Port girls take second to qualify for state

The Port Washington High School girls’ cross country team turned it up a notch at just the right time.

All of the top-five Pirate runners finished with personal records at the Division 2 sectional at West Allis last Saturday, earning second place of seven teams and a trip to the state meet.

Led again by star Bethany Stacey, the Pirates scored 74 points behind No. 1-ranked Shorewood’s 25. University School of Milwaukee was third with 94.

“They had this in mind before the season started and they were fairly confident they could get this done,” coach Joe Adamak said.

Stacey finished fourth in the 5,000-meter course in 19 minutes, 20 seconds.

“She did well,” Adamak said.

Braeya Thomas was 15th in 20:12. Mira Stimac was 16th in 20:30. Abby Lotz was 17th in 21:07. Emma Goodman was 22nd in 21:52.

One of Port’s usual top-five runners, Emma Kasza-James, was one of multiple runners who took a wrong turn and ran an extra half mile. Adamak became concerned when he didn’t see her finish when he expected, wondering if she was hurt.

“The course was not a championship style course. It wasn’t really marked and nobody was telling kids where to go. It’s not good for that to happen at that type of meet,” Adamak said.

It didn’t matter in the final tally, given the Pirates’ depth.

The race was a little different than others, with only seven teams. Port is accustomed to more fast runners.

For the boys, senior Ben Pasten finished seventh in 16:54 and qualified for state for the third time.

“Ben ran an outstanding race,” his coach and father Mark Pasten said.

At the end, it was a sprint with four other runners to the finish. Besides Ben Pasten, one of them was Port’s Mason Raasch, who nearly qualified but ended up 14th in 17:24.

Port scored 93 points at the Wisconsin Lutheran Sectional in West Allis, taking fourth place of 15 teams. Shorewood won with 39, followed by Lutheran.

Pirate Austin Rinke was 20th in 17:45. Gabe Pasten was 24th in 18:10. Nate Meeks was 28th in 18:21.

“The team had an outstanding performance, which is exemplified by having six out of the seven runners having personal best times,” coach Pasten said.

Grafton sends three to Stevens Point

Grafton’s girls for the first time this season fielded a full team, and two Black Hawks advanced to state from last Friday’s Division 2 sectional at Mayville.

Maddy Wille took seventh in 20:53 and Rachel Swenson as 10th in 20:58.

The Hawks scored 159 points and took sixth of 14 teams. Winneconne won with 46 and Kewaskum was second with 93.

Ava Pederson was 11th in 21:08. Anna Eifert was 57th in 23:12 and Morgan Ruona was 74th in 24:00.

“The girls stepped up as a team, running a complete team, but also really ran well. Our top three ran their best races of the season,” coach Kevin Kriegel said.

For the boys, Nathan Baker took third in 16:45 and made it to state, just six seconds from first place.

The Hawks scored 151 points for seventh of 14 teams.Wautoma/Wild Rose won with 87, and Winneconne had 95.

Cael Abad was 13th in 17:33. Gabe Mietkowski was 39th in 18:21. Christopher Kalies was 43rd in 18:32. Nathan Woolf was 53rd in 18:47.

“The boys also had a really good outing coming together at the end of the season. There were a number of personal bests,” Kriegel said.