Rockets, Warriors feature fast girls

It didn’t take the Ozaukee High School girls’ cross country team long to add a feather to its cap.

Ozaukee won the Standing Rocks Invite last Thursday with 45 points.

The Warriors edged Lourdes Academy’s 51 points in the eight-team meet in Stevens Point.

The Warriors’ top five runners all placed in the top 20.

Brooklyn Lauters led the way by taking fourth in 23 minutes, 2 seconds. Jillian Knehans was ninth in 23:17, and Madison Glaeser was 10th in 23:20. All three earned medals.

Quinn Zimdars was 12th in 23:29, and Ashlyn Schubert was 20th in 24:26.

Olivia Schmitz was 23rd in 25:07. Eva VanMinsel was 27th in 25:31.

“Having three freshmen girls (Lauters, Knehans and Zimdars) place in the top 12 really helped move our team up the standings from a year ago,” coach Andrew Pfeuffer said.

“Our girls did a great job pack running in their first meet of the season.”

The squad has 12 girls, just as many as the guys, which is nearly double the combined 13 last season.

“With more depth and new faces this season, we are working on not only being more competitive in races with other teams, but also creating healthy competition on our own team,” Pfeuffer said.

Ozaukee was to run in the Lancer Invite at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

Schmidt returns for Rocket girls

Cedar Grove-Belgium’s school record-holder Brynlee Schmidt returns for her junior year. She is one of the few runners with experience.

“The girls have two freshmen and five other runners who joined this year, and most of them had not run cross country in middle or high school before,” coach Brandon Langer said.

“With such an inexperienced team, learning racing strategy, training philosophies, and mental toughness, particularly early in the season, will be the main focus.”

The Rockets scored 509 points and finished 19th of 25 teams at the Milwaukee River Invite on the city’s lakefront in Veterans Park last Thursday.

Schmidt was 11th of 359 runners in 19:37.7. Lydia Schmidt was 88th in 22:51.3. Ava Gregory was 160th in 24:18. Hannah Langer was 201st in 25:20.1. Anja Kass was 201th in 25:32. Aubrey Nett was 281st in 27:49.1. Braelyn Meinen was 285th in 27:58.

“Brynlee had an extremely strong start to her junior season, racing within four seconds of her school record,” coach Langer said. “Her sister Lydia also ran a very smart race with her last mile being her fastest. Hannah was within 25 seconds of her personal record.”

Brynlee said she is looking forward to another good season.

“It is definitely my favorite sport and I’m excited to start competing again,” Schmidt said. “I am looking forward to the state meet this year and seeing where I can place. As for the team, we have a lot of new girls and I’m not sure how we will do quite yet, but I’m excited to find out.”

The Rockets host an invite at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3.