City Championships - Varisty = 4th JV = 3rd

Tonight was a great meet for Madison Memorial. I was very pleased with how well our team ran tonight and the times we posted. Our team has persevered through many trials and tribulations this season but we continue to pull out meets like tonights. The team places we had tonight are not indicative of how well we ran but instead of how tough our city is to run in. We had 36 athletes run lifetime PRs tonight and 9 athletes break 18 minutes. With our patchwork team this is a very impressive feat. I would have never guessed this would only be good enough for 4th place in varsity and 3rd place in JV. It goes to show the importance of having a healthy and complete team and it goes to show when we are a team that can be tops in the city we can also be tops in the conference and state. I hope we learned from tonights experience and can carry this momentum into Conference and Sectional (both at Yahara...it will be hard to duplicate these times...but we might as well try :)

Our JV started off the day with an impressive performance putting all scorers under 18:11. Ryan W led the way with an impressive PR of 17:32 and there are plenty of years where this is fast enough to win JV city (this year it was good for 7th). John H wanted to break 18 minutes today and accomplished that by 22 seconds and earned himself a top 10 finish. Our 3, 4, 5 guys finished up together as Hans H, Sam B, and Mason R finished within a second of each other. The other times we competed here at Yahara our 5th JV guys were at 18:51 and 19:02...nice improvement since then. Seniors Chris D and Branavan Y completed our JV 1 heading into conference. Some big PRs at the city championships were Noah H (:37), Joe C (:56), John H (:33), Sam R (:39), Evan S (:44), Max C (1:30), Caleb H (1:24), Brendon P (:37), Ben S (:41), Connor S (1:25), and Trevor W (:37). I look forward to these kids finishing on a high note next Saturday at Conference. Be ready to bring your best to the dump next week.

I really can't explain the varsity race. It was amazing and crazy all in the same time. LaFollette put all five of their scorers in the top 10 and lost the meet. West put four runners in front of the number two team in the state's #2 runner. Our team had a 1 - 5 split of only :36 seconds (which is great) and had 4 runners under 17:30 and our 5th at 17:34 (which is great too). When you have five runners under 17:34 on this course you are running well but today that was only good for 4th place in the city. I challenge this group to come out again next week and repeat this performance and they will see nice rewards for such a performance. James A led our group today with a nice PR and dipping below 17 minutes for the first time in his career. He was followe closely by Bryce H and Tyler M. Nick H and Connor GT rounded out our top 5 both having PRs. Jacob R and Ben B did not dissappoint in their first varsity experiences both running PRs in the meet. Here's to hoping there are more varsity races in their future and even better PRs. We learned a lot about ourselves as a team today and will use this to help us take on the Big 8 next week Saturday.

CITY RESULTS
Varsity (partial)

UPCOMING EVENT
Saturday October 6th - Team Practice @ Zimmer Cross Country Course
8:00am ~ 9:45am - park in first lot (NOT BY THE CLUBHOUSE)

NEXT COMPETITION
Saturday October 13th
Big 8 Conference Championships @ Yahara CC Course (the Dump)
BUS TIME - 7:30am
Boys JV2 - 9:10 am (2011 results)
Boys JV1 - 10:30 am (2011 results)
Varsity - 11:30 pm (2011 results)
Awards - 12:40 pm (Varsity - top 15 = medals, JV1 & JV2 - top 15 = ribbons)

ALL JV RUNNERS WILL TURN IN UNIFORMS SATURDAY AT THE MEET (bring a change of clothes) If uniforms are not turned in, a hold will be placed on athlete's academic records. Also, any lost unifroms must be paid for: top = $35 and bottom = $35

All athletes will be expected to be at meet until last race is completed and cool down jogs are run (even if leaving with parents)!!! Be there to support your teammates until the end!!!

Captains Money - Captains are collecting $5 from each athlete to help pay for Spartan Leaders' 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.

Monday October 15th - MANDATORY MEETING for ALL ATHLETES 3:45 till about 4:15
Athletes will recieve information about end of the season meets
Athletes will recieve information about end of the year banquet
Athletes who are not competing/practicing for Sectionals will be asked to clean out lockers
All athletes need to attend