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Local cross country teams head to state

Janesville Craig’s boys cross country program has been a fixture at the WIAA State Tournament.

The Cougars will make their eighth straight trip to state after finishing second at Saturday’s Division 1 Verona Sectional.

Janesville Parker’s girls program had never made a state appearance. That changed Saturday.

The Vikings, behind sisters Miranda and Mandy Slaback, finished second to Oregon and earned the school’s first state berth.

Oregon won the team title with 83, with Parker right behind with 85. Miranda Slaback finished third in the 4,000-meter race, and younger sister, Mandy, was fifth. Rounding out the Vikings’ top five were sophomore Victoria Cook in 21st; freshman Bree Porter in 27th and junior Paiton Foster in 29th.

“We knew coming into the sectional meet that we had an outside chance to make it to state,” first-year coach Mike Bieber said. “But obviously, meets aren’t decided on paper. You have to go out and earn it, and that’s what our girls did.

“The last thing we talked about right before the race was fighting for every place you could get because you never know how things could end up. Everybody in the lineup stepped up today.”

The Cougar boys, thanks to a third-place finish from Spencer Hrycay and a fourth-place finish from Evan Lalor, had no trouble making it eight straight. Craig finished with 50 points, just two behind Madison La Follette. Verona was a distant third with 97.

“It never gets old, that’s for sure,” Craig co-head coach Brian Lawton said of qualifying for state.

“We didn’t perform very well at the (Big Eight) conference meet, so the boys felt like they had something to prove today. They had a different mentality all week during practice and it carried over to today.”

Hunter Salmon finished eighth, Alec McCann 17th and Christian Gilmore 18th to round out Craig’s top five.

Tomas Pecha of Lake Geneva Badger, Eric Bender of Fort Atkinson and Janesville Parker’s Dane Tyler also earned state berths as individual qualifiers on non-qualifying teams.

Badger’s Elle Adams qualified for the girls state meet.

Division 1

Verona Sectional

BOYS TEAM SCORES

Madison La Follette 48, Janesville Craig 50, Verona 97, Lake Geneva Badger 103, Fort Atkinson 134, Janesville Parker 152, Stoughton 204, Oregon 213, Monona Grove 274, Milton 297, Beloit Memorial 311, Elkhorn 317,

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

(5,000 meters)

1. Chandler Diffee (La Follette), 15:52.14; 2. Ryan Nemeth (Verona), 15:56.12; 3. Spencer Hrycay (Craig), 16:04.03; 4. Evan Lalor (Craig), 16:32.44; 5. Tomas Pecha (Badger), 16:40.04; 6. Terry McMillan (Monona Grove), 16:40.39; 7. Eric Bender (Fort Atkinson), 16:45.58; 8. Hunter Salmon (Craig), 16:53.18; 9. Alex Wehrli (La Follette), 16:53.88; 10. Dane Tyler (Parker), 16:57.77.

Other Craig finishers: 17. Alec McCann, 17:38.35; 18. Christian Gilmore, 17:39.13.

Other top Parker finishers: 24. David Green, 17:51.9; 25. Keegan McCluskey, 17:51.93.

Top Milton finisher: 42. Chris Wecker, 18:30.65.

Top Elkhorn finisher: 37. Austin Reese, 18:17,65.

n La Follette, Craig, Verona’s Ryan Nemeth, Badger’s Tomas Pecha, Monona Grove’s Terry McMillan, Fort Atkinson’s Eric Bender and Parker’s Dane Tyler advance to next Saturday’s state meet in Wisconsin Rapids.

GIRLS TEAM SCORES

Oregon 83, Janesville Parker 85, Verona 89, Stoughton 89, Lake Geneva Badger 90, Fort Atkinson 147, Monona Grove 173, Janesville Craig 203, Milton 219, Elkhorn 224, Madison La Follette 269, Beloit Memorial 346.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

(4,000 meters)

1. Nikki Staffen (Stoughton), 16:20.46; 2. Danielle Harris (Monona Grove), 16:24.37; 3. Miranda Slaback (Parker), 16:26.41; 4. Jenni La Croix (Verona), 16:31.73; 5. Mandy Slaback (Parker), 16:37.78; 6. Elle Adams (Badger), 16:40.28; 7. Erica Higgins (Verona), 16:40.39; 8. Hanna Reed (Fort Atkinson), 16:40.83; 9. Jen Brien (Oregon), 16:45.81; 10. Tristan Sproul (Badger), 16:47.97.

Other Parker finishers: 21. Victoria Cook, 17:11.42; 27. Bree Porter, 17:19.23; 29. Paiton Foster, 17:19.91.

