By David Paulsen
Sports correspondent
Senior Brett Harms and sophomore Sarah Ziolkowski put together solid performances once again in recent cross country events.
Harms won the Rock Valley Conference North Division Meet October 1, and took second at the Chocolate City Invite in Burlington Saturday.
Ziolkowski was second at the RVC North Meet and third at the Burlington invite.
Chocolate City Invite
Ziolkowski led the Whippets to a third-place team finish at this 13-team event held at St. Francis Retreat Center. Ziolkowski turned in a time of 15 minutes 25.42 seconds to finish third herself, 14 seconds behind the winner.
“She ran a smart and powerful race,” head coach Chad Carstens said. “The team ran a superb race.”
The team tallied 87 points in the meet won by host Burlington with 51 points. Kettle Moraine was second with 78 points.
Liz Mielke finished 12th (11th in team standings) in 16:21 and Andrea Sandoval 20th (19th teamwise) in 16:35. Both earned medals.
Abby King (16:57), Stephanie Brown (16:58) and Holly Hough (16:59) all ran their first races under 17 minutes.
Rebekah Schumacher was the seventh Whippet girl. She was clocked in 17:10. That was also a personal best.
“The fourth to seventh girls really having been feeding off each other in races,” Carstens noted.
In the junior varsity race, Caleigh Judd moved from 35th to fourth place by the finish.
The Whippet boys finished sixth out of 15 teams with 155 points. West Allis Hale won the boys’ event with 53 points.
Harms turned in a sub-16 minute time (15:57) to take second overall.
Also earning medals, and personal bests, were James Ehlen (16th, 17:24) and Jon Zimdars (29th, 17:52).
In addition, Calvin Otterbacher (18:21), Ryan Anderson (19:07), Jason Shelbourn (19:28) and Scott Zahn (19:36) all had season bests.
RVC North Meet
Harms won this event with a time of 16:25 as the Whippet boys finished third overall. McFarland won the event with 42 points, followed by Jefferson with 48 and Whitewater with 74.
Harms win was his third straight in this event, and the fifth year in a row that a WHS boy has won the event.
The event was held on the shores of Lake Waubesa in Madison.
Ehlen was 10th in 17:55, Zimdars 12th in 18:10, Anderson 24th in 19:40, Zahn 27th in 19:49, Shelbourn 28th in 19:49 and Jimmy King 30th in 19:59.
The Whippet girls finished just six points out of a North Division title, tallying 47 points. McFarland won the title with 41 points.
“The girls put on a strong performance,” Carstens said.
Ziolkowski was clocked in 15:49 to finish second behind McFarland’s Brooke Lonigro.
Sandoval was seventh (16:28), Mielke eighth (16:35), King 14th (17:11), Hough 16th (17:15), Schumacher 19th (17:27) and Brown 23rd (17:39).
Schedule
The team gets a bit of a break before competing the RVC Championships Thursday, Oct. 17, at UW-Whitewater. Races get underway at 3:45 p.m.
