Complete 2025 Big Rivers Cross Country Championships results

RICE LAKE – Lauren McCalla and the Menomonie girls repeated as Big Rivers Conference champion as the Mustangs dominated at the BRC Cross Country Championships at UW-Barron County Saturday.

And the Menomonie boys made it a clean sweep as the Mustangs captured their first conference title since 2020.

McCalla, coming off a state-best time in her previous outing, was overpowering in the 5000-meter run, finishing in a time of 17-minutes, 8.4-seconds, breaking the conference record of 17:17 set in 2015 set by Aubrey Roberts of Eau Claire Memorial. Second-place finisher Kendra Christiansen of New Richmond clocked a time of 18:45.9. McCalla posted a 1-minute, 37-second advantage over the 57-runner field.

Her Mustang teammates were equally as dominant as a team. Menomonie’s top five finishers placed in the top 10 and all seven runners placed in the top 25.

Bennett Schmitt finished fourth (18:59.8), Bree Barfknecht fifth (19:13.1), Bella Drake seventh (19:22.0), Addison Schuler 10th (19:44.7), Kyah Barnhart 23rd (20:43.2) and Sara Palmer 25th (20:54.7).

Menomonie girls coach Craig Olson was impressed with the effort given by his squad towards the end of the race.

“Everyone had a battle, except Lauren, and she had the lead vehicle to chase,” said Olson.  “All I wanted, other than a BRC title, was to see a huge effort from the girls, pressing over the last 2.5K with opponents and (running) partners.”

The Mustangs tallied 27 points to second-place Eau Claire Memorial’s 78 points. Hudson finished third (85 pts), New Richmond fourth (96), River Falls fifth (121), Chippewa Falls sixth (160), host school Rice Lake seventh (160) and Eau Claire North eighth (234).

The Menomonie boys placed four runners in the top 10 and four among the top 17 on their way to the title. Luke Ray paced the Mustangs by finishing fifth (16:15.9) in the 5000-meter run. Noah Winder was sixth (16:18.7), Owen Pelzel seventh (16:20.), Logan Topper 10th (16:33.2), Evan Olson 17th (16;54.5), Ben Seguin 37th (18:06.5), Oliver Kerze 43rd (18:34.4) and Chase Pember 52nd (19:07.1).

Menomonie totaled 45 points to Hudson’s second-place total of 58. The Raiders, who had won the last two titles, claimed the individual title (Ryan Keller, 15:14.8) and had a fourth place finisher. Eau Claire Memorial was third (84), River Falls fourth (126), Chippewa Falls fifth (134), Rice Lake sixth (142), New Richmond seventh (143) and Eau Claire North (150).

The Mustang’s last title came in 2020 and that championship wears an asterik, falling during the COVID-19 season when not all conference teams competed. Menomonie’s previous title to 2020 was 2004.

“Winning a BRC title is a rare thing,” said boys coach Adam Topper. “I’ve been coaching a long time and this is just the second official BRC title our boys have claimed. It’s a tough field with some great teams, and you have to run extremely well to win this conference. We haven’t really had a day like that yet this season, so hopefully our time will come at State. But for now, we should definitely enjoy the BRC title, because it’s a great accomplishment.” 

The Menomonie girls program has been on a tear in the conference tournament since the 2014 season, taking either first or second place. The Mustang girls have now brought home six BRC championship trophies since 2014 and were runner-up six times. Menomonie won individual titles in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025.

In the junior varsity races, Menomonie finished third for the boys and fourth for the girls. Cole Christianson led the Menomonie boys with a sixth place finish and Rylee King was sixth for the girls.

Menomonie is scheduled to host a WIAA Division 1 Boys and Girls Cross Country Sectional, Saturday, Oct. 25. The WIAA State Meet is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 1 in Wisconsin Rapids.

Congratulations go out to Isabel Swanson, who advanced to the WIAA Girls State Tennis Tournament last week in Madison. Swanson lost her opening match, 6-1, 6-1, to Anna Miller of Notre Dame.

Kudos to the Boyceville girls cross country team for scoring a perfect score as they won the Dunn-St.Croix title Saturday by scoring a perfect 15 points capturing the first five places. Top seven finishers for the Bulldogs, in order of finish, were: 1. Jaycie Oberle, 2. Katie Maska, 3. Ashlyn Maska, 4. Blake Jeske, 5. Brooklyn Talmage, 7. Ellie Engeman and 13. Halle Tonn.

Layne Pitt retired as the longest serving sports information director at UW-Stout and also worked more than a decade at the Dunn County News.

Menomonie, McCalla Repeat as BRC Cross Country Champions by Layne Pitt is licensed under a CC BY SA 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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