Conference - Varsity = Runner Ups JV1 = 5th Place JV2 = Runner Ups

WOW, what a day at Verona. It was a lot of fun watching the Varsity run as well as they did and come so close to winning Conference. I'm proud of how this team has worked all season long and it was evident in how well we did at Saturday's meet. The Big Eight Conference is arguably one of the most talented conferences in the state and our team showed that we belonged with race after race of consistent performances. The weather and course conditions were not ideal for PRs and yet we had 6 new PRs and most within 15 seconds of their PR. It was great to see the improvement from week 1 at Verona to week 7. Our desire to compete finally started to show as our runners fought in close battles for team points (varsity & jv 2 - 3 points away). Also it was nice to see Jordan C., Benji, Aaron H., Jonah, Ben, Paul, Walter, Vladimir, and Ryan all be recognized by the conference for their performances.

In JV2 Madison West showed us their strength and numbers and gives our program something to work towards. Our JV2 kids really battled the last mile with Middleton to earn the second place finish. Paul led the way with a new PR and was followed by his five scoring teammates in less than 30 seconds. This type of pack racing really helped all the Memorial kids. With only one senior in this group of seven, we are going to be looking for a lot of these kids to step up next year to perform for our JV1 and even Varsity. All 28 runners in this race ran tough and can be proud of their season.

In JV1 Jonah and Ben lead the squad with some really nice performances. Jonah's 17:54 PR makes him only the 2nd Frosh in recent history to break 18:00 during their first year on the team. Our pack learned the tough lesson of letting the "bubble" of the race get ahead of us. We got too deep into the pack and our score cards reflected this. 4 of the 7 JV1 kids return next year and will learn from this experience. Our times were great in this race and really gave confidence to our Varsity racers. The final team place does not reflect how good this JV team was this year. It was nice to see the improvement of this group from the Verona Invite until Conference.

In Varsity we ran a smart and confident race. It was clear as we went through a mile and half that our team was in good position and improving. We battled with Craig the entire second loop and cut the point total in half and then down to five and finally within 3 points. I was very pleased with how we scored in this race and how well we held up with the great competition. 5 teams in this race were ranked in the top 15 of the state and we proved we can race with each and everyone of them. I hope this continues to become the expectation. We scored our first top 2 finish at Conference since 1996. Jordan C. earned 1st team All-Conference and Benji and Aaron H. earned 2nd team All-Conference. This performance gives us the confidence we need to carry into Sectionals and hopefully State.

Big 8 Results

Some pictures from madison.com

Next Meet:
Sectionals - DeForest
Girls 11:00am
Boys 11:45am

Captains Money - Captains are collecting $10 from each athlete to help pay for Captain's Club Thanksgiving Baskets (a service project our athletic department has participated in for nearly a decade) and for coaches gifts. Please help remind athletes this money should be turned in ASAP to help out the captains.