STATE CROSS COUNTRY

GARCES

Victoria Garces, a freshman, became the first girl from Sheboygan North since 1988 to receive a medal at the state cross country championship.

She took ninth place with a time of 19 minutes 0.4 seconds in the Division 1 meet Oct. 30 in Wisconsin Rapids.

Garces is also the only girl at the school to claim a sectional crown, and she placed first in the Sheboygan County and conference championship races.

“I knew she was a very good runner, but we really didn’t know what we were working with,” coach Dan Stenz said. “She certainly had a base and she came out, every race she was getting faster and learning how to push the envelope to test what she could do. She started focusing in on actual strategies with the different kinds of courses. She’s a gamer. She’s real competitive and has that intrinsic competitive nature. She’s a great runner already. She’s just going to get better.”

Lutheran takes sixth

The Crusader boys, who won the Division 3 state championship last year, came in sixth this season.

Senior Logan Zak had a team-best time of 17:53.4, which was good for 40th place.

He was followed by sophomore Travis Tock (18:09.5), sophomore Logan Grasse (18:34.1), junior Zach Glewen (18:35.3) and sophomore David Vanic (19:06.7).

Junior Drew Vaszily and senior Grant Portenier also ran but their times did not count toward the final standing.

Two represent South

Redwings’ senior Rylee Brotz competed in her third consecutive Division 1 state meet and came in 58th place in 20:22.6. Alex  Kaffine, another senior, finished 156th.