Smiley Invite - Varsity = 4th JV = 2nd

Some kids slept, others enjoyed an amazing sunrise, but all took the 3 hour bus trip in stride as the JMM Boys Cross Country traveled to Wausau, WI to compete in the Smiley Invitational. The Smiley Invitational is hosted at the American Legion GC (former host of the WIAA State Meet) and is one of the largest and longest running meets in the state of Wisconsin. We get to see some new competition and this year that competition was represented by Stevens Point (#3 in the state), Kimberly (#4), and Eau Claire Memorial (#14 and rising). Our team was really excited to see some new teams and showed the north-central part of the state what Madison Memorial cross country is all about. In the process we enjoyed a beautiful fall day, saw the changing of leave colors, enjoyed our first team Culvers experience, and learned a lot about our teammates during our long bus trips...all in all a great day of cross country.

The varsity team began the competition on the day. We did a much better job this year then in the past of getting ourselves in the race early on and competing right from the gun. As a team we competed great even though we did not all have our best individual performances. As we continue through the season we will look towards having all our members compete at their best on the same day but right now it is good to know that we can help cover each other on days when some teammates are a little off. We continue to look to learn from our racing strategies, improve our times, and close the gap between our 1st - 5th runners. A strength of our team is our ability to find our teammates during the race and help each other out...especially at our 6th & 7th runners as they can beat many teams #4 or 5 runners. Bryce H PR'ed today and led our team throughout the race with his strong 15th place finish. Ben B and James A helped each other to the finish placing 26th & 30th. Brad G (33) and Jacob R (44) closed well at the end of the race and look to continue to close the gap between Bryce and themselves. Sam B, Benton DD, and Ty B (in his first varsity race) rounded out our varsity races they were the 3rd best #6 runner, 2nd best #7 runner, and 3rd best #8 runner out of 26 division 1 teams. The pieces are in place for the remainder of the season and we need to focus on the details to be at our best.

As a coach to me it is no coincidence that the traditional powerhouse teams in the state of Wisconsin such as Stevens Point, Madison West, Neenah, Arrowhead, and Marquette also have great JV programs year in and year out. We have discussed how the depth of our team will make our overall team better and we are beginning to see that success this season. We continue to have both young and veteran talent on the jv team that push the varsity athletes at practice everyday and continue to compete for spots in meets. This had led to us having both a strong varsity and jv program and will continue to build this success in future seasons. Today we gave Stevens Point a run for their money in the jv team competition and let it slip away in the final stretch. I was very impressed how our jv athletes competed and made a really strong move in the second half of the race to give us an opportunity to win the meet. The 3 point margin is the closest we have come to beating this team and we have two weeks to put in the work so that we can compete with them at the Stoughton Invitational. In the mean time we will take on the best shots of Neenah, Arrowhead, & Marquette at the Midwest Invitational. All of this in preperation for getting back to the City & Conference meets to take on Madison West. Our JV team was led by our individual JV Champion Rory S. This gives JMM back to back JV champions at this meet a great tradition starting...who will carry it on next year? Zach H ran a 14 second PR and placed 4th all with only one shoe on as he lost his shoe in the first 1/2 mile of the race. Luke V (:14) and Gabe B (:11) PR'ed and Connor GT ran a great race up front to round out our scoring 5. Joe H and Trevor R kept passing people throughout the race and worked their way into our JV top seven. The supporting cast of JV2 runners were really strong as ten of them ran faster then our 7th best JV guy from last season. We had 16 new PRs run on this difficult course and they were led by Nathan W (:55), Joe H (:35), Ben K (:22), Jacob T (:18), Micahel Y (:18), & Jonas B (:17). IF this group stays healthy and eligible we are looking for big things in the final month of the season.

Important week of the whole season with some of our best workouts and one of our favorite meets at the end of the week. Get ahead on your homework, stay up with your sleep, take care of your legs, and stay healthy. Every Runner, Every Run, Every Day.

SMILEY INVITE RESULTS
Division 1 Overall Varsity (Large School)
Division 1 JV

NEXT COMPETITION
Saturday Sept 28th
Midwest Invitational
@ Blackhawk GC - Janesville
BUS TIME - 6:30am
9:15am - First Race
9:50am - Boys Frosh/Soph (Ty B, Benton DD, Gabe B, Luke V, Trevor R, Jonas B, & Jack Z) (2012 Results)
11:00am - Boys Varsity (Bryce H, Ben B, Brad G, Jacob R, Rory S, Zach H, & Connor GT) (2012 Results)
12:10pm - Boys JV (remainder of the team) (2012 Results)
12:40pm - Middle School Race *** 4th - 8th Graders (see below for more info)*** (2012 Results)
12:55pm - Awards Ceremony (F/S - team = 2 ind = 20, Var - team = 3 ind = 30, JV - ind = 20)
BRING MONEY TO STOP & EAT AT CULVERS

*** 4th - 8th Graders who are sibling of Memorial athletes or attend Memorial feeder schools can compete in a mile cross country race at 12:40pm representing JMM...to be entered in the race, parents must contact Coach Casey (crhopp@hotmail.com) by Wed 9/25 with athletes Name, Gender, Grade in School...(NO cost this year) ...it is the responsibility of each family to provide transportation for their Middle School athlete(s) to and from the meet and to provide their own race day attire***