MADISON (November 27, 2024) – While competing for Menomonie High School, Bella Jacobsen filled her trophy case with cross country and track and field awards, earning cross country Big Rivers Conference (BRC) and WIAA Sectional championship honors and a fifth-placed finish at the Wisconsin State Cross Country Championship. In track and field, Jacobsen was the BRC champion in the 1600- and 3200-meter runs, finishing second at the state meet in the 3200.

Jacobsen has been able to continue to add to her trophy case as a Wisconsin Badger, playing major roles on both the Badgers’ cross country and track and field teams.

“When I realized I might have the ability to run at UW-Madison, I was eager to explore the opportunity,” Jacobsen is quoted on her Badger bio page. “I knew I wanted to continue to compete and grow as a runner, while also receiving an excellent education.”

Following a red-shirt 2022 cross country season, Jacobsen, a biomedical engineering major, fit right in with the Division I Badgers’ program. During her red-shirt freshman year in 2023, Jacobsen was 24th at the Big Ten Championship and earned All-Region honors with a 23rd place finish in the Great Lakes Regional, going on to place 137th individually at the NCAA Division I Championship.

Jacobsen has continued to score for the 14th-ranked Badgers this season, setting her second personal-best time of the season with a 26th (19-minutes, 58.5-seconds) place finish at the Big Ten Conference championship. A week later, Jacobsen earned her second career all-region honor, placing 17th (19:59.8) to help the Badgers to a second place regional finish and a bid to the national championship, which was hosted by Wisconsin in Madison, Nov. 23.

Jacobsen finished 146th (20:48.0) and the Badgers finished 22nd as a team at the national championship.

• Menomonie’s Brooklyn Hoff completed her freshman year as a member of the UW-Stevens Point women’s cross country team. Hoff, who competed at the Wisconsin high school state cross country meet all four of her years at Menomonie, was the Pointers’ top finisher in three of the six meets she competed, included leading Stevens Point at the WIAC Women’s Cross Country Championship, Nov. 2, and the NCAA Division III Regional meet, Nov. 9. Hoff finished 43rd overall at the WIAC meet where she marked a career-best time of 23:09.2 and 45th overall at the regional meet with her second best time (23:20.5).

• Menomonie’s Madeline Palmer recently competed at the NCAA Division II Women’s Cross Country Chamionship as a member of the Winona State women’s cross country team. Palmer placed 231st at the national meet in Sacramento, Calif., Nov. 23. Palmer clocked a time of 24-minutes, 1.8-seconds in the 6-kilometer run. As a team, Winona State finished 14th. Palmer competed in seven cross country events this fall, tallying a career-best time of 22:30.1 at the NSIC Championship, finishing 37th overall, Oct. 26 where the Warriors were third as a team. Palmer placed 68th at the NCAA Division II Regional meet, Nov. 9, in a time of 22:38.8 as her team placed fourth and earned an at-large bid to the national championship. Palmer, a sophomore at Winona, was a two-time cross country Menomonie High School team captain and was a member of four conference championship teams. Palmer is also a member of the Warriors track and field team.

Layne Pitt is the retired UW-Stout Sports Information director and also worked more than a decade at the Dunn County News.

Menomonie Collegians is a regular feature of Menomonie News Net. The column is not limited to student-athletes, but may be a former Menomonie area student in a play, forensics, music or any type of collegiate competition. If you know of a Menomonie Collegian, please email [email protected].

The column Menomonie Collegians by Layne Pitt is licensed under a CC BY SA 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/