Central, East girls finish at the top

If you looked at the top finishers from the Greater Metro Conference Girls Cross Country Championship race on Saturday at McCarty Park you would find a local flavor.

To no one's surprise coach Lorie Lewis' Brookfield Central squad literally ran away with the win, scoring 31 points.

And coach Kim Leupold's Brookfield East team finished second with 66 points, well ahead of third-place Wauwatosa East (83).

"The team was extremely impressive," Lewis said. "This was only the second meet of the season everyone raced well on the same day.

"When this team puts together solid races at the same time they can be a very competitive team. This was definitely the case for the team on Saturday and it produced a dominating effort."

Brookfield Central junior Elizabeth Flatley won the event in 14 minutes, 43 seconds, finishing ahead of Brookfield East freshman Rachel Werking, who finished in 14:55. It was the amazing Flatley's third consecutive individual championship.

"This is quite a feat as there have been so many terrific runners within the conference whom she has had to beat," Lewis said. "This year was no exception. Elizabeth truly sets the standard for all our runners with her approach to competition.

"Our team is truly fortunate to have such a role model and high character runner. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to coach all of them."

Wauwatosa East junior Natalie Schudrowitz finished third (15:05), Central juniors Danielle Kulpins was fourth (15:10) and Paulina Agnello was fifth (15:15), while East's Sarah Werking took sixth (15:16), giving Brookfield schools five of the top six places.

The rest of the Lady Lancers' scoring lineup had sophomore Kasey Ledvorowski at 10th (15:48) and freshman Lucy Kwiatkowski at 11th (15:51).

"Danielle and Paulina resurrected their tough second and third runner punch after Elizabeth took first," Lewis said. "Both Kasey and Lucy have continued to improve over the last few weeks and that is proving to be very significant toward our team efforts."

Rounding out the Lady Spartans' top-five were senior Natalie Gehred (14th, 15:58), freshman Lisa Browne (20th, 16:04) and junior Brianna Mathison (24th, 16:14).

The other runners and their finishes for Central were impressive. Megan Hlava finished 12th (15:52) and Megan Weiss was 17th (16:01) and senior Veronica Porubsky was 27th (16:22).

The Lady Spartans' other runners were junior Allyx Kvasnicka (29th, 16:27), senior Shannon Cashin (33rd, 16:35) and sophomore Gina Pagel (36th, 16:51).

"We battled and placed a strong second place beating both DSHA and Wauwatosa East," Leupold said. "I like that we were able to race competitively today with positive momentum going into sectionals.

"(We had) outstanding races by Rachel and Sarah Werking, but also notably Natalie has been so consistent this season and deserves recognition for her tough race.

"I know we can get even more out of Allyx, Brianna and Lisa and we will be ready at Muskego (Saturday's Sectional)."

Leupold was also beaming because her JV team ran away with its race.

"I am so proud of my JV girls for coming out and killing it at the conference race with only 21 points and owning first," she said. "We had outstanding performances by Jessica Austin, Hayley Taylor, Christine Pelto and Alex Sinson."