All four won for Ozaukee boys:

The Ozaukee High School boys have done it again, this time by the slimmest of margins.

The Warriors won their fourth straight cross country meet to start the season, scoring 78 points at the 17-team Crusader Challenge at Sheboygan Lutheran on Sept. 15.

That edged Washington County Homeschoolers by one point, Manitowoc Lutheran by six, Campbellsport by eight  and the hosts by 11.

“It was a hard fought battle between the top five teams at the meet,” Ozaukee coach Andrew Pfeuffer said.

State qualifier Nicholas Schubert again led the way, finishing fifth of 143 runners on the 5,000-meter course in 17 minutes, 34.7 seconds. Fellow state-qualifier Wyatt Borchardt was eighth in 17:46.8. Both were season-best times.

Sterling Schanen was 14th in 18:24.4, the third Warrior to earn a medal.

Fritz Hoffmann was 26th in 18:56.1 and Hugh Steffen was 30th in 19:04.2. Carson Isselman was 49th in 20:07.5.

“This invite was a good test run of our sectional meet. Our sectional meet will be at Sheboygan Lutheran on Oct. 24 and we will have to face many of these teams again, including Manitowoc and Sheboygan Lutheran,” Pfuffer said. “As much as it was a good thing to come away with a strong performance at this meet, we also know that it’s critical to keep moving up and not settle because it’s going to be a very tough sectional come October.”

Warrior girls take third

The Warrior girls weren’t far from equaling the boys’ run of four wins in a row.

Ozaukee scored 122 points and finished third in the 16-team meet. Oostburg won with 102, followed by Winnebago Lutheran Academy’s 110.

Madison Glaeser was 15th of 123 runners in a season-best 22:00.7, and Brooklynn Lauters was 19th in a personal-record 22:16.2. Jillian Knehens was 27th in 22:40.7. Ashlyn Schubert was 33rd in 23:13, and Quinn Zimdars was 44th in 23:43.4.

“Our girls did a great job using their packs to move up during the race and they are starting to push out of their comfort zones while competing. They are continuing to make improvements and also gel as a team,” Pfeuffer said. “We know if we want to be a competitor at the end of the season it’s going to take all our girls running together as one and I think they are learning that a little bit more each race.”

Ozaukee was to run in the Winneconne Invite on Tuesday, Sept. 22, and at Manitowoc Lincoln on Saturday, Sept. 26.

Schuster can move two ways for Port

Beckett Shuster has proven to be fast on two wheels and two feet.

The Port Washington sophomore who leads the mountain biking team also paced the cross country squad last Friday in the Angel Invitational at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

Shuster finished the 5,000-meter race in a personal-best 17:26.3, good for 12th place of 359 runners.

“Beckett Shuster ran an outstanding race,” coach Mark Pasten said.

Freshman Andrew Karrels wasn’t far behind, taking 16th in 17:30.

“Andrew Karrels continued his great season,” Pasten said. “Beckett and Andrew did a nice job of working together throughout the race.”

That helped Port to 213 points and seventh place of 28 teams.

Wisconsin Lutheran won with 102, followed by Oak Creek’s 143.

Port’s Connor Zinuticz was 38th in 18:05.1. Keagan Normile was 74th in 18:58.4.

“Keagan was out of school the previous two days with a bad cold, so that was a great effort on his part,” Pasten said.

Dylan Helmeid was 81st in 19:03.7. Mario Delgado Barroso was 113th in 19:37.5, and Will Dahmen was 142nd in 20:02.9.

The meet was moved up a day due to forecasted rains, and not all teams had all their runners available.

“It turned out to be a pretty good evening to race. The rain held off and we had overcast skies, with temps in the high 60s,” Pasten said.

“They have a few iterations of 5k courses on their grounds. We raced on the Greiten Course, which utilized about half of the course that we normally race on. The course was a little soft from rain earlier in the week, but it was in pretty good shape.”

Port girls post season-bests

The girl Pirates were missing their top runner, Ellie Knepfel, to an ankle injury after stepping on an apple while running, but all five Pirates that coach Joe Adamak brought ran season-best times. Ashley Mundt was 67th of 250 runners in 22:18.3. Charlotte O’Brien was 68th in 23:18.6. Kendall Harmelink was 95th in 24:24.5. Sela Meeks was 119th in 24:56 and Garrison Robinson-Seidl was 197th in 29:15.4.

Port scored 409 points and finished 17th of 20 teams. Port’s Glacier Trails Conference foe Kettle Moraine Lutheran won with 92 points. Lakeside Lutheran had 109.

Port runs Friday, Sept. 25, in the Nightfall Classic in Marshfield.