Craig top finishers: 15. Brittney Fry, 17:00.55; 20. Elizabeth Maginot, 17:11.12.

Milton top finisher: 36. Michelle Kraus, 17:24.64.

Elkhorn top finisher: 17. Stephanie Schmidt, 17:04.85.

n Oregon, Parker, Stoughton’s Nikki Staffen, Monona Grove’s Danielle Harris, Verona’s Jenni La Croix, Badger’s Elle Adams and Verona’s Erica Higgins advance to next Saturday’s state meet in Wisconsin Rapids.

Kaster, Harms win D2 sectional titles

Julia Kaster and Brett Harms have had productive cross country seasons.

The trend continued at the Division 2 Whitewater Sectional on Friday.

Kaster, a Clinton High sophomore, won the girls 4,000-meter race with a time of 15:51.6 to advance to the WIAA State Meet next Saturday in Wisconsin Rapids.

Pewaukee and Lakeside Lutheran finished one-two in the girls team race to automatically qualify. Jefferson’s Mallory Aiello, East Troy’s Jessica Drout and Walworth Big Foot’s Kathryn Colby joined Kaster as individual qualifiers for state.

Harms took advantage of a little home cooking to easily win the boys 5,000-meter race. The Whitewater junior finished in 16:43.6, nearly 30 seconds ahead of runner-up Swing Scott of Beloit Turner (17:12.2.).

Jefferson won the boys teams title with 66, while Turner was second with 71.

Big Foot’s Fletcher Strahan and East Troy’s Brody Kazik join Harms as individual qualifiers.

Division 2

Whitewater Sectional

BOYS TEAM SCORES

Jefferson 66, Beloit Turner 71, Marshall 133, Waukesha Catholic Memorial 141, Pewaukee 141, Whitewater 187, Lakeside Lutheran 201, Walworth Big Foot 232, Deerfield 235, East Troy 245, Luther Prep 248, Delavan-Darien 313, Lake Mills 318, Edgerton 319, St. John’s Military Academy 357, Clinton 365.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

(5,000 meters)

1. Brett Harms (Whitewater), 16:43.6; 2. Swing Scott (Turner), 17:12.2; 3. Clayton Morrison (Jefferson), 17:22.9; 4. Fletcher Strahan (Big Foot), 17:27.9; 5. Brendon Paucek (Jefferson), 17:49.6; 6. Seth Schumacher (Lakeside), 17:59.1; 7. Brody Kazik (East Troy), 18:00.3; 8. Robert Wagner (Pewaukee), 18:04.09; 9. Brennan Linse (Jefferson), 18:06.2; 10. Devin Weber (Marshall), 18:07.9.

Other Jefferson finishers: 21. Zach Linse, 18:28.6; 28. Jesse Paucek, 18:33.8.

Other Turner finishers: 13. Ryan Petitt, 18:18.0; 14. Forrest Lloyd, 18:20.1; 15. Jeff Pickett, 18:20.6; 27. Tyler Bosetti, 18:33.6.

Top Delavan-Darien finisher: 11. Sam Logterman, 18:11.7.

Edgerton top finisher: 20. James Fox, 18:28.2.

Clinton top finisher: 31. Cole Peterson, 18:38.1.

n Jefferson, Turner, Whitewater’s Brett Harms, Big Foot’s Fletcher Strahan, Lakeside’s Seth Schumacher, East Troy’s Brody Kazik and Pewaukee’s Robert Wagner advance to next Saturday’s state meet in Wisconsin Rapids.

GIRLS TEAM SCORES

Pewaukee 50, Lakeside Lutheran 123, Luther Prep 141, Whitewater 147, Walworth Big Foot 155, Jefferson 164, Lake Mills 174, East Troy 177, Deerfield 185, Clinton 272, Beloit Turner 289, Edgerton 302, Waukesha Catholic Memorial 315, Marshall 317.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

(4,000 meters)

1. Julia Kaster (Clinton), 15:51.6; 2. Ali Bacon (Pewaukee), 16:00.9; 3. Amy Hensel (Deerfield), 16:03.8; 4. Mallory Aiello (Jefferson), 16:04.5; 5. Jessica Drout (East Troy), 16:04.6; 6. Kathryn Colby (Big Foot), 16:05.9; 7. Morgan Patterson (Pewaukee), 16:07.5; 8. Sarah Ziolkowski (Whitewater), 16:09.5; 9. Libby Brooks (Big Foot), 16:12.7; 10. Katie Daul (Pewaukee), 16:16.3.

Other top Whitewater finisher: 13. Liz Mielke, 16:19.7.

Other top Big Foot finisher: 17. Kayla Wruk, 16:30.7.