Oregon cross country took part in the Albany Baertschi Invitational on Saturday.
Girls CC
In their final tune-up before hosting the Badger South Conference meet on Saturday at Lake Farm Park, the Oregon girls cross country team headed south to Albany on Saturday.
Facing a challenging course and unseasonably warm conditions, the Panthers didn't back down, finishing third overall with 67 points.
"I thought the girls went out and ran smart races and got out of the meet what we needed," head coach Doug Debroux said. "The gap in the pack is closing and the girls are moving up."
Annie Heifner paced the team for the first time this season, finishing ninth overall in 16 minutes, 45 seconds.
Junior Morgan Engelhart, who only trained in the pool last week due to shin problems, wasn't far off the pace, finishing one second and one spot behind.
"I thought Morgan ran a smart race and came out of it healthy," Debroux said. "We are expecting her and the team to all be healthy for Saturday."
Kali Jahn put together another strong run at Albany, placing 11th overall in 16:47, followed by Allie Heifner (17:04) in 16th place.
Freshman Justine Bertler rounded out the five varsity scorers for Oregon in 17:39 - good for 21st place.
"Justine ran a nice race," Debroux said. "She will be a key for us at conference as our No. 5 runner."
Brookfield Central won the Large School portion of the race with 46 points, five ahead of Mount Horeb-Barneveld.
Boys CC
Senior Matt Mixdorf finished sixth overall in 17:57 to pace the Oregon boys.
Luke Belanus added another strong race to place 15th overall in 18:56, while brother Neil Belanus ran a great race to take 27th with a time of 19:45.
Gus Schermetzler (19:48) and Jordan Petrie (20:11) rounded out the top five in 29th and 32nd, respectively.
"We wanted to see the same things from the boys on Saturday as the girls," Debroux said. "We wanted to see them mentally handle one of the more challenging courses we've seen in a while."
For the most part, the Panthers did exactly that, finishing third overall with 109 points, while Platteville took the team title with 42 points - 12 ahead of Southern Badger favorite Monroe.
Oregon was without Matt Bakken because of the flu.
Freshman Joe Gehrmann earned himself a spot on this week's varsity roster after what Debroux called a "phenomenal JV race."
This Saturday's conference race gets underway with the boys varsity at 9:30 a.m.
