Ozaukee girls chase Oostburg in Big East

Oostburg has proven to be a formidable obstacle for the Ozaukee High School girls’ cross country team this season.
The Lady Dutch on Sept. 15 won the nine-team Crusader Challenge at Sheboygan Lutheran with 38 points. The Warriors took second with 54, well ahead of third-place Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah’s 92.
“Oostburg is a very tough team and they are well coached. However, we continue to look forward to the challenge of chasing them down throughout the season,” coach Andrew Pfeuffer said.
Grace Tinder led a bunch of Ozaukee runners hanging around the top 10 by taking ninth place of 69 competitors, finishing the 5,000-meter course in 22 minutes, 21 seconds.
Clara McKee was 11th in 22:27. Becky Hoffmann was 12th in 22:34. Meredith Clark was 13th in 22:35 and Sophie Uhlenberg was 19th in 22:46.
Each Ozaukee runner scored two points fewer since runners’ places from teams with less than five competitors don’t count in the team scores.
All of the Warriors’ top-seven runners placed in the top 24.
Oostburg’s top-five runners took third, fifth, sixth, 15th and 16th.
“Our girls are looking forward to a solid week of practice and to continue to improve throughout the season,” Pfeuffer said.
McKee continues to lead Warrior boys
Sheboygan Area Lutheran’s boys dominated at home in the 12-team meet, scoring 34 points. Kohler was second with 69, followed by Manitowoc Lutheran’s 115 and Ozaukee’s 120.
Calvin McKee led the Warriors by taking fourth of 81 runners in 17:41.72, a personal record by 18 seconds.
“Calvin is having a good start to his season. He is really starting to take a leadership role and is understanding racing on a deeper level this year as last season was his first high school cross country season,” Pfeuffer said.
Aaron Nehls was 22nd in 19:17. Tyler Mueller was 24th in 19:22. Matt Baldwin was 28th in 19:38. Riley Borchardt was 45th in a personal-record 21:06.
“The boys’ team only had 5 boys race so every one of them counted towards the team score. Overall, I thought they raced fairly well and ran strong against tough competition,” Pfeuffer said.
The Warriors run at Mishicot on Thursday.