By David Paulsen
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
A solid performance by the Burlington High School cross country runners led to a fourth-place finish for both squads at the 11-team Blackshirt Challenge held Saturday at Waukesha’s Minooka Park.
“Both teams ran well,” head coach Rick Koceja said. “It was a good team performance. A good improvement over the Kenosha meet (the Dog Days event Aug. 25).”
The Demon girls tallied 96 points, but were just five points behind second-place Kettle Moraine in the 4,000-meter girls’ event won by Sun Prairie (59 points).
Junior Kit Kocha and sophomore Brittany Ehlen both medaled, with Kocha finishing fifth in 16 minutes 49.90 seconds, and Ehlen eighth in 17:05.53.
“Kit again ran a solid race,” Koceja said.
Junior Aleigha Barry was 13th in 17:18.17 while freshman Meta Ehlen was 26th in 17:53.68.
It was the first meet for the Ehlen cousins this fall.
The fifth Demon runner who counted toward the team score was senior Carley Lahodik. She was 44th in 19:05.76.
Senior Hannah Peterson came in right behind Lahodik in 45th (19:10.01), while sophomore Molly Benavides was 52nd (19:37.13) and junior Marah Zinnen 53rd (19:42.88).
The Demon boys got a big boost from a foreign exchange student from Belgium – Pauly Mickael – who joined the team one week earlier.
Mickael was second in the 5,000-meter boys event, turning in a time of 17:31.07.
Senior Zach Wawrzyniakowski was 13th overall with a time of 18:40.81.
The Demon boys scored 105 points, with Waukesha South winning the boys’ side with 35 points.
All seven Demon boys finished in the top 50 with the top five finishing in the top 32.
Sophomore Nathaniel Sibley was 27th in 19:19.47, junior Noah Strohm 31st in 19:31.08, and sophomore Ben Lois 32nd in 19:40.55.
Those five counted toward the team total.
-
-
-
-
-