Greyhounds just three points short of league sweep

Shorewood - A dominant effort left the Shorewood boys cross country team in possession of another Woodland Conference title on Oct. 12, while despite an individual title from Morgan Florsheim, a strong showing left the Greyhounds girls three points short of Pewaukee in the same race.

"This is one of the strongest and deepest teams that I have seen," said Greyhounds boys coach Dominic Newman. "I hope to carry this through to our (WIAA) sectional meet on Friday."

"Overall I was very proud," said girls coach Sarah Kopplin. "We had 33 personal best performances of the 36 runners who raced. The team responded so well and really put their best out there. I always say that you cannot be upset when you lose and you put your absolute best out there.

"I never like to lose but Pewaukee just out ran us in terms of pack running. It was not a surprise to me as we have been missing Haley Holan due to injury but she was cleared last week by her physician and will be rejoining our team this week for sectionals. This will be a real help."

Shorewood hosts sectional

Shorewood will host a 15-school WIAA Division 2 sectional meet at Kern Park on Friday. The top two teams and first five individuals not on those teams will advance to the state meet at Wisconsin Rapids on Oct. 27.

Both teams advanced to state last season. The boys race will be at 4:30 p.m. and the girls at 5:15 p.m.

On the boys side at conference, the die was cast in the junior varsity race as the Greyhounds swept the top 10 places as Johnnie Papineau covered the 5,000-meter Grant Park course in 17:23 to win the race. Newman was very impressed as the junior varsity had an average time of 17:31, which would have been good for fifth in the varsity race.

"I have always said that the JV runners can really set the tone and excite the varsity runners by their performance," said Newman.

The varsity did take the cue and dominated the race with a 38-point effort as Wauwatosa West was a distant second with 80 despite a one-two finish in the individual race.

As always, balance led the way for the Greyhounds, as Charlie Stahl was third in 16:12 while Sam Kuhlmann was fourth (16:31).

Other scoring runners included Alex MacKowski in eighth (16:48), Jacob Goldberg in 10th (16:50) and John Papke in 13th (16:57). Also running were Thomas Treacy in 17th (16:58), Jack Mauer in 19th (17:01) and Dan Vrobel in 21st (17:05).

Three in top five for girls

For the short-handed girls squad, three runners in the top five couldn't quite get it done. The freshman Florsheim was an impressive 19 seconds clear of the field with a quick 14:35 time on the 4,000-meter course while juniors Abby Pech (14:59) and Haley Florsheim (15:27) were third and fifth, respectively.

"Morgan Florsheim ran the most outstanding race and really had to battle it out in the first mile with the Greendale runner," said Kopplin. "She just found another gear after the mile and a half mark. Morgan races relaxed and she loves to compete. It was so fun to watch her as she is still feeling out her potential every week."

Pech's time was a personal best.

Other scoring runners included sophomore Madee Ferone in 24th (16:19) and Laura Gould in 25th (16:20).

Also running were Angela Sperry in 26th (16:21) and Lindsey Morris in 51st (17:32).

Kopplin was also pleased with the junior varsity efforts.

"The JV squad finished with the fastest pack running we have ever seen to earn second," she said. "There were seniors who contributed to that strong racing (co-captains Grace Corry and Lily Blind) and led some talented young runners who will step up to fill the shoes of (graduating) Sperry and Holan on our varsity roster next season."