HURLEY - Hurley found out this week that it was hosting a cross country meet. On Thursday, the girls won the team title by a single point over Washburn, 40-41.
The trails in Oulu, Wis., were too wet for a race and it turned out to be a nice, sunny day in Hurley.
Washburn and third-place South Shore both had two runners in the top four. Hurley only had two runners in the top 10, Gabby Pecotte, sixth, and Kirkie Pecotte, seventh.
But the next four Hurley runners came in with only one Washburn runner between them. The seventh Hurley finisher, Kaylyn King, took 20th. She was ahead of Washburn's fifth runner and South Shore's fourth runner.
"They have some good top runners, but we have this year the three through seven runners to make the difference," Hurley coach Hope Bretting said.
Now that Wisconsin girls races are 5 kilometers long, that's also advantage Hurley.
"I figured when they changed it, it would be good for us," Bretting said. "I know our girls are good at the longer distances."
Lily Wieringa led Bessemer with a fifth-place finish. Melissa Wanink was the top Wakefield-Marenisco runner, in 12th.
Bessemer's Zack Mazurek won the boys race in 18:22.8, almost 13 seconds ahead of W-M's Sam Dean, who took second. Hurley's Dakota Rice was fourth.
Washburn won the team event. W-M was third.
Bretting wishes Hurley had a full boys team.
"If one or two more boys runners we're up there, we'd have a contending boys team as well," she said.
Results
Boys
Team: 1. Washburn 27, 2. South Shore 46, 3. W-M 52.
Top 5: 1. Zack Mazurek, Bessemer, 18:22.8; 2. Sam Dean, W-M, 18:32.5; 3. Blake Reijo, South Shore, 18:33.0; 4. Dakota Rice, Hurley, 19:05.5; 5. Connor Bouchard, Washburn, 19:16.7.
Bessemer: 7. Tim Rowe, 20:18.2.
Hurley: 10. Luke Marczak, 21:08.3; 12. Tate Guenard, 21:17.4; 32. Joey Messer, 25:37.4.
W-M: 18. Isaiah Sturkol, 21:57.7; 22. Austin Libertoski, 22:43.0; 26. Austin Vizina, 23:07.8; 30. Roger Uhlig, 25:18.4.
Girls
Team: 1. Hurley 40, 2. Washburn 41, 3. South Shore 48.
Top 5: 1. Ketzel Levens, Washburn, 21:49.0; 2. Alyssa Kavajecz, South Shore, 22:19.4; 3. Emma Ostrenga, South Shore, 22:51.4; 4. Alexis Griggs, Washburn, 22:59.4; 5. Lily Wieringa, Bessemer, 23:32.5.
Bessemer: 9. Molly Wieringa, 24:43.3; 13. Rachel Mazurek, 25:16.9; 26. Kim Wendinger, 28:47.8.
Hurley: 6. Gabby Pecotte, 23:55.1; 7. Kirkie Pecotte, 24:08.3; 14. Tori Anderson, 25:51.6; 16. Rachel Fedora, 25:55.4; 17. Aiyana Nickel, 26:38.2.
W-M: 12. Melissa Wanink, 25:10.7; 30. Jennifer Wanink, 32:00.9.