Fons will have company at state cross country meet

Franklin - The Franklin girls cross country team was oddly subdued as coach Regina Schindel added up the numbers following the WIAA sectional meet on Saturday at Washington Park in Milwaukee.

Everybody had a pretty good idea of what had happened. The Sabers had just pulled off the improbable and secured a second-place finish in the meet behind powerful Whitefish Bay and would return to the state meet in Wisconsin Rapids for the first time in 20 years.

And even when these numbers became official, the sense was more of one of relief than anything else.

"It's exciting to make it," said Schindel quietly. "To finally get it done is really amazing. We'd figured it out, that if we did this right, we would probably make it.

"They were pretty nervous going in, and we tried to get them to relax a little bit."

The Sabers girls team will be joined by Nikolai Grabowski of the boys team, who advanced to state by virtue of his fifth-place individual finish in the boys sectional race.

"I just wanted to stay sharp and run my own race," he said. "I was pretty confident and I knew I could get in good position pretty quickly. This really hasn't sunk in just yet. I've been running since fourth grade in little meets.

"They've just gotten bigger and bigger and now here we are (at state)."

Leading the way for the girls will be defending state individual champion Allie Fons, who ran away from Bay's powerful Emma-Lisa Murphy in the last 800 meters at the sectional race to win in 14:32 on the slow, muddy 4,000-meter course.

Fons is happy to be going with a full team this year.

"I'm really excited and ready for this," said Fons. "All I'm trying to do now is my best. I went by myself last year and now this year has been so much fun. We've worked together and been together and we've gotten this goal done together. It's great."

And as far as repeating as individual state champion in one of the deepest fields in state history, Fons admitted she was waiting until later this week to seriously think about that.

"I'm not sure if I have that goal completely in mind right now (as of last Saturday)," she said. "Right now, I'm just looking to have fun and do the best I can."

That is a good tactic to take at this point, as a total of eight of last year's top 10 individuals return to the meet. The girls race at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids is at 12:20 p.m. Saturday, while the boys' meet is at 2:20 p.m.

Fons' best last Saturday was good enough to lead the Sabers to a 57-point total in the nine-school meet as Whitefish Bay won with 34 and Greendale was a distant third with 92.

Fons got back-up from Katherine Carlino, who took ninth (16:09), Monica Sweet 14th (16:32), Hannah Timm 16th (16:41) and Katelyn Salzburger 17th (16:56). Also running for the team were Jennifer Eickhorst 19th (17:01) and Emma Klein 22nd (17:22).

"We're hoping to let it all loose on Saturday," said Schindel.

It was also a good day for the boys. Before the race, coach Tyler Fyock felt the team had a chance to surprise a few people. They weren't going to challenge for a top two state spot, but they were going to be competitive.

He was right, as behind Grabowski's finish, they were a solid fourth with 135 points. Powerful Marquette (23) and Bay (57) ran away with the team berths as Nicolet was a distant third in the 10-team field with 128.

Grabowski was clocked in at 17:16 for his spot as Marquette's Joe McAsey won in 16:33. Grabowski got scoring support from Zach Lee's 25th (18:30), Ben Alt's 33rd (18:53), Evan Watters' 35th (18:58) and William Campbell's 41st (19:20).

Also running were Myles Devine, who took 44th (19:28) and Sam Harmeyer 50th (20:05).

As Grabowski thought about state, he got excited about something other than running.

"This should be pretty fun with the girls coming along too," he said with a laugh.