Up before the sun, countless hours on a bus, push your body to its limits before lunch time, enjoy the afternoon....it is great to be a cross country runner. This meet is one of my favorite meets every year because it allows our team some great bonding time and an opportunity to really be cross country runners. We endured the three hour bus trip to Wausau (for some it was easier than others...leather seats, really?) and emergency bus stops on the way home (what happens when the bus driver needs to go to the bathroom?). From it we have many stories to tell and some are better than others. Some day we will learn that WE NEED TO GET OUT on this course and it will make it easier for all of our team but all things considered today was a good day to be a JMM CC runner.
The boys races were the last two of the day and the varsity led things off. Bryce did a nice job of putting himself in a good position early in the race and reaped the benefits of this strategy with a medal and an 18th overall place. His teammates sat back in the pack and used a lot of energy to pass the runners who were slower than them. We worked our way through the pack with Tyler M and Nick H having a nice last mile to help the group move up a couple places and ended up being our 2nd and 3rd runners. Nick H and Mason R took advantage of their first varsity races of the season to have season bests and we look for them to continue to build on this experience. Sam B and Connor G-T were our 4th and 5th runners today and gained some beneficial learning experiences from being in this competitive field. Ryan W had a nice race today keeping our pack close together. Our pack today was between 17:55 and 18:24 which is a great group, we would like to see this group about 20 - 25 seconds faster (or 6-8 seconds per mile). We had hoped to place a little higher as a team today but considering we finished without a few of our key pieces we will take away the positives and build for Midwest Invite (another big meet...where we need to get out well)
In the JV race James A and Hans H did a great job of getting out well and reaped the benfits of being in the race right away and getting to make a great move heading into the last mile. James used the move to propel himself into first place and we look forward to having him back on varsity next week. Hans hung on tough for a hard fought 5th place as he continues to build his racing experience. The rest of our team did not get out so well and had to hear me yell a lot "We need to move up!!!" There is a chance that Jacob R, Ben B, and John H passed well over 100 runners to finally get to where we finished but we did finish really well as a team the last mile and these guys led the charge. Jacob finished 9th, Ben 16th, and John 22nd to round out the top five for our JV. We had hoped to push SPASH today in the JV race but left ourselves too much work to do in the second half of the race. We finished in 2nd place 16 points back and had a great last mile to out distance Eau Claire Memorial by 16 points ourselves. We will have a rematch with SPASH at the Stoughton Invite and will have to see what we can do in two weeks. Our JV kids had 21 PRs today on a difficult course and we look forwarded to seeing what everyone can do next week on the Midwest course. Some big PRs go to Sam S (:48), Tom N (1:25), Brendon P (:49), Colin P (1:27), Ale C (:31), Grant D (:34), Zach H (1:36), Jack K (1:17), Elliot P (1:06), Connor S (:39), Cullen S (:38), and Trevor W (1:10). Great Job guys...keep up the good work and aggressive racing. Benton DD was our first (of hopefully many) freshman to break 20 minutes and he is hoping that Trevor R, Cullen S, Zach H, and Matt J are some of many who accomplish that yet this year. Ben B and Calder B were our top sophomores and will lead our Frosh/Soph team into battle next week at the Midwest Invite. The JV group is really rounding into shape and encourage this group to take advantage of the coming days to workout and race at their highest level. Everybody can help make this team better. Lets stay eligible, stay healthy, and get some rest as we have some fast and fun courses/competition coming up in the next two weeks.
SMILEY RESULTS
Varsity Overall
Varsity Large Schools
JV Overall
Pictures added to Picasa Album
UPCOMING EVENTS
September 17th (Monday) - TEAM PICTURES -
3:45pm - Need uniform top and bottom
September 26th (Wednesday) - Light of Life Walk - 6:00pm ($5 donation and walk - REQUIRED)
NEXT COMPETITION
Midwest Invitational - Saturday September 22nd
@ Blackhawk Golf Course - Janesville, WI
9:15am - First Race
9:50am - Frosh/Soph Boys (2011 Results)
11:00am - Varsity Boys (2011 Results)
12:10pm - JV Boys (2011 Results)
12:40pm - Middle School Mile (***4th - 8th graders -- parents with brothers/sisters interested in participating need to e-mail coach at jmmcc@rocketmail.com before Wed Sept 19th)
1:00pm - Awards - Frosh/Soph and JV 1st - 20th, Varsity 1st - 30th
Bring money...we will stop to eat on the way home
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