Broncos Girls Win Badger Invite, Boys Place Third Behind Newland's Personal Best

The Union Grove girls cross country team captured first place, while the boys finished third at the Badger Invite on Thursday in Lake Geneva. A freshman-led sweep of the top three individual spots powered the girls, and junior Parker Newland set a personal-best time of 17 minutes, 22 seconds to lead the boys.

Aila Johnson won the girls race in 20:47, finishing six seconds ahead of teammate Emma Schafers, who crossed in 20:53. Mila Johnson completed Union Grove's top-three sweep with a time of 21:19. The tight spacing at the front gave the Broncos a strong foundation and demonstrated effective pack running among a young group.

Senior Sam Antonneau added a 22:57 finish, and junior Aubree Krueger followed in 23:06. With only nine seconds separating those two runners, Union Grove maintained another close pairing deeper in the lineup. The five listed girls finishers were separated by 2:19, providing the depth needed to secure the team victory.

Newland's personal record set the pace for the Union Grove boys. Xander Stulo, also a junior, finished in 18:30, and junior Abe Ackley was close behind at 18:39. That nine-second gap helped the Broncos build a compact group behind Newland and contributed to their third-place team finish.

Freshmen Jaxxon Silvasi and Jameson Kaufman rounded out the listed boys finishers in 20:00 and 20:05, respectively. Their five-second separation gave Union Grove another pack-running pair and added two significant underclassman performances to a lineup led by three juniors.

The meet began at 4 P.m. under clear skies with a temperature of 81 degrees and an 8 mph wind. Union Grove responded with a girls individual champion, a first-place girls team finish, a third-place boys result and a personal best, giving the Broncos a strong set of early-season benchmarks.