Shawano girls make history

As the girls varsity cross-country runners crossed the finish line at the Bay Conference Meet on Saturday at Shamrock Heights Golf Course in New London, it was apparent that Shawano was going to put up a solid team score.

When the final results were revealed, the Shawano girls team made history, posting a team score of 35 to win its first ever conference title. Xavier was a distant second with 81 points.

“Twenty-one years, we have fought to try and get the girls some recognition because the boys have always dominated cross-country in our school,” said Shawano coach Steve Stomberg, who was referencing his 21 years as the coach of the program. “I said we were going to some day get there. I told them I believe in them — we got the girls out there who wanted to do it — and they did it.”

As Stomberg was sharing his thoughts on the accomplishment, the girls team found out it won and immediately tears of joy and screams of excitement came over the Hawks as they huddled around each other.

“It’s amazing, it’s been one of our goals since day one of practice,” said sophomore Lydia Beyer. “Having it happen is just awesome — knowing that we will forever be a part of history is pretty amazing.”

“It’s kind of unbelievable,” senior Alice Hoffmann said. “I’ve been on this team for four years and every year, everybody has worked so hard — it’s amazing we can get to this level and see that all come to fruition.”

The Shawano girls had three runners make the all-conference first team — the top-eight finishers at the meet. Lydia Beyer led the Hawks with a fourth-place finish in 21 minutes, 11.49 seconds, followed closely by Hoffmann, who completed the course in 21:17.75. Freshman Grace Beyer took seventh with a time of 21:31.46.

Freshman Odessa Arce (21:47.91) and senior Dayna Besaw (21:50.18) placed ninth and 10th, respectively to fill out the Hawks’ team score and land on the all-conference second team.

Senior Carrie Young (22:39.21) and sophomore Claire Guenther (22:59.7) each landed on the all-conference honorable mention team after taking 18th and 24th, respectively. Sophomore Graciella Onesti (24:31.87) rounded out the strong team effort for Shawano.

The Shawano boys team also had a strong day, earning 67 points to finish second behind conference favorite New London, which tallied 54 points.

Shawano had three of its runners place in the top 10. Sophomore Ethan Chelberg paced the Hawks with a sixth-place finish after recording a time of 18:00.97. Juniors Demetrius Kaquatosh (18:20.88) and Karsten Anderson (18:21.68) took eighth and ninth, respectively.

Sophomores Carter Schmidt (19:04.76) and Joseph Mente (19:07.75) each landed on the honorable mention team after placing 21st and 23rd, respectively.

Junior Johnny Dillenburg (19:36.8), sophomore Rory Johnson (19:44.28) and junior Elijah Etten (19:52.89) also competed for a boys team that now has confidence after the strong finish and motivation to keep shaving seconds off their time as they head into sectionals.

“All our runners really showed up today and did well,” Anderson said. “But having some runners out in front of you really keeps you motivated to go catch them too. We’ll be on a new course (at sectionals) — we’ve never run on it — so it that could be positive or negative but we will use it as motivation.”

“After a tough loss (to New London), of course, we are all going to be fired up for these next few practices,” Chelberg said. “Hopefully we can come through at sectionals.”

Following the awards ceremony, coach Stomberg gathered the girls and boys runners together to congratulate them on a job well done. Stomberg then invited parents and friends of the team into a large circle where he thanked them for their support over the years.

The Hawks will compete in the Division 2 Freedom Sectional on Oct. 20 at Irish Waters Golf Course. The boys race is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., with the girls beginning at approximately 10:45 a.m.