VERONA — For the Madison La Follette and Madison West boys cross country teams, Saturday was simply the next chapter in an old rivalry.

Just ask La Follette senior Alex Brill how many times his Lancers and the Regents will toe the starting line this year.

"Eight times," Brill said without blinking, "including the state meet."

Brill won the overall individual title Saturday morning — beating Regents senior Brett Kelly — but it was West which took home the Division 1 team title at the 32nd annual Verona Invitational Saturday morning.

Brill won in 16 minutes, 2.09 seconds, but it was senior Chas Karch's time as the Regents' fifth runner that propelled them past the Lancers 49-54. West senior Josh Williams finished 10th overall.

"We came in (Saturday), we knew we had a chance to try and get (La Follette)," said Kelly, who finished in 16:14.31.

After Brill, Lancer junior Abdou Seye finished third (fifth overall) and senior Trevor Scharnke added a ninth-place finish (16th overall).

Port Washington edged Sauk Prairie 53-64 for the Division 2 team title and Platteville (44) won the Division 3 title over Lakeside Lutheran.

On the girls side, Stoughton senior Kiah Ehrke won the individual title in 14:57.63, beating Middleton senior Maggie Bollig (15:12.86).

After a fast start by Onalaska senior Jami Hill (third overall), Ehrke simply stayed with her game plan — which was to break 15 minutes.

"(Hill) just took off," Ehrke said. "I thought it was a pretty fast pace, faster than I normally go, so I just tried to hold on to the pace I was going and see what happen(ed) from there."

Janesville Craig (79) won the Division 1 title behind the fourth-place finish (fifth overall) of senior Cassidi Running, while Madison West finished third and Middleton fourth.

Onalaska (38) and Lakeside Lutheran (42) repeated as Division 2 and 3 team champions, respectively.

The recent flip-flop is nothing new in the West-La Follette cross country rivalry.

The Lancers are two-time defending WIAA Division 1 state champions, while the Regents were champions in 2004.

While La Follette has dominated the local landscape for the last two years, the Lancers graduated five of their top seven runners and the balance of power may be shifting.

"Those guys beat us the last couple of years and we really wanted this one," Kelly said. "Also, it's (only) the second race of the season. We're not done yet."