A wet and muddy start to the 2011 season saw many positive results (although the times may not have cooperated). A big THANK YOU to coaches Mark, Paul, and Suzanne filling in for me as I spent time with my family mourning the loss of my Grandfather. I was so proud of the team to step up and compete with all the challenges going into this first race of the season and making lemonade out of lemons. As we spoke about earlier in the season, the weather will not always cooperate but we must be ready to run and compete...it looks like it is a good thing we ran our mile repeats through the inclement weather and now it has paid off. The Verona Invite is always a great measuring stick for our team and where we can go this season. After a tough week of practice, starting school, battling all that Wisconsin weather could throw at us, and much more I am glad to say we passed our first test. We have work to do to meet many of our individual and team goals but today's competition put us in a great place to accomplish our seasons goals. Keep working hard and good things will continue to happen this season.
The varsity team finished a great 4th place at a difficult invitational. We saw what lies ahead of us in the conference (Craig, LaFollette, and West) and will now work to close the gap on the competition. Jonah led the team with a single digit finish (8th) and a strong 17:00 time for the conditions. Jordan B. and Hunter H. ran well as our 2nd/3rd runners these seniors will help close the gap on our team towards Jonah. Our gap of 1:36 between 1 - 5 is something we will work on closing all season long...we need to get that less than 1:00. Our sophomores Sam and Bryce finished close together and continue to build their varsity experience. Andy and Tyler had nice races after a tough week of practice (both rolled ankles this week) and will be back next week Thursday to keep our varsity competition alive and pushing towards that sub 18:00 mark. This group will need to continue to improve to compete in our conference and create some breathing room on teams from our sectional.
JUNIOR VARSITY CHAMPIONS!!!! So awesome, we had a talk with this group of boys on Monday about the possibility of winning at Verona and they competed to make it happen. We have had some injuries on our team and will need to continue to work hard to get people healthy but todays performance proves that the sky is the limit for our JV team this season. Ben A. led the charge with a 3rd place finish and will get his first chance to run varsity next week for the team. Ben was joined by Ryan W, Joey, and Brad in top 10 finishes...having 4 guys pulling single digit cards in this difficult meet (last season our JV took 8th here and went on to miss 2nd at conference by one point). This year our JV team should be competing for a team title at every meet we go to and will get some challenges from programs like Arrowhead, Neenah, SPASH, and Madison West. These guys work ethic will help keep our Varsity guys working hard to improve and keep our whole team competing well. I was excited to see some PR's today on a tough muddy course. Lets hope for better weather next week and more PR's for everyone.
Verona Results
Varsity
Junior Varsity
Next Competition
West Invite - September 8th (Thurs)
@ Yahara Cross Country Course (the Dump)
4:00 Girls JV
4:30 Boys JV
5:00 Girls Varsity
5:30 Boys Varsity
6:00 Awards (top 2 varsity teams, top 20 varsity individuals, top 20 jv individuals)
(2010 West Invite Results)
Events This Week
September 5th - Arboretum Practice (Directions)
September 7th - Fall Sports Banquet (Pancheros for $5...all money collected benefits athletics)
September 11th - Ironman Volunteering
September 12th - Team Pictures
-
