Muskego girls soar to second in Rocket Invite

Muskego - A young Muskego girls cross country team is showing plenty of promise so far this season, especially after taking second in the 17-team Rocket Invitational at Grant Park on Saturday.

The Warriors tallied 89 points to trail only Brookfield Central's 87 points. They were 21 points clear of third-place Oshkosh West with 110.

Muskego placed five in the top 25 individually, led by Lexie Tremble in 13th with 15 minutes, 56 seconds. Jenna Lederman followed in 16th (16:03), while Georgi Llanas took 18th (16:08), Morgan Marek 19th (16:10) and Gabby Mraz 23rd (16:19).

Ellie Tadych was 47th (16:46) and Alyssa Jansen 65th (17:10) to round out Muskego's effort.

Team worked hard in summer

"I am very happy with how we ran together as a team," head coach Richard Raney said. "This is very important for a cross country team, because the place of each runner is so important. Freshman Mraz, who was a fifth runner today, placed higher than any other fifth runner we raced.

"It is clearly evident that this team put a lot of work in over the summer and the girls have dedicated themselves to constant improvement."

Tremble added, "I am so proud of our team effort. I get more and more excited for our team each week, and I think if we keep working hard in practice, stay positive and remain healthy, we are going to have a great season!"

Llanas echoed those sentiments, adding, "We are a really young team this year, with one senior (Jansen), but we really showed a lot of composure in these first few meets."

Good final push for boys team

The Muskego boys also ran in the Rocket meet and finished fifth with 184 points.

"At the mile mark, we had 363 points, and by the end, we had 184 points, meaning our first five finishers passed 179 runners in the last 2.1 miles," head coach C.J. Michaud said.

Andrew Salo claimed 24th (17:16), while Mitch Kwapick was 29th (personal-best 17:28) and Josh Deakin 34th (personal-best 17:34). Deakin was the first freshman finisher in the race, and his time was the fourth-fastest freshman time in Muskego cross country history.

Zach Matusinec came in 49th (17:57), Nic Blommel 50th (17:59), Alex Erickson 56th (18:10) and Colin Reisenauer 69th (18:26).

In addition, both the boys and girls JV teams ran well, setting many personal bests.

"We are off to a great start," Raney said, "and our goal now is to stay healthy, humble and hungry to achieve our season goals."