By David Paulsen
Correspondent
After winning the WIAA Division 2 Whitewater sectional once again, junior Brett Harms heads to the 100th running of the WIAA State Boys Cross Country Championships for the third year in a row. Those championships will be held Saturday, Oct. 27, at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.
“Brett is running well right now and I anticipate him being very motivated to do well at The Ridges,” head coach Chad Carstens said. “He is an extremely hard worker and deserving of his second sectional title, as he is relentless in his pursuit of excellence.”
Last year, Harms finished 11th at state.
On Friday, Harms completed the 5,000-meter UW-Whitewater boys’ course in 16 minutes 43.6 seconds. The second-place finisher was nearly one-half minute behind Harms.
The Whippet boys team finished sixth in the team competition with 187 points. Jefferson won the boys team event with 66 points, with Beloit Turner also earning a trip to state with 71 points.
Including Harms, Whitewater had four runners in the top 50 in the boys’ race. The other three included junior Tony Cipriano who was 30th in 18:36.7, sophomore Calvin Otterbacher 45th in 19:13.4 and sophomore Jon Zimdars 50th in 19:26.9.
Senior Jameson Zaballos was 61st in 19:45.9, junior Ryan Anderson 68th in 20:02.3, and sophomore Jason Shelbourn 82nd in 20:31.6.
The Whippet girls were led by freshman Sarah Ziolkowski, who was eighth overall in 16:09.5 over the 4,000-meter girls’ course.
“Sarah has been doing pool workouts due to injury since conference, but was able to run a very inspiring race,” Carstens said. “Unfortunately, she was in the spot that is often hard to accept, which is the first one to not get a ticket to the state meet.”
At each sectional, the top two teams, plus the top five individual runners from non-qualifying teams, qualify for state. Ziolkowski was the sixth-fastest runner among those individuals. She was just under four seconds off the final qualifying time.
Like the boys, the Whippet girls had four runners in the top 50.
In addition to Ziolkowski, that included junior Liz Mielke in 13th with a time of 16:19.7, freshman Andrea Sandoval 27th in 16:56.1 and freshman Abby King in 17:29.1.
Junior Stephanie Brown was 54th in 17:48.2, sophomore Amanda Herold 62nd in 18:11.6 and senior Teegan Robers 75th in 18:53.6.
As a team, the Whitewater girls finished fourth overall with 147 points. Pewaukee and Lakeside Lutheran were the two teams who qualified for state. Luther Prep finished third just four points ahead of Whitewater.
“The girls’ team avenged some losses from conference foes Jefferson and East Troy, and were close to second overall only 25 points away,” Carstens said.
Sectional action ended the WHS cross country careers of Robers and Zabellos, who are both seniors.
