Baker speeds to third in NSC

Grafton High School senior Nathan Baker has hung around the top three places all season, and the North Shore Conference race last Friday at Tendick Park in the Town Saukville was no different.

Baker ran the familiar 5,000-meter course in 17 minutes, 4.5 seconds to take third in the NSC. Slinger’s Cael Grotenhuis won in 16:33.6, followed by Homestead’s Owen Bosley in 16:53.

Baker made the NSC first team and led the Black Hawks to fifth place with 126 points in the 10-team meet.

Homestead won with 63 points, edging Whitefish Bay’s 64. Slinger had 75 and Hartford had 101.

Port Washington was seventh with 156, behind West Bend West’s 140.

Hawk Chris Kalies finished 24th in 18:15.3, earning NSC honorable mention.

Cael Abad was 25th in 18:17.6, Gabe Mietkowski was in 37th in 18:43.9 and Lance Greicar was 41st in 18:50.2.

“We were very happy with both our boys’ and girls’ places,” coach Celia Shaughnessy said.

The 80-degree temperatures for the race weren’t much cooler than when the teams began practicing in August, which Port boys coach Mark Pasten said made a difference. Wind gusts of more than 30 mph didn’t help.

“The conditions affected everyone, but they affected some more than others,” he said.

Mason Raasch led Port by taking 16th in 17:51.7, making the NSC second team.

Nate Meeks finished 18th in 17:54.7 to join his teammate on the second team.

“Nate somehow managed to run a personal best time under the conditions and reached my highest expectations for him by placing in the top 20,” Pasten said.

Angelo Feciskonin took a few days off and battled knee pain in the race but managed to finish 36th in 18:43.5. He moved up to third after usually being Port’s fifth runner this season.

“His efforts were very impactful in our team standing,” Pasten said.

Austin Rinke was 43rd in 18:52.4 and Gabe Pasten was 48th in 19:03.3. Both, coach Pasten said, struggled with the conditions and finished one minute slower than in the past at Tendick.

“They were both giving it their all. It just wasn’t their day,” Pasten said.

Five Hawks, Pirates earn NSC honors

Grafton’s girls landed three on the NSC team and Port had two at the conference meet.

Grafton finished fifth with 146 points. Port was in sixth with 159.

Whitefish Bay won the 10-team meet with 46 points. Slinger scored 55, Homestead had 79 and Cedarburg had 101.

Grafton freshman Ava McLaughlin was 17th in 21:56.9, and freshman Evelyn Schmit was 20th in 22:09.55. Both made the NSC second team.

Maddy Wille was 30th in 22:50.1, earning honorable mention.

Morgan Ruona was 39th in 23:37.3, and Rachel Swenson was 43rd in 23:56.4.

For Port, which was missing a few runners for various reasons, senior Mira Stimac was 15th in 21:36.2, and sophomore Braeya Thomas was 19th in 22:04.9. Both made the NSC second team.

Emma Goodman was 38th in 23:33, Kayla Hartmann was 44th in 23:57.9 and Abbey Lotz was 48th in 24:07.6.

Coach Joe Adamak said he thought running 10 teams at one time made for too many spectators given the Covid-19 pandemic, and he is glad to be done with Tendick Park.

“The thrill of being at home has faded away after the fourth or fifth meet there,” he said.

Since fewer teams are competing this fall due to the coronavirus, Port and Grafton were moved up from Division 2 to Division 1.

Port runs Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Kimberly in the WIAA’s newly created subsectional. Opponents include Kimberly, Kaukauna, Plymouth, Notre Dame, Seymour and West De Pere.

Grafton runs the same day at Tendick against Cedarburg, Germantown, Homestead, Menomonee Falls, Hartford, Slinger and West Bend East and West.

Shaughnessy said her team is preparing for Division 1 competition.

“As we said at the beginning of the season, this season would bring unusual challenges — our response has always been no challenge, no change,” she said.

How many teams or individuals advance to the sectional meet were unknown as of Monday. Pasten said some kind of “culminating event,” formerly the state meet, will be held.

“This season continues to be about a willingness to adapt and accept change,” he said.

“This year is just bizarre,” Adamak said.

Tinder leads Ozaukee girls

The Ozaukee girls took third place at the Oct. 6 Brillion Invite, just behind their Big East Conference rival Oostburg.

Kaukauna dominated the 11-team meet with 23 points. Oostburg had 85 and Ozaukee had 88. Kiel had 90.

Grace Tinder led the team with what coach Andrew Pfeuffer called a “scrappy performance” to finish the 5,000-meter course in a personal-record 21 minutes, 19 seconds, good for 13th.

Clara McKee was 14th in 21:22. Becky Hoffmann was 16th in a personal-record 21:31. Meredith Clark was 22nd in 21:58 and Sophie Uhlenberg was 23rd in 21:59.

“Our girls took a step forward in their racing and are starting to rally around each other,” Pfeuffer said. “We’ve had a great week or so of practice in between meets, and they are taking what we are teaching in practice and applying it to race day.”

The boys team was missing three runners and only had four compete.

Calvin McKee was 18th in 17:52. Matt Baldwin was 46th in 19:24. Aaron Nehls was 48th in 19:30, and Riley Borchardt was 68th in 21:26.
Valders won the meet with 68 points.

Ozaukee was to run in the Big East Conference meet at Sheboygan Lutheran on Wednesday, before the sub-sectional at Palmyra-Eagle on Tuesday, Oct. 20.