Surprising Whitefish Bay boys win King Sectional
As Whitefish Bay coach Mike Miller left Lincoln Park Golf Course with the sectional championship plaque under his arm, he perfectly summed up the afternoon’s events.
“Ratings and past times and all that stuff on today are thrown out the window,” he said. “They’re high school kids. You just don’t know what you’re going to get, right?” Indeed. What the Blue Dukes had at the Milwaukee King Sectional on Saturday was their best race of the year, considering the circumstances.
Led by top-10 finishes from junior Eli Dyer and senior David Potter, the Blue Dukes surprised a deep field to win the sectional title and qualify for the state meet as a team for the first time since 2011.
How surprising was Bay’s win? Well, the state coaches association’s Division 1 state rankings featured 20 teams last week and the Blue Dukes weren’t listed. Eating their dust on this day was No. 17 Wauwatosa East, which qualified for state with a second-place finish, No. 10 Marquette and No. 12 Germantown.
The top two teams and top five individuals who were not part of a qualifying team advanced to the state meet, which will be run next Saturday at Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.
Bay finished with 77 points, 13 better than Tosa East. Dyer finished fourth, covering the 5,000-meter course in 16 minutes, 32.50 seconds. Potter, who qualified as an individual the past two seasons, took ninth in 16:49.79. The team had one other top 20 finish – junior Noal Basil was 19th in 17:18.20 – and had its top five runners among the top 24 overall.
“It was one of those days when they just cleared their head and ran really smart,” Miller said.
Bay’s performance highlighted a busy day at Lincoln Park. The meet was a combined Division 1 / Division 2 sectional that was also hosted by Shorewood. Other highlights were:
DSHA senior Meghan Scott and Homestead junior Drew Bosley, the area’s reigning cross country athletes of the year, won their races.
Scott, the defending Division 1 champion, won in 19:14.20. She also led the Dashers to the sectional title and their fifth straight appearance.
Bosley, who took second at state last season, won in 16:15.20.
Junior Jared Denk of Wisconsin Lutheran won the D2 race in 16:45.81. Shorewood freshman Marcella Yatso was the girls champion with a time of 20:40.09.
Port Washington swept the boys and girls titles in Division 2. The victory for the Pirates boys team snapped a string of six years that the sectional produced Wisconsin Lutheran and Shorewood as the state qualifiers. On Saturday, Lutheran edged Shorewood for the final team berth by one point.
Port got second-, third- and fourth-place finishes from junior Brett Grisar (17:03.39), Miles Stimac (17:03.75) and Isaiah Holland (17:07.34) to snap that string. The last time the Pirates reach state was 2010 when they finished third.
That year also marked the last time for the girls team at state. They were also third that season. On Saturday, the girls also had second-, third- and fourth-place showings at the sectional from seniors Alexis Reichardt (20:42.05), Payton Hurley (20:47.11) and Emma Meyer (20:48.63).
Bay, meanwhile, pulled off a double-play in Division 1. It’s girls team finished second even though the team’s top runner, sophomore Maggie Keiper wasn’t able to finish the race in the unseasonably warm conditions.
In fact, it was her struggles that provided a teaching moment for Miller and the Blue Dukes boys, who ran later in the day.
“I told the boys this is what happened. Please run your race, no one else’s race. Make sure you are not going out too fast, especially with the warmer conditions today,” Miller said. “They went out conservatively . ... They kept close to that pace throughout the race and they kept passing people as it went on.”