Sectional - Varsity = 6th

The 2012 season came to a close today for the JMM program with a great performance at Yahara CC Course as the team finished in 6th place. The team ran hard and performed well to bring a close to this up and down season on a positive note. Madison West (a trophy contender team at state) and Baraboo (a top ten contending team at state) earned the berths to compete at the Ridges next week in Wisconsin Rapids. Both of these programs are very strong and will be forces to be reckoned with in the coming years. Our team today competed great coming back to beat Middleton (who beat us at conference) and run well in the pack to stay ahead of many teams that were equal to our program. Coming into the meet we thought we would finish between 4th and 8th and I was very pleased with our 6th place finish. Our team today was led by James A with a great individual performance finishing 20th place. John H probably had the race of the day running a PR of 17:25, it is hard to believe just at city his goal was to break 18:00. Nick H capped a great senior season as our # 3 runner within 2 seconds of his PR and Bryce H held on to be our #4 runner. Tyler M ran a strong last straight away and finished in 45th as our #5 runner bringing a close to a great season of improvement (Tyler's PR last year was 18:36 on this course...he ran 17:45 today). Connor GT got some amazing experience in his first Sectional competition and will use it to help power this squad next season. Ryan W ended his senior season competing strongly wearing the JMM pride at his first sectional performance. Our team gap (#1 - #5) was great at :27 seconds and we had all five scorers under 17:45. This performance was very similar to our conference performance on a course that was softer and muddier and in my opinion slightly slower. The 6th place finish does not meet our team goals for the season but in the big picture accomplishes many things that this group of runners has worked hard to be a part of at Memorial

The big question from our underclassmen today was...How do we get JMM back to state? Let's look at the numbers...West's #1 - #5 gap was :32 but they put 5 runners under 16:49, Baraboo's #1 - #5 gap was :32 but they put 5 runners under 17:12. Our team gap was great today, as a team we just need to be faster. What does it take to run under 17:15? 17:15 is averaging 5:30 per mile (track guys...that's like running 11:00 for 3200 or faster) but also means being able to get out around 5:15 - 5:20 and hold on to run 17:15 (very few people to NONE run negative splits or even splits in cross country...it is really hard to do!!!) So if we have five guys who can do this, will we make it back to state? NO West had 4 guys and Baraboo had 2 guys run under 16:45 (which was 10th place today). We would need 2 - 3 guys who can run under 16:45 to be competitive with these squads. What does it take to run under 16:45? 16:45 is averaging 5:21 per mile (track guys...that's like running 10:40 for 3200 or faster) but also means being able to get out around 5:15 and hold on to run 16:45. How do we accomplish these goals? Getting stronger, faster, and fitter....these things happen in the next 9 months when you are away from the cross country team. They happen with hard work, dedication, and purpose. As individuals we need to sit down and make a plan of how to make this happen. We will be given blue prints of what to do at the team banquet and throughout the school year. But how do we accomplish this?? That is the question....How bad do we want to go to state? West returns 4 guys from this team and have a very deep JV program, Baraboo returns 4 guys from this team including two 9th graders, East returns 5 10th graders from their team....these teams were better than us today, we can't just count on our 4 returners to get this team to state, we need to have improvement from all returning athletes and people to step it up to the next level.

SECTIONAL RESULTS
Madison West Sectional
All WIAA Sectionals

REMINDERS
- RSVP to jmmcc@rocketmail.com for November 1st Team Banquet (@ Rocky's = $10 per person)
- Turn in uniforms to Coach Casey
- Turn in $5 to captains (for coaches' gifts and Thanksgiving Baskets)
- Attend Team Banquet to get information on Season Results, Team Certificates/Awards, and Off-Season Running/Lifting/Training options

Want to go watch state??
Talk to your captains as there will be some athletes heading to Wisconsin Rapids next weekend to watch the meet...Information on parking and shuttles