Posted: Nov. 11, 2009

"I was incredibly happy with the way our team performed this year."

That was the way Wauwatosa East girls cross country coach Sue Shorts summed up her team's 2009 season.

The Red Raiders went from sixth to third in the Greater Metro Conference and qualified one runner (Nicole Kashian) for state. Four girls were all-conference (Kashian, first-team; Emily Rehberger and Jordy Schmidt, second-team; Jane Petr, third team), two more than last season.

Despite several setbacks, the team improved by leaps and bounds over last year.

Emma Watson, the team's top returning runner, came into the season having to rehab a summer injury for about the first month of the season.

Alex Smith, who was one of the top-four runners at the beginning of the season, had an ankle injury that prevented her from competing at conference and sectionals.

Meg Ziebol, the returning number five runner from last season, had a stress fracture within the first couple of weeks and was unable to compete the rest of the year.

"The girls really put in the time and miles to make this happen because all but one of them (freshman Schmidt) were on the team last year," Shorts said. "That means that they improved because of their individual hard work and also because they started to work together more as a team."

Shorts also was pleased with their attitude.

"They encouraged and pushed each other to stick together in practices and at meets to help everyone on the team improve," she said. "Alex is the only senior on varsity, so I expect even bigger things from them next year. They are also excited about what they are capable of."

Besides Smith, there were six other seniors: Tori Osinski, Molly Garrow, Ashlynn Riley, Missy Heck, Shelley Gibson and Catie Strigenz.

"This group was a great group to work with and will be missed," Shorts said. "Tori and Molly were the captains this year and were excellent leaders. Even though they were not on the varsity squad, they led by example and were highly respected by the other runners."

Kashian was MVP, Petr was Most Improved and Garrow earned the Coach's Award. Osinski and Garrow were named captains, and Osinski, Garrow and Heck were scholar-athletes.

Osinski earned her fourth letter, Hanna Johnson and Rehberger earned their third letters, Kashian, Watson and Karen Koeble earned their second letters, and Schmidt, Petr, Smith, Heck, Garrow and Andrea Schaefer earned their first.

The Red Raiders had several highlights. They won the Beaver Dam combined trophy along with the boys, finished third in conference with four all-conference recipients and fourth at sectionals, and Kashian qualified for state. The future is bright also, because the JV won two meets and placed second at conference.