BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT 

HOWARD – The Bay Port cross country teams finally got a chance to run in front of their home crowd.
The Pirates competed in the Pirate Invite on September 14 at Meadowbrook Park in warm conditions. Nearly 600 runners took part in the varsity and JV races combined.
The boys finished fourth behind Appleton North, Fond du Lac and FRCC rival De Pere, while the girls trailed Appleton North and De Pere for third. The placings of the top five runners for each team counted towards the overall point total.
Ryan Thieme (17:43) led the boys with an 11th place run, with Nick Key (17:43) one slot behind in 11th. Other Bay Port varsity runners included Drew Dahlin (18th, 18:03), Andrew Aderhold (20, 18:07), Andrew Abfall (24, 18:22), Peter Martin (33, 18:52) and Tyler Guetschow (36, 19:01).
Savannah Huben’s time of 20:22 was good enough for third place overall for the girls, while Rachel Hoffman (13, 21:33), Madeline Peck (27, 22:39), Eden Witt (33, 22:52), Natalie Shulstad (37, 23:05), Cora Klemme (39, 23:10) and Celeste North (47, 23:26) all completed the hilly course as well.
“(The race) felt good,” said the senior Huben. “It’s nice because I know where I need to meet my times, where that is and when to kick it in. I thought it went well.”
The highlight of the night included going up “Big Bertha,” the sledding hill at Meadowbrook, twice.
“It’s so exhausting,” said Key about Bertha. “We practice here all the time, doing hills…like 5 to 10, but that’s nothing like a race. You’re exhausted the first time (going up) and it takes so much out of you the second time.”
Bay Port is next in action Thursday, September 21, when they travel to the Mishicot Invite.