By David Paulsen
Sports Correspondent
The Whitewater High School girls cross country team wrested the Rock Valley Conference championship from three-time defending champion McFarland Oct. 17, in dramatic fashion. In the process, the Whippet girls captured their 12th conference title in program history.
“Running like their butts were on fire, they would not be denied the opportunity to seize the moment and secure the team victory,” head coach Chad Carstens said. “From top to bottom, including the junior varsity runners, they put on an inspirational performance,”
“There was a lot of tears of joy shed at the ceremony as the team knew it was going to be close, but you just never know for sure until the results are officially read. (It was) a moment they surely won’t forget,” he added.
Whitewater won the crown with 80 points; McFarland finished second with 85.
As she has all season, sophomore Sarah Ziolkowski paced the Whippet girls, finishing third overall. She was timed in 15 minutes 58.63 seconds over the 4,000-meter UW-Whitewater course. That earned her first-team all-conference honors.
Earning second-team all-conference honors were sophomore Andrea Sandoval and senior Stephanie Brown. Sandoval was 14th (13th in team scoring) in 16:34.27 and Brown 18th (17th in team points) in 16:48.57.
With her 19th-place finish (18th teamwise) in 16:49.24, sophomore Abby King made honorable mention.
Senior Liz Mielke rounded out the team scoring by finishing 30th (29th in team points) in 17:09.90.
Also competing for the Whippets in the varsity race were freshman Rebekah Schumacher (39th, 17:30.91) and sophomore Holly Hough (46th, 17:55.18).
The Whippet boys took second overall with 86 points, with McFarland taking the boys title with 51 points.
Senior Brett Harms won his third consecutive RVC championship with a time of 16:58.18 over the 5,000-meter boys’ course.
Junior James Ehlen joined Harms on the first-team all-conference roster by finishing eighth in 18:10.40. This was Ehlen’s first year on the cross country squad.
Juniors Jon Zimdars (19th, 18:49.17) and Calvin Otterbacher (23rd, 18:57.29) both made honorable mention.
Senior Ryan Anderson finished out the team scoring with a 35th-place finish in 19:44.89.
Also competing for the Whippet boys in the varsity race were junior Jason Shelbourn (48th, 20:14.09) and senior Scott Zahn (20:31.77).
“Overall, they performed just as they knew they could,” Carstens said.
Carstens added that both teams significantly improved over last year’s finishes in the RVC Meet. Last year, the girls were fifth and boys sixth.
Postseason
Whitewater will host the WIAA Division 2 sectional at UW-Whitewater on Saturday, Oct. 26. The girls’ race starts at 10 a.m., followed by the boys’ race at 10:45 a.m.
The top two teams (16 are competing) and the top five runners from non-qualifying teams, all advance to the WIAA State Cross Country Championships held at Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids, Saturday, Nov. 2.
