By David Paulsen
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
It was not quite the results that Waterford High School head cross country coach Nate Schreiber was hoping for at the Southern Lakes Conference Meet Saturday.
Schreiber had hoped his girls could challenge for the team title and the boys for second at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, but in the end, neither happened.
The Wolverine boys finished third and the girls fourth. Westosha Central won both the boys and girls events, totaling a mere 20 points in the girls event and 23 in the boys.
“It was complete domination by them,” Schreiber said, adding that Westosha’s domination is due to their athletes training long before the season begins. “That’s a culture I’m going to be building.”
As a team, the Wolverine boys tallied 76 points, to finish behind Westosha with 23 and Lake Geneva with 59.
“It was a fun race for second,” Schreiber said.
The boys and girls races combined both the JV and varsity runners because of impending storms. In the end, though, both races ended up being run without any rain.
Grant Brooks led the Wolverine boys, finishing fourth overall in a time of 16 minutes 40.9 seconds over the 5,000-meter boys course. That earned Brooks a first-team all-conference selection.
“He was outstanding,” Schreiber said.
Waterford had four runners in the top 25 in the eight-team meet, with its sixth and seventh runners finishing 26th and 27th.
Finishing 10th for the boys squad was Mychal Grube in a time of 17:25.9. Trent Rudebeck was 16th in 17:45.2, Clay Zortman 21st in 17:54.8 and Eric Albrecht 25th in 18:06.2.
Conner Krattiger was 26th in 18:07.5 and Malcolm Marino 27th in 18:10.1.
With the exception of Brooks and Zortman, all those runners could be returning next season.
“If you look at our group, we’ve got a young group of kids who are getting big meet experience,” Schreiber said. “I’m extremely impressed with our newcomers.”
Schreiber was disappointed with the Wolverine girls fourth-place finish.
“We came in with a lot of momentum and we were excited to have the opportunity to compete and challenge Westosha Central,” Schreiber said.
Obviously, that did not happen.
“Overall, we were flat on Saturday,” Schreiber said.
Central tallied just 20 points as their top five runners all finished in the top seven. Badger was second with 79 points, Burlington third with 99, and Waterford fourth with 100.
“Burlington is a very respectable team,” Schreiber noted.
The Wolverine girls were led by Valerie Knurr, who completed the 4,000-meter girls course in 16:17.7. That put her in 13th place. Makenna Reed was just two seconds back in 16th place with a time of 16:19.8.
Jessica Krupinski was 21st in 16:30.0, Hannah Jost 24th in 16:37.1, and Lauren Dziak 26th in 16:46.0.
Those five accounted for the team points.
Schreiber was very pleased with the performances of Krupinski and Dziak.
Two other Wolverines who competed in the varsity race were Jennifer Murphy (28th, 16:49.4) and Jenny Gilbreath (29th, 16:50.4).
The SLC Meet brought an end to the regular season with WIAA Division 1 postseason action set to begin Saturday.
Waterford will compete in the Muskego sectional, with the boys race set to begin at 11 a.m. and the girls race at 11:45 a.m. at Lake Denoon Middle School.
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