MARSHFIELD – When Tricia Breu won an Individual Class C cross country championship for Auburndale High School in 1986, she just may have set the tone for a level of consistency that continues to this day.
Since then, Auburndale’s cross country teams have advanced to the WIAA State Boys & Girls Cross Country Championships a combined 13 times, and never in the same year.
“The culture that we have I think is very good,” said Head Coach Joren Anderson, when we spoke Sept. 17 about her program. “It’s really a team mentality. We do a lot of team bonding so the team is really tight-knit.”
Auburndale has sent a girls’ team to the state meet nine times – finishing 5th in 1981, 4th in 1985, 13th in 2010 and 2015, 9th in 2016, 4th in 2017, a Div. 3 state runner-up finish in 2018, 3rd in 2019 and 8th in 2020.
The Auburndale boys’ cross country squad has qualified for the state meet four times – 2004 (11th), 2005 (5th), 2011 (14th) and 2021 (16th).
“When I came back in 2013, we ended up having an individual – Abby Bauer – going to state that first year, and then the following year Kali Karl went to state as an individual,” said Anderson, who coached the sport for five years at Neillsville High School, before taking over the Auburndale program 12 years ago.
“The numbers help, and having teams who will run in the summer and put in that time in the offseason really helps,” Anderson added. “We also have to differentiate what’s going to be best for that individual. So, if you are our first runner or our last runner, we still want them to be successful, so I think that’s one of the things I’m happy about. Everybody’s important on our team. It’s not just the top five who score. Everybody matters on this team.”
In a small school like Auburndale, athletes unique to one or two sports can be hard to come by.
“We try to pick up kids who are not involved in things,” Anderson told us. “And we’ve just had that conversation with our athletes, saying it’s not us against them. We’re representing our school and they just chose a different sport.”
Some years are better than others, and Anderson admits 2025 may be a rebuilding year.
“We are definitely underclassmen,” she said. “I would say our juniors have been with us since sixth grade. Katey Brunton is our senior for our girls. She came out this year. She hasn’t run since sixth grade. And even for the boys, it’s the same way. We have two upperclassmen and then they’re all freshmen, the other four boys.”
The girls’ squad features twins Rose and Gracie Hasenohrl, Grace Schulte, Alivia Wolf and foreign exchange student Iris Galetto (all juniors), along with sophomores Marti Anderson and Nora Teska.
The boys’ team includes senior Brody Braunsky, junior Jaxon Grube and freshmen Paydin Parker, Adyn Reno, Treyton Becker and Ben Scharenbroch.
“Brody’s been an experienced runner and he’s very positive,” Anderson said. “He makes it fun and is very encouraging to the younger runners, both in high school and in the middle school.”
Despite having a younger squad, Anderson – who ran cross country in high school and helped out with the Auburndale program while in college – says she is pleased with her team’s numbers, attitude and work ethic.
“I really like our team and everybody seems to get along really well and they’re very inclusive and include each other. It doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman or you’re a senior. Everybody is very supportive of each other, and I think that really helps our success and our efforts to get people out and to retain them.”
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