Sabers make history, accomplish first goal

Franklin - Between the counting and the crying and all the concerned over how close the team race was in the Southeast Conference girls cross country race last Saturday, Franklin's Allie Fons tried to find a quiet moment.

But they weren't many to be had, as the Sabers, behind Fons' individual title, held off a late surge by Muskego to claim its first conference title in at least 20 years with a narrow victory at the Southeast Conference meet at Lake Denoon Middle School.

"It was all so confusing for a while," said Fons. "A lot of people were counting, trying to figure it out and a lot of us were so nervous. No one realized it, in fact, some of us thought we had taken second, but then they called out the numbers and then it became extra exciting. There was so much screaming and excitement, it was hard to hear for awhile."

"This is so great. We've been hoping for this to happen for some time now. We've all put a lot of work into it and now it's happened."

The Sabers edged out Muskego, 48-51, as Kenosha Tremper was third with 77.

"Oh, this is great," said coach Regina Schindel. "The girls have worked very hard for this."

The title is the first goal for the Sabers and they will shoot for goal No. 2 this Saturday at Washington Park in Milwaukee, as they seek to earn a WIAA state berth in the sectional meet that will be held at 11 a.m. The top two teams and the first five individuals not on those teams will advance to the WIAA State Meet at Wisconsin Rapids on Oct. 29.

Fons is the defending state Division 1 individual champion as Franklin narrowly missed out on a state team berth last year, finishing third in the sectional. The Sabers' last conference title also coincides with the last time the team was at state.

"We'll take our best shot and hope for the best," said Fons. "We'll take it as far as we can."

Fons won her second straight individual conference title at Lake Denoon on a windy day by 53 seconds over a Tremper runner with a clocking of 14:26 over the 4,000-meter course. It was just one second off her league record time.

She got top 10 help from Jenny Eickhorst in eighth (16:06) and Monica Sweet in 10th (16:17).

Other scoring runners included Katherine Carlino in 13th (16:19) and Hannah Timm in 16th (16:26) while Katelyn Salzburger was 19th (16:36) and Emma Klein 21st, who ran a personal best at 16:49.

Fons and Eickhorst were first-team all-conference while Sweet, Carlino and Timm were all second-team.

In the end, it was Carlino and Timm who provided the ultimate margin of victory, as Carlino was two spots ahead of the fourth Muskego runner and Timm was the same over the Warriors' fifth runner. Sweet also passed three people in the last half-mile.

Timm was the only senior on the unit.

Schindel was greatly relieved at the outcome.

"Going into the meet, we were the heavy favorite to win," she said. "It was expected that the top five girls would all earn all-conference. We were ahead by 18 points after the first mile and looked to be easily winning.

"Over the second mile, we lost a little ground and were outraced in the wind by Muskego. The Warriors knew who they had to beat and where they had to finish to win the race and did a very good job moving past our team. Even though some of our runners were outsprinted the last half mile, the girls were able to hold onto the lead that had been earned over the first mile.

"It was nerve racking to watch, some of the finishes were so close that the fans thought Franklin was second overall. It was quite exciting when the official results were announced."

Making history usually is.