Tiger girls look for fourth straight MBC title

• Bria Norton

Bria Norton is one of the girls who gives depth to the Tiger girls program. She was third in the JV race at Amery.

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The New Richmond girls cross country team is hoping to add to its string of Middle Border Conference cross country championships at this Thursday’s MBC meet in Amery.

Amery’s boys will be looking to repeat as conference champions in their half of the meet. The meet schedule begins with the boys race at 4:15 p.m. The girls race will start at 5 p.m.

New Richmond’s girls will be seeking their fourth straight conference title.

The Tigers have been topping every MBC girls team this season, but the margin of victory has not been large. At last Tuesday’s Amery Invitational, the Tigers held only a five-point margin over Osceola. Somerset was also lurking in the weeds, 10 points behind Osceola.

Tiger coach Beth Kelly said she expects Osceola to give everything it has in an attempt to end the Tigers’ reign as conference champions.

“We just hope everybody has their best race,” Kelly said.

There has been never-ending competition amongst the Tigers for the seven varsity positions. The varsity lineup has changed for nearly every meet and it will again for the MBC meet. Emily Bischof ran her best race of the season at the Amery Invite, finishing among the top seven times on the team, which earned her a spot in the varsity lineup for Thursday.

Coach Kelly said the conference race could be close enough that the final outcome hinges on the sixth and seventh runners.

The Tigers have continued to improve through the season. In recent meets Bischof, freshman Maddie Kelly and sophomore Anne Frank have stepped up their performances to strengthen the team.

In the boys race, New Richmond isn’t expected to be among the favorites. The Tigers could be viewed as the mystery team of the boys meet. Many of the Tigers have shown signs of big things, but have struggled with consistency from meet to meet.

“It would be nice if they could all put a good race together,” Coach Kelly said of the boys team. “They do have the ability, if they run the right race on the right day.”

The Tigers should be strengthened with the return of sophomore Alex “Chaz” Charbonneau. He’s been out most of the season with an injury, but returned to run in the JV meet at Amery. He’ll be in the varsity lineup for the conference meet.

The runner who stepped up the most for the Tigers last Tuesday was sophomore Casey Schuh, who finished 18th overall as the top Tiger in the race.

Tags: cross country, sports, tigers, prep