24) and senior Madelynn Yalowitz (23:25) finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Sophomore Kaitlyn Lewer also had a top 10 finish as she took ninth (24:40).

“Trinity is having a great first year so far,” Reece said. “As she continues to gain experience she will only get better with the sport. The varsity girls push each other both in meets and at practice. They are almost always running together and work together on pace days to really push each other.”

Williams ran a time of 26 minutes to take 13th overall and junior Reilly Alexander was 17th in 26:47. Miller rounded out the varsity lineup in 21st in 27:52.

Juniors Wyatt Reece and Tim Smith continue to run well for the Louisburg boys. Reece finished runner-up, just nine seconds behind the leader with a season-best time of 18:24, while Smith came in third in 18:45.

Senior Austin Raetzel finished in 21st with a time of 21:22 to round out the Wildcat varsity runners.

“Wyatt and Tim ran well,” coach Reece said. “Wyatt did most of the work during the race up front. He made a move with about 500 meters left and did what he needed to do to win the race but fell short. Wyatt has been ‘racing’ this year which has been great to see. For this being Tim’s first year, he is doing fantastic as well.”

In the junior varsity girls race, freshman Natalie George took second overall in 26:58, while seniors Mara Justesen and Bryn O’Meara also had top 10 finishes in sixth and eighth, respectively.

Lilly Mick (12th), Kaitlyn Gaza (17th), Elizabeth Kratochvil (19th), Hailey Crowder (22nd), Lily Cook (24th), Haley Earl (28th), Janae Kuhlman (38th) and Mariah Wrigley (39th) also competed for Louisburg.

Gareth Baus led the junior varsity boys in 11th overall, while Bryce Kuhlman came in 17th, Jackson Staab (21st), Evan Murphy (30th), Garrett Rolofson (40th), Parker Parentis (41st) and Garrett Mills (42nd) also competed for Louisburg.

Louisburg returns to action Thursday when it travels to Pittsburg and the runners hope to see their times continue to go down.

“We get to go south this week and run against a few 4A schools that could be in our regional meet,” coach Reece said. “It should be great weather and fast times and there may be some shuffling of Top 7 all-time performances.”