Sports Wrapups: Aug. 31

Franklin girls cross country

Allie Fons got her varsity career off to a blazing start.

Fons won the Franklin Quadrangular on Friday in a blistering 14 minutes, 57 seconds, shattering the school's freshman record by 42 seconds. The time is already the third fastest among all classes in school history behind her sister Lindsay Fons (2010) and Katrina Shingledecker (1994).

She is currently the sixth-fastest runner in the state, according to coach Regina Schindel.

"She is definitely going to be on the radar of all the top runners in the state with her calm race tactics and strong hill running," Schindel said.

With two varsity runners on vacation, Franklin finished second to Badger.

Whitnall cross country

Dana Steffen and Mary Erickson's 1-2 finishes were not enough to push Whitnall into first place but it did provide plenty of excitement for the Falcons in their season-opening meet at Shorewood's Kern Park on Aug. 26.

Steffen won the race in 15 minutes, 45 seconds, 10 seconds better than teammate and runner-up Erickson's 15:55. That tandem led Whitnall to second of six teams, behind only Muskego, which received three top-six runs.

Also for Whitnall, Lea Windt ran 12th (16:58) and Katherine Crivello 16th (17:08).

The Whitnall boys did not place anyone in the top 10 but still managed to place third of six teams at the same meet.

Rob Emmett ran 13th (17:44), Alex Richardson 15th (17:51), Jack Kasprzak 17th (18:05) and Eric Windt 20th (18:25) to lead a pack of Falcons that featured seven runners in the top 28.

Franklin golf

The Sabers improved to 3-0 in Southeast Conference duals by shooting a season-low 171 against Racine Horlick at South Hills Country Club on Friday.

Taylor Wenzel was the meet medalist for the second time this season, this time by shooting a 39, and Taylor Chase had 40 with other strong scores from Katelyn Heimbruch, Niki Quirk, Amand Cornell and Kendall Jones.

Franklin also defeated Racine Park on Aug. 26 and placed 17th of 30 teams at the competitive, two-day Ironwood Country Club Aug. 24-25.

Whitnall volleyball

The Falcons placed second of five teams at the Martin Luther Invite on Saturday. In the deciding match against the host school, Whitnall lost, 25-15, 18-25, 17-16.

Whitnall opened the season with a 25-6, 25-18, 25-19 win over visiting Milwaukee King on Aug. 26.

The Falcons are led by four-year varsity starter and captain Mary Neuendorf, a middle hitter who has a full athletic scholarship to St. Cloud State University, three-year starting seniors and captains Brittany Brezgel and Kelly Ertl and three players who started as sophomores a year ago.

Franklin girls volleyball

Before opening the SEC season against defending WIAA Division 1 state champion Muskego on the road at 6:30 p.m. today, the Sabers claimed a pair of early-season tournaments Aug. 25 and 26.

Franklin opened by winning the Bay View Invitational with four victories. Freshman Katie Babula had a solid season-opening tournament with team-highs in assists (47), aces (11) and digs (six).

"We played well despite not having a lot of experience at setter," Franklin coach Ken Huber said. "Katie did an excellent job at setter. She appears to be the heir apparent to Nikki Dailey."

Rachel Ambroch had a team-high 18 kills and chipped in with five aces.

Franklin also swept four teams to win the Schneider Invitational at St. Francis.

Ambroch had 34 kills, eight digs and eight blocks to lead the team, and her six aces were second only to Natalie Kay's nine. Babula had a team-best 63 assists.

Oak Creek tennis

The Knights continued to produce positive results in early-season matches.

Oak Creek was second at the six-team Martin Luther Tournament on Saturday after placing second at the St. Francis Quad on Aug. 23. In the quadrangular, first singles player Katie Sweetman was second to Waterford's Linnea Braaten.

Oak Creek also opened the SEC season with a 6-1 win at Racine Case on Aug. 24.

Franklin tennis

The Sabers split their first two SEC duals - beating Racine Case on Aug. 26 but losing to Muskego on Aug. 24 - and went just 1-4 at the Eau Claire Memorial Invitational, but their coach is not too concerned.

"On paper, a 4-8 start to the season is a failure," Franklin coach Jon Vogt said. "However, I could not be more pleased with how the team has performed against some of the state's best competition. In all five invites of 2009, we played three individual state qualifiers. In only the first two invites this year, we have played 16. The team has responded to every challenge presented to them."

An example was Liv Lampone and Kayla Plath earning wins over Marshfield's Division 1 state qualifying doubles team in three sets and Eau Claire Regis' D2 qualifier, 6-0, 6-0. It marked only the second and third times Lampone and Plath played together this season.

Other highlights of the tournament included Katie Krueger's three-set win that clinched a 4-3 Franklin victory over Marshfield; Morgan Mastrostefano and Megan Hammernick's 10-6, third-set win over a doubles team from Rhinelander; and Yuka Shiotani's straight-set victory over a foe from Eau Claire Regis.

Franklin boys cross country

The Sabers placed second of four teams at their own quadrangular on Friday.

Will Campbell placed third in 18:25, just 1 second off his fastest time ever, on the hilly course on a hot, humid day.

Also placing in the top-15 for the Sabers were Nikolia Grabowski (11th, 19:43), Evan Watters (12th, 19:43), James Pitcher (14th, 20:07) and Dan Mayzik (15th, 20:20).

Whitnall soccer

After a rough opening week during which the Falcons lost four of five matches, they began the Woodland Conference season Monday with a great effort against one of the top teams in the league.

Unfortunately for Whitnall, the result was the same.

Visiting Wauwatosa West's Nico Zabala was on the receiving end of a long counter following a Whitnall miscue and drove home the game-winning goal with just three minutes remaining to lead his team to a 3-2 win.

Whitnall took an early lead on Dushan Marinkovic's assist to Bryan Nagy in the eighth minute, and later tied the score at 2-2 on Nagy's second goal, this time with an assist from Peter Miskov, before Zabala's heroics.

The Falcons opened the season with a 6-0 loss at Oconomowoc on Aug. 24, followed by a 2-1 loss at Waukesha South two days later. At the Cudahy Invitational on Saturday, Whitnall defeated the host school, 3-1, but fell to Oak Creek, 2-1, and Milwaukee Ronald Reagan, 3-1.

Whitnall tennis

After taking second at the St. Francis Quad on Aug. 25, Whitnall's first doubles team of Kristin Kowaleski and Sami Zacker picked up one of the Falcons' two victories in a 5-2 home loss to Union Grove on Aug. 25.

Kowaleski and Zacker defeated Meghan Lee and Meghan Tomoe, 6-0, 6-4.

At the quad, Whitnall was third of four teams behind Waterford and Oak Creek.

- David Cotey