Big 8 Grade Level Challenge - 4th Place

Madison Memorial headed back to Lake Farm Park Tuesday night to take on the Big 8 Conference in the Grade Level Challenge. This meet pits runners against other athletes their grade and score the 7 lowest runners on each team in their individual grade level races. Winning this meet takes talent across all grade levels and individuals who can score in the top 10 or higher against their peers. The fall weather set in Tuesday night to provide a great cross country atmosphere. Unfortunately the overnight rainfall had not yet drained from the course leaving puddles, soft corners, and some muddy situations. The Spartans plunges through the puddles and put together a very solid performance in the cool weather. Their score of 47 points was good enough for a 4th place finish missing out on 3rd place by just a point. The scorers for the team were Luke V 16:58 - 3rd in Jr race, Rory S 17:15 - 5th in Sr race , Jack Z 17:18 - 6th in Jr race, Trevor R 17:25 - 7th in Sr race, Peter V 18:55 - 7th in Fr race, Jonas B 17:34 - 8th in Jr race, and Dominic G - 17:52 - 11th in Jr race. Even though conditions were not ideal we had 20 athletes set season bests and 7 lifetime bests. PRs were set by Richard T (:26), Yazi Y (:24), Finn J (:18), Liam H (:14), Peter S (:08), Martin V (:02), and Adrian A (:01).

Busy time of year...stay on top of homework, get sleep, take care of your body. It is an important time to be on top of our game as we focus in on the last invite of the season and then the championship season. Make good decisions and be ready to take care of business at school, practice, and meets.

GRADE LEVEL RESULTS
All Results (interactive)
All Results (pdf)

NEXT COMPETITION
Saturday October 3rd
Stoughton Invitational @ Stoughton HS
Bus - 7:00am
9:00am - 1st Race
9:35am - Boys JV (2014 Results)
10:45am - Boys Varsity (2014 Results)
11:20am - Open race (parents or siblings)
12:00pm - Awards (Var - 2 teams & 25 individuals, JV - 1 team & 15 individuals)

NEWS & NOTES
Carpooling - Families interested in participating in a cross country carpool for practice &/or meets should contact Sherri Swartz (sherrribeth@gmail.com) - whether you are willing to drive or just looking for help with rides

Bucket Hats - available for $25...bring $ to Casey ASAP

UPCOMING EVENTS
Wed Sept 23rd - Light of Life Walk @ JMM - 6:00pm - 6:45pm (required for athletes...families are welcome to join) $5 donation towards Cancer Research - turn in to Casey ASAP

Order JMM Cross Country Clothing

Click HERE and order clothes

Midwest Invitational - Fr/So - 8th, Varsity - 3rd, JV - 1st

Midwest Invitational - 3rd Place Varsity

On Saturday 41 boys teams, containing over 1,000 runners, from 4 different states descended on Janesville for the Midwest Invitational. The meet included the top ranked D1 (Madison LaFollette), D2 (Wisconsin Lutheran), & D3 (Darlington) teams from the state of Wisconsin and a plethora of teams ranked in their respective divisions by the coaches association. This meet is by far the biggest meet that we compete in all season and one of the more competitive meets too. The boys were prepared to compete well after a great week of practice. The frosh/soph team led the meet off with their 8th place finish. Followed by the varsity taking 3rd place behind the #1 (LaFollette) and #2 (Kimberly) ranked teams in the D1 Wisconsin, and the JV team ended on a high note by earning 1st place. It was a successful meet that marks the 1/2 way point of our competition season and prepares us for an exciting finish over the next month.

The day started with our boys freshman and sophomores representing us against some of the top young talent in the state. This group continues to work hard at practice and will be the future of our team soon. They were led today by the efforts of Peter V (PR 18:13 - 20th) and Joel F (18:31 - 32nd). Throughout the race our pack tried to pull closer and closer to these runners it was fun to see this group working to run together. The scorers were rounded out by Eli T (18:40 - 38th), Elliot B (PR 18:46 - 42nd), and Malcolm B (19:05 - 48th). Also enjoying PRs on the day following closely behind were Stryder C (19:05 - 49th) and Eli H (19:13 - 54th). If this group of boys is able to lead our younger runners through some good off-seasons of training and stay healthy there is a lot of upside to what they can do and they might be the group leading us in varsity in a year or two.

