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WEST SWIMMING

Wauwatosa West girls swim coach Heidi Hegwood has some talented returnees this season and some talented youngsters and looks forward to an exciting season.

Returning letter winners include state qualifiers Anna Larson (50/100 freestyle), Allie Welsh (100 backstroke) and Larson, Welsh, Ellie Krummel and Kristi Klammer (relays).

Other returning varsity members include sophomores Jess Wilson and Regina Kautzer, seniors Tina Hartley (diver) and Dani Ganser (diver returning from an injury last year).

Hegwood is looking forward to working with her first-year varsity swimmers.

"This year our younger girls technique is looking better than years prior and will only lead to huge improvements throughout the season," she said. "I am expecting big things from not only our new swimmers/divers but also all of our returning swimmers/divers."

Some of the promising newcomers to watch include Ellie Krummel's little sister, Megan Krummel, a freshman who will be filling one of the varsity breaststroke positions.

Others are freshmen Emma Schmidt, Jade Grippe and Laura Bialozynski, all with some good swimming background, most coming out of the Tosa Swordfish Swim Club.

The Trojans also have a few additional divers this year who show a lot of promise — Dani Ganser's little sister, Anna Ganser, and another freshman, Isabella LaSpisa.

Larson, Dani Ganser, Kristi Klammer and Welsh will be this year's captains.

"We have a very strong senior varsity group this year," Hegwood said. "Anna and Allie are expected to return for another year at state (and) will lead our team to a few state relays.

"I am excited to see what Dani Ganser will be able to do since she is healthy and healed from an injury that took her out of almost the whole year last year."

EAST BOYS CROSS COUNTRY

Mackenzie Laska is looking forward to her first season as the Wauwatosa East boys cross country coach.

"I feel very optimistic about what we can accomplish with four letter winners returning from last season," Laska said.

Returning for the Red Raiders will be seniors Noah Froh, Tyler Klein, Pierce Libbey and junior Sam Potter.

"Those four were all under 17 minutes, 35 seconds last season," Laska said. "They will lead a hungry squad of 35 guys, 16 of which ran under 19 minutes last fall and saw steady improvements in track.

"We have a group of 12 guys that ran between 18 (and) 19 minutes last season that were very dedicated over the summer and will be contenders for the final few spots on the varsity squad."

Potter finished as a first team all-conference runner last fall and led the team in the conference and sectional meets last season.

Libbey finished second team all-conference and is coming off an impressive track season where he qualified for the state meet in the 3200-meter run and Klein finished third team all-conference last fall.

GIRLS GOLF

The Wauwatosa East/West girls golf co-op finished fourth at the first Greater Metro Conference mini-meet at Currie Park on Aug. 21.

Tosa shot a 187, one stroke out of first.

Kayla Kuxhause led the way with a 44, followed by Katie Gastrau (46), Brenna Blaney (48), Zoe Jones (49) and Maegan O'Donnell (56).

"I thought for their first conference meet, the girls did pretty well," coach John Ravenola said. "In fact, had our putting been better, we finish ahead of (Menomonee) Falls in third.

"We've talked about the short game from day one and today's results simply shows where most of our improvement needs to come from. If we can get better in that area, I think we'll be competitive in every meet."

Tosa also finished seventh out of 16 teams on Aug. 18 at the Mukwonago Invitational at Edgewood-Pines Golf Course.

Tosa shot a 412, while Mukwonago's Blue team won the event with a 350, easily beating out Arrowhead at 379.

Jones (48-52) and Gastrau (49-51) each shot 100 to lead the locals, followed by Kuxhause at 105 (51-54), Ana Anstette at 107 (52-55) and Blaney at 114 (58-56).

EAST GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

The Wauwatosa East girls cross country team will have talented returnees from last season's team according to coach Glen Gardiner.

The biggest loss is Natalie Schudrowitz, who was seventh at state and was the state 3200 champ in track and is now at Brown University. The team is senior-dominated and they will look to have an outstanding senior campaign.

Third-team all-conference runners senior Lindsey Govan and sophomore Janet Fee lead the way.

Seniors Tayla Enderesinghe, Margaret Deflieze, CeCe Uhrich, Katie Drakulic and Sally Rohrer, junior Kayla Klein and sophomores Jordyn Summerfield and Julia Bartlett are also back.

Gardiner talked about some promising newcomers, two sophomores and two freshmen.

Sophomore Kacy Fisher had an excellent freshman track season as a varsity 400-meter runner and will be taking part in her first year of cross country. Sophomore Amara Green, who is out for the first time, also had a good freshman track season as she ran varsity as a 400/800-meter runner.

Freshmen Sydney Evans, who led the distance runners coming in from Longfellow Middle School, and Kirsten Schwenk are the other newcomers to watch.

Gardiner felt timing was everything for the Red Raiders last year.

"We're coming off a year in which we peaked at the right time and qualified for the 2013 WIAA state meet by placing second at the Homestead sectional for the first time in 10 years," he said.

"We are in the same sectional, with the same teams this year. However many of the teams we beat last year will be much improved (Germantown, Homestead, Nicolet) and sectional champion Whitefish Bay is also back.

Gardiner feels his squad may be stronger at the top as the top four runners girls from their time trial (two miles) all ran personal records and had outstanding times for this early in the season.

"The rest of the spots on varsity are not yet established and I am looking for some girls to step up into that role. The girls that are coming back are looking forward to making this truly a team effort as our success will depend on all the girls on the team having to contribute in some way."

WEST CROSS COUNTRY

Coach Jack LoPresti has some talent return on both the boys and girls side.

The boys will be led by seniors Alec Kirtley, Ryan Lisser and Brendan Michael. All three ran varsity last fall and they provide a nucleus for this upcoming fall.

"Sophomore Liam Boyd had an excellent summer and we have a large pack of freshman, sophomore and junior runners that will provide nice depth this fall," LoPresti said. "It will be an exciting season."

The girls will be led by Anna Roghan, part of a solid group that returns seniors Tessa Mallegni, Sarah Lau, Haley Barta and Hannah Doyle. In addition a number of other upperclassman are ready to provide leadership (Deanna Ross, Emily Martin) according to LoPresti.

"This coupled with a solid pack of freshman, sophomores and juniors and the Lady Trojans will be ready to roll."