The St. Peter’s boys and girls cross-country teams won Lutheran School National Championships Saturday in Mequon, Wisconsin. Pictured are, front row from left, Anthony Bolte, assistant coach Carol Wettschurack, Trevor Ernst, Oliver Patrick, Rian Strietelmeier, Abby Collins; and back Row, team manager Eayon Madden, Landon Bush, Caleb Niewedde, Cole DeVreese, Micah Wettschurack, Michael Reed, Josh VanValkenburg, Thomas Hennessee, Levi Carothers, Norman Dixon, head coach Jeff Niewedde, Andi Carothers, Brooklyn Donner, Daphne May, Aaliyah Miller, Sydney Madden, Lizzy Schlaudroff and assistant coach Shelli Carothers
Submitted photo
Shortly before the boys race was set to begin at Saturday’s Lutheran XC Grade School Nationals in Mequon, Wisconsin, the St. Peters girls found out they had won their first national championship.
That inspired the St. Peter’s boys to go out and match them, and the Lions did just that. The boys team won its second national title to go along with the one it won in 2017.
“I think they were a little pumped up because they found out the girls team won right before their race started,” said Jeff Niewedde, who coaches both St. Peter’s teams.
The girls team scored 88 points to 107 for runner-up St. John Wauwatosa from Wisconsin. Rian Streitelmeier finished 12th in 13 minutes, .579-second for 2 miles, and Andi Carothers took 15th in 13:18.879 to earn first-team All-American honors and lead the Lions.
Also for St. Peter’s, Abby Collins finished 24th in 13:34.822, while Sydney Madden was 43rd (13:55.392), Brooklyn Donner 56th (14:13.978), Daphne May 98th (15:01.009), Lizzy Schlaudroff 118th (15:22.507) and Aaliyah Miller 138th (16:13.927).
“The girls race was a hard-fought race,” Niewedde said. “We had good performances by the girls, which allowed us to pull out the win. (St. John Wauwatosa) had two runners in front of our 1 and 2, and their 3 was in front of our third runner, but our fourth and fifth runners were ahead of theirs.”
The St. Peter’s boys scored 58 points to easily outdistance the 101 posted by runner-up Trinity Bloomington from Illinois.
Josh VanValkenburg led the Lions with a fourth-place finish in 11:36.084. Levi Carothers took seventh in 11:41.578 to join him on the All-America team.
“Levi has been leading the team all year, but Josh came out and led the team on Saturday,” Niewedde said. “He’s been up there with Levi in practice. We have two sixth-graders that do two sports, and I told them both I was excited to see them what they were going to be like.”
Cole DeVreese was first sixth-grader to finish and took 22nd overall in 12:02.702. Norman Dickson finished 26th in 12:10.387, while Landon Bush was 35th (12:23.081), Michael Reed 39th (12:29.132), Micah Wettschurack 116th (13:35.021) and Caleb Niewedde 133rd (13:50.443).
DeVreese and Bush made the Sixth-grade-and-under All-America team.
“The boys are just a deep team,” Jeff Niewedde said. “I told them going into the race if they put six in front of everybody else’s fifth runner, we’d be tough to beat, and we did.”
The St. Peter’s boys and girls cross-country teams pose for a photo in front of Lake Michigan on Friday before competing in Saturday’s Lutheran School National Championships.
Submitted photo
Jeff Niewedde said the conditions for runnning were much more favorable Saturday than at previous Lutheran national meets in Wisconsin.
“It was near-perfect weather,” he said. “There’s usually a lot of wind coming off Lake Michigan, but it was about 70 degrees. This is the first time in about 10 years, it’s been that warm.”
The girls’ previous-best national finish was a runner-up in 2019. Both the boys and girls were runners-up last year.
The St. Peter’s girls and boys team put together and swept the inaugural Indiana Lutheran School Championships earlier this month at Trinity Lutheran High School.
“I’m super appreciative of all the assistant coaches and the parents and the kids for doing the workouts over fall break, even though they were on vacation,” Jeff Niewedde said. “Their persistence paid off in the end, which was good to see. It’s good to see their hard work pay off.”
