Big 8 Grade Level Challenge - 4th Place

Great weather, great course, great competition....equals great times. It was fun to see our team be competitive with some of the best athletes in the state and show that we are a team that will need to be reckoned with at the end of the season. We have a lot of season left to continue to improve and we are already in a great place. If we stay healthy, take care of business away from the course, and keep up the great work we are looking for a great finish to our 2011 season.

The meet started with a great performance in the Frosh/Soph race. Sam B. went to the lead and work hard from the front. Bryce and Brad took the first mile relaxed and charged towards Sam. All three joined forces in the last mile and it was fun to see the three JMM jerseys charging hard towards the end of the race. These guys led our group to some great PRs in the race and it will be fun to see what this group can continue to do in the future (and hopefully we return a few of our injured frosh/soph kids). Additionally, all three will be a part of our varsity at the Smiley Invite this weekend. Mason and Connor G-T worked together through much of the race and Mason finished well to be the 14th Soph and score in our team points. Our freshman group continues to improve at every meet and I hope this trend continues. Today Liam broke the 20:00 barrier and Ben B. and Calder broke 21:00. Sam K had almost a 2 minute PR and also almost broke 21:00. I would like to see if we can get some frosh under 19:00 this year and quite a few more guys under the 20:00 barrier.

The Junior/Senior race was a nice preview of what our conference race will look like. First off, it is going to be fast and second off we are going to be part of a competitive race. Craig, LaFollette, and West are all currently ranked in the state and they have shown why they are ranked. We are closing the gap and need to continue to do this in the coming month. Jonah had a great race and a nice PR and finished 7th overall (4th for Juniors) against some amazing competition. Jordan B. has closed our gap between 1-2 to less than 30 seconds. Now it is time for our 3 -5 runners to be within 30 seconds of Jordan (again we need a 1-5 of less than 60 seconds). Hunter and Ben A. had great races and made our 1-4 gap at 60 seconds and we'll see if we can keep that and one of the Sophomores into the mix to keep improving. Andy R, Joey D. and Ryan W. joined the sub 18:00 group. Andy will run varsity again this weekend at Smiley and Joey and Ryan will lead the charge in JV to take on SPASH JV this weekend. Nick H. put out a great effort to try to break 18:00 and just miss but will have more chances yet this year.

Tonight was a good night. We put 26 athletes under 20 minutes, 10 athletes under 18 minutes, and 2 athletes under 17 minutes...I hope we continue to improve these numbers in the coming week. We got another great look at the conference schools and we will dissect how we compare in a standard scored varsity and junior varsity race.

BIG EIGHT GRADE LEVEL RESULTS
Frosh Race
Soph Race
Junior Race
Senior Race
All Results
Team Results

NEXT COMPETITION - September 17th (Saturday)
Smiley Invite - Wausau, WI
BUS TIME - arrive 5:30am depart 5:45am (Boys and Girls will be leaving at the same time so we need to leave a little earlier)
Meet Starts - 8:30 am
Girls JV - 9:55
Girls D1 Varsity - 10:25
Boys D1 Varsity - 10:55 (2010 Results)
Boys D1 JV - 11:20 (2010 Results)
Awards - 11:45 (team trophy for top 2 teams varsity and top team in junior varsity, individual medals top 20 varsity and junior varsity)

Buses will stop for lunch at Culvers/DQ/Wendys...so bring money!!!