Hale runners capture Cedarburg crown

West Allis - The strong 2012 season for the West Allis Hale boys cross country team continued on Saturday with a victory in the Cedarburg Invitational.

The Huskies tallied 27 points to top the five-team field, which included 10th-rated Wauwatosa East (fifth with 103 points) and 13th-rated Cedarburg (second with 45 points).

Hale's Milan Stojanovic won the race in 16 minutes, 51 seconds, beating 113 other runners. Teammate Sam Gagliano took third (16:57), followed by Robert Effinger in sixth (17:11), Dan Nelson eighth (17:24), Tony Lozano ninth (17:35) and Tim Ebben 20th (18:17).

Hale, which was rated eighth in the state by wirunners.com, improved to 73-9 against all opponents, with all nine losses coming to top-10 teams.

The junior varsity squad also claimed the team championship as Clive Miller took the individual title in a personal-best 18:50.

"For the most part, PR's were hard to come by for a number of reasons," head coach Ron Kurtz said. "The course was a little longer than 5,000 meters, the rain and wind were not conducive to fast times and the grass was quite long."

The Greenfield teams also competed in the meet, with the girls taking third at 76 points and the boys finishing fourth with 97 points.

For the girls, Keely Hanley was fourth (16:50), while Megan Baillargeon-Theune took 12th (18:07), Tia Ruhland 13th (18:14), Janie Friedbacker 22nd (19:09), Audrey Schmidt 25th (19:22) and Kelsey Franckowiak 27th (19:38).

For the boys, Casey Sabinash came in 11th (17:38), Tom Friedbacker 14th (17:49), Andy Sabinash 17th (18:03), Quinton Kufahl 26th (18:31) and Cody Hagfors 29th (19:16).