West Invite - Varsity = 4th JV = 3rd

The weather cooperated Thursday night at the West Invitational as the Madison Memorial Spartans looked to improve upon their opening weekend performance in this second meet of the season. Our team competed at a very high level tonight and saw the benefits of this competition with 47 PRs. Our performance of having 10 athletes under 18:00 and 28 athletes under 20:00 shows great depth for this time of season and we look forward to seeing more athletes join their teammates at these milestones. Unfortunately our team also learned a valuable lesson on how every point counts and everyone must compete to the very end. Our JV team tied for second but lost the tie breaker (#6 runner) to Verona ending up third. While our varsity missed out on beating Verona by just 4 points (we beat them by 3 points at the Verona Invite). There are many ways we can make up these points in a race and it is a valuable lesson for us to learn now so we fight for every point the remainder of the season. Overall tonight's performance was a great meet and we look forward to putting in some more positive work at practice in the coming days to build upon this meet.

The JV team started off the meet for the Spartans with a solid performance against West and Verona. This group continues to improve each week and provides energy for our varsity to stay at their best. Today we were led by Mason R, Rory S, and Connor GT who all earned top ten finishes. These guys led the charge on closing the gap to West. On Saturday West had 4 runners before our #1 guy, today they only had 3 runners...on Saturday West's #1 runner was 35 seconds ahead of our #1 guy, today it was only 19 seconds. We learned today that Verona will also be a challenge as they put their 3, 4, & 5 runners right in front of our #4 runner. We will see both of these teams a couple more times before Conference and we are confident we are able to compete with both of these teams. Our scoring runners include Zach H and Ty B at 14th and 15th while Marcus F and Trevor R earned medals by also finishing in the top 20. Some big PRs in today's JV race came from Sylvan G (:58), Giovanni S (1:12), Sam S (:55), Joe H (:46), Justin H (:31), Josh L (:33), Alex V (:44), Nathan Wa (2:11), Grant D (:35), Chris M (:53), Rory S (:52), Austin W (1:27), Sam Z (:31), Jonas B (1:05), Davis B (3:01), Alex B (3:18), Henry C (1:47), Dominic G (:35), Jared G (:54), Casey GT (:37), Jansen H (2:24), Ben K (:50), Nathan K (1:51), Chris M (2:46), Rory M (1:44), Jacob T (1:06), Alec W (1:26), Nathan We (2:00), and Jack Z (:33). The sky is the limit for this group. Keep your goals lofty and work hard to reach them.

The varsity ran a great race today against some stiff competition. West (ranked #1 in division 1) was first and Monroe (ranked #4 in division 2) finished second. We lost a close battle with Verona and feel like our teams are very equal at this time. The work we do in the coming weeks will make a difference on if we stay equal or pull ahead of Verona. The varsity was led by James A and Bryce H who both broke 17:00 for the 1st time this season earning top 10 finishes. Our second group did a nice job of finishing together, we just need to move this group 10 - 15 seconds closer to James and Bryce. Sam B, Jake R, Ben B, and Brad G finished within 5 seconds of each other going 26, 27, 28, and 29th overall. Benton DD rounded out are varsity seven with his time of 17:50. This is the first time at the West Invite we have had our entire varsity under 18 minutes (we also had 3 JV runners under 18:00). These are great times to be running the fourth week of the season! Over the coming days and weeks we will need to close the gap between our #1 and #5 runners from :41 seconds to less than :30 seconds. It would be great to have 7+ athletes under 17:15 by the end of the season. Today's meet (like all of our meets leading up to Conference, Sectionals, and State) is an opportunity for us to move forward as a team. We will be back at this course on Tuesday and hope to have the same success we saw today against all the Big Eight teams during the Grade Level Challenge. Keep up the great work competing, going to class, taking care of your body, and doing all of the little things so we keep this momentum going strong.

WEST INVITE RESULTS
Boys JV

Boys Varsity

UPCOMING EVENTS

Sept 13th (Fri) and Sept 16th (Mon) - Clothing Handout - Put your name in your new gear

Sept 14th (Sat) - Required Practice - Elver Park 8:00am - 10:00am (Note Venue Change)

Sept 20th (Fri) - Team Pictures - 3:45pm (need uniform top and bottom)

NEXT COMPETITION
Big 8 Grade Level Challenge

Tuesday - September 17th

@ Yahara Cross Country Course (the Dump)

Bus Time - 2:30pm Early Release - 2:15pm (Must have completed Tues Report to compete)

4:30pm - First Race

5:10pm - Boys Frosh/Soph Race (2012 Results)

6:30pm - Boys Junior/Senior Race (2012 Results)

7:15pm - Awards Ceremony (2012 Team Results)