Horlick boys, Case girls make cross country state meet

It’s the reality these days. Interests for a lot of kids have changed and the idea of ​​pounding the pavement every afternoon during practice for five or so thousands may be as appealing as it once was.

That’s why Slamka is thrilled that his entire team has qualified for the State Boys & Girls Cross Country Championships at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids on Saturday. Leading the way is junior Landon Franke, who placed 60th in a field of 190 in Wisconsin Rapids last season.

“We’ve got a group of decent runners who, when they were younger, they were willing to put in the work,” Slamka said. “That’s about all you need, I guess. They work hard year-round, so it kind of takes care of itself.

“Now I feel we have the ball rolling a little bit. Now the thing is recruiting and getting some young guys in and, hopefully, we can keep it going a little bit.”

Slamka has come to learn that filling a roster with quality runners is more challenging than ever.

“There’s always kids,” he said. “Like my boys are willing to put in quite a bit of work. It’s just not the easiest sport to sell. I was talking to one of the Waterford parents and they were saying that the tennis team has like 50 kids on it and the cross country team over there is shrinking.

“A lot of kids don’t want to go into a sport where they’re going to be working hard every day. “I think that’s the best thing for kids.”

One of the Horlick runners who has particularly paid the price is Franke, whom Slamka compares to former Horlick great Scott Brinen, who finished fourth at the state meet as a junior in 1990 (he did not compete at the state meet as a senior because of illness).

Franke finished second at the Case Sectional on Oct. 26 with a time of 16:31.30.

“He’s just a talented, very tough kid,” Slamka said. “He does everything right. He makes sure he gets to bed early, he eats right, he’s very serious about recovery, so he does all the little things.

“Going into his senior year, he’ll be ready to take a step up in mileage. I think he’s going to be phenomenal next year. On paper, he’s running similar times to Scott when Scott was a junior and senior.”

Among the others who could be a force for Horlick is Gio Maccanelli, who is overcoming injuries. At the Case Sectional at UW-Parkside, Maccanelli placed eighth in 17:24.10.

“He dropped out of some races due to injury, but at the sectional, he really toughed it out,” Slamka said. “His knee wasn’t feeling great, but he really stepped it up. “I just ran a great race.”

Another Racine County team qualifying as a team is the Case girls, who are making their first state appearance since 2019. Under Mike DeWitt, a former longtime coach at UW-Parkside, the Eagles placed second at the 11-team sectional it hosted at UW -Parkside with 55 points — just four off the pace of champion Kenosha Indian Trail.

Led by senior Grace Neumann, Case’s other highlights include placing second at the Southeast Conference Meet with 54 points (six behind champion Franklin) and third at the 13-team Westosha Central Invitational with 77 points (Westosha won with 71 and Badger was second with 74 ).

Case defeated 55 schools and lost to 29 this season.

Neumann has been the Eagles’ No. 1 runner, placing fifth at the sectional and fourth at the SEC meet. DeWitt said she has defeated 87% of her opponents.

Other top runners for Case are senior Lilly Reaume (sixth at sectional, seventh at SEC), freshman Emma Barnes (eighth at sectional and fifth at SEC) and junior Camila Aquino (18th at sectional, 22nd at SEC).

Meanwhile, Ashley Lamers has become the first girl in the program’s history to qualify for state all four years. She ran a time of 19:54.3 at the sectional meet.

“Ashley has been our No. 1 runner for seven out of our nine meets,” Union Grove co-co coach Mike Mikula said. “Ashley is a gifted runner in talent and one of the smartest runners we have had the pleasure to coach these past four years.”

Other Racine County runners competing are Catholic Central senior Emma Bond and Prairie senior Carly Lopez. Both are competing as individual qualifiers.