Port boys run slow course fast

Three Port Washington High School runners had season-best times and three more were within three seconds of theirs despite running on a slow course at the Manitowoc Invitational last Saturday.

The Pirates scored 184 points, good for fifth place of 20 teams. Port was ahead of three North Shore Conference foes — West Bend East, eighth, 242 points; Cedarburg, 11th, 304; and Grafton, 15th, 399.

They also beat Valders, which had 187 points and came in seventh. The Vikings are ranked No. 1 in Division 3 in the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association poll.

Port coach Mark Pasten said the second mile of the 5,000-meter course at Meadow Links Golf Course tends to slow the field down with five sharp turns, but he was impressed with how his team handled it.

Port senior Mason Raasch ran a season-best 17 minutes, 4.8 seconds, which was 15th of 148 runners.

“Mason had a very good race. He did a great job of showing patience over the first mile and moved up through the field on the second and third miles,” Pasten said.

Senior Nate Meeks was 21st in 17:19.6.

“Nate did a commendable job of competing despite not having his ‘A’ game. He was feeling fatigued from the week’s hard workouts, but he fought through that to have his second-best time ever,” Pasten said.

Senior Gabe Pasten was 32nd in a personal-best 17:41.1, and senior Austin Rinke had a season-best 17:48.9, good for 41st place.

“Austin did a great job of staying focused and pushing himself for the entire race,” coach Pasten said.

Junior Gino Feciskonin was 79th in 18:52.4, one second off his season best.

For Grafton, senior Lance Greicar was 55th in 18:22.2. Junior Gabe Mietowski was 65th in 18:34.9. Sophomore Keegan Vaculik was 92nd in 19:13.3. Senior Chris Kalies was 96th in 19:24.6, and senior Maddox Durst was 101st in 19:30.

“The varsity boys are working hard in practice and we hope to see some drops in time soon. We have hit midseason so we are excited to see what the next few key weeks bring,” coach Celia Shaughnessy said.

Neither Port nor Grafton fielded full girls’ teams.

For Port, junior Braeya Thomas was 32nd in 21:18.6. Junior Abbey Lotz was 38th in 21:25.9. Freshman Reagan Jerome was 42nd in 21:31.9, and freshman Madison Myers was 47th in 21:35.2.

For Grafton, sophomore Evelyn Schmidt was 45th in 21:34.1 and sophmore Ava McLaughlin was 57th in 21:45.3.

Port hosts an invite at Tendick Park in Saukville at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7.

Grafton runs in the Owl Invite at Heritage Trails County Park on Thursday, Sept. 30.