The Pacelli High School girls cross country team finished
11th at the WIAA Division 3 State Meet at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin
Rapids Saturday, Oct. 29.

Senior Elizabeth Cisewski was 33rd overall in 20:48 and senior Christonna Shafranski
finished 75th in 21:48.5 to lead the Cardinals.

“Lizzie was big in poms and dance for the last two years,
came out this year for cross country, and see she was our No. 1 runner,” said
Pacelli cross country head coach Eugene Trzebiatowski. “For being a rookie, she
did really well, especially at the State Meet today, competing in a crowd of
people. She did very well.

“And I’m happy that Christonna ran well today,” he said.
“She was here as a freshman when we were here as a team, and that wasn’t necessarily
a good experience because she wasn’t feeling well that day, so to end her
career on a good note, she should be very pleased.”

“I was just trying to have fun,” said Shafranski. “It was a
good race, and we all were really excited to be here.

“I came here my freshman year, and Grace Engebretson was
here last year, so we were telling each other how it’s different from a normal
race,” she said. “And we all knew that if we came here and worked our best that
we’d be happy with whatever we did.”

Sophomore Grace Engebretson was 87th for the Cardinals,
followed by sophomore Grace Van Handel (105th), freshman Katy Czerwinski
(119th), sophomore Abigail Dahlseng (134th) and sophomore Dominique Jamison
(147th).

The Cardinals finished with 251 points to just finish out of
the Top 10 behind Lake Country Lutheran (247) and ahead of
Wittenberg-Birnamwood (252), while Darlington (89) beat
Oshkosh Lourdes (93) and Rosholt (152) to win the State Title.

“As a team we were shooting for anywhere from eighth to
14th, and we got 11th,” said Trzebiatowski. “We beat Wittenberg
by one point, which is in our conference, so that was a good feather in our
cap, and we beat Phillips, which we hadn’t beaten this year.

“So I think it’s a successful day,” he said.

After placing fourth at the Central Wisconsin Conference
Meet behind Rosholt, Wittenberg and Iola-Scandinavia Oct. 13, the Cardinals
scored 60 points to win the Edgar Sectional over Auburndale (61) and Stratford
(97) to advance to state for the first time since 2013.

“Making it as a team was a big thing,” said Shafranski. “I
knew how great of an experience it was from my freshman year, and the past
couple of years we’ve been close to making it and we haven’t, and it was just
amazing to be able to come my senior year and run.

“And we have such a great team and our team is really close,
we are like a family,” she said. “So it’s just really nice to be able to be
here with the team, because it’s an experience that you’re never going to
forget.”

“It was a very good season for everybody,” said
Trzebiatowski. “The team as a whole really bonded as a family.

“We had 16 girls out, which is quite a good team for D3, and
we preached that everybody mattered, from the 16th person to the first-place
person,” he said. “To get down to state is a very special experience, and
everybody, no matter how they do, should keep their heads up at the end.”