Hirsch second, Lancers fourth at GMC

Senior Carl Hirsch finished second as Brookfield Central finished fourth at Saturday's Greater Metro Conference Cross Country Championship.

In a very close race, Brookfield East scored 61 points to win the event with a tie-breaker, followed by Marquette (61) and West Allis Hale (62). Central was a distant fourth with 95 points.

Hirsch ran a 16:10 finishing just tenths of a second behind Brookfield East's Stephen Browne (16:10).

"Obviously, Carl didn't have his best race today, but he's OK," coach Ron Blaha said. "He laid off a little more in the second mile than he should have. I give Browne all the credit. He hung with Carl the whole race, and then really went after him down the final stretch.

"I don't think that Carl knew he was coming on as fast as he was, and he didn't have the time to respond to the challenge."

Juniors Kevin Rindfleisch finished 17th (16:55) and Daniel Pearson took 18th (16:57).

"Kevin had such a huge race," Blaha said. "That was a big breakthrough for him. He has been running consistently this year, all three years really, but this was by far his best race.

"Daniel Pearson challenged himself and also had a PR. He has shown so much improvement over last year, but I think he has a big drop coming."

Freshman Josh Trasser was 21st (17:02) and senior Andrew Dusing finished 37th (17:41).

"Josh has done such a good job this season," Blaha said. "We are asking a lot from him, and he has responded so well. He ran a big PR, and next week I think we'll see another one."

Dusing has been battling illness the past two weeks and even though it held him back, Blaha was impressed with his effort.

"This was a good experience race for Andrew," he said. "He decided to give it a go this week and went out and challenged himself. Unfortunately, the sickness really held him back. I was proud of the effort he gave for the team. This was a good learning experience for him heading into sectionals."

The Lancers' other three runners were all seniors running in their final conference race.

John Tzortzos finished 38th (17:45), Thomas Markey was 43rd (17:58) and Russ Vandenberg took 48th (18:13).

"Overall, it was a pretty good day," Blaha said. "Almost everyone on both JV and varsity either ran a PR or were at their PR. They ran really well. I thought that the varsity runners really stepped it up."