There are two different ways to try to have a good cross country team to win a race - 1) excellent top end runners with a couple good 4 - 5 runners or 2)great group of 5 runners. At the Midwest Invitational it was a battle between many teams that were both using this model of running and our team fits into the second category. Our team's #1 runner was the 13th (out of 41), the #2 runner was the 5th best, #3 was 4th best, #4 was 3rd best, #5 was 3rd best, #6 was the best, and #7 was the best in the race. The points we gave up at the front end of the race we were able to make up by our strong depth. Unfortunately strong teams like LaFollette and Kimberly had enough at 4th & 5th runners to be still better than our squad. How do we improve in the coming weeks? Keep our pack close together (less than 30 seconds) and move the whole pack forward 10 - 15 seconds. At today's Midwest invite had we done just that we would have beaten Kimberly by 10 points. We learn from today's meet and move forward to another strong meet at Grade Level & Stoughton. Our varsity group had 4 runners under 17:00 in Luke V (16:28 - 20th), Rory S (PR 16:29 - 21st), Casey GT (PR 16:39 - 24th), and Jonas B (PR 16:41 - 28th). Our depth shined with the performances of Trevor R (PR 17:07 - 49th), Jack Z (PR 17:07 - 51st), and Austin W (17:34 - 83rd). This group continues to lead us in workouts and at meets and look forward to a strong last month to their season.

Our JV team ran a complete race to win a very competitive Midwest Invite. They took down both Wisconsin Lutheran (who went out aggressively and tried to take control of the race) and Arrowhead (who went out conservatively and tried to finish strong to win the race) who are both very deep and strong programs. The JV group was focused and worked together well to score 35 points and put 6 runners in the top 20. The were led by Zach H (17:27 - 2nd) who led much of the race and Dom G (17:35 - 3rd) who closed hard to give our team a strong top 2 runners. They were closely followed by Sam Z (PR 17:54 - 7th) and Jared G (PR 17:56 - 8th) to give us 11 runners unders 18:00 on the day. Ty B (18:20 - 15th) rounded out our scoring 5 while Gabe B (18:23 - 16th) and Benton DD (18:31 - 25th). We will take this group to the Grade Level Challenge on Tuesday before we start our quick but competitive stretch run. Next week Saturday we will get our re-match with Stevens Point (who beat us at Smiley), then we will see Madison West at the City meet (who beat us at Verona & West Invites), and then the season finale Conference meet back at this same course where we will attempt to win the JV1 & JV2 championships. With three weeks remaining in the season we are going in the right direction with 23 athletes setting lifetime personal records on Saturday. These PRs included Clayton K (3:25), Kyle W (1:40), Ameya K (1:24), Pete B (1:22), Martin V (1:13), Walker V (1:07), Peter V (:36), Finn J (:27), James B (:26), Peter S (:24), Joey DR (:12), Adrian A (:10), and Zane R (:06).

This week will be very busy with Homecoming events & 2 meets going on. It is important that athletes are still taking care of themselves, getting rest, and staying caught up on school work. We have 3 weeks left in the season for the JV runners and then finish will be here quickly. Stay focused, stay healthy, and be ready to end the season on a high note.

MIDWEST RESULTS
Frosh/Soph
Varsity
Junior Varsity
Middle School

NEXT COMPETITION
Tuesday September 29th
Big 8 Grade Level Challenge
@ Lake Farm Park (please note change of venue)
Early Release - 1:45pm (only athletes who are competing)
Bus - 2:00pm
4:00pm - 1st Race
4:40pm - Boys Frosh/Soph race (all frosh/soph runners)
6:00pm - Boys Junior/Senior race (all jr/sr runners)
6:45pm - Awards

NEWS & NOTES
Carpooling - Families interested in participating in a cross country carpool for practice &/or meets should contact Sherri Swartz (sherrribeth@gmail.com) - whether you are willing to drive or just looking for help with rides

UPCOMING EVENTS
Wed Sept 23rd - Light of Life Walk @ JMM - 6:00pm - 6:45pm (required for athletes...families are welcome to join) $5 donation towards Cancer Research - turn in to Casey ASAP

Sat Oct 3rd - Stoughton Invite

Order JMM Cross Country Clothing

Click HERE and order clothes

Smiley Invite - Varsity = 1st, JV = 2nd

1st Place - Smiley D1 Varsity

The buses were loaded before the sun could come up, the team traveled over 2.5 hours to Wausau before most people had their Saturday morning breakfast, and on a sunny fall day the Madison Memorial boys took on 22 teams from all corners of Wisconsin in the 59th annual Smiley Invitational. After racing 5k on a difficult former state meet course the boys stormed Stevens Point local eating establishments and viewed/recited multiple Office episodes. During the day multiple PRs and season bests were run, the JV competed tough against one of the best JV programs in the state, and the Varsity team won its first Smiley Invite title. This is what high school cross country is all about and today the Madison Memorial Spartans excelled because of the work they have done throughout the season. As we head into the second half of the season the team is rounding into great shape and look forward to continuing great success.

The strength of our varsity this season has been our ability to run as a team. This was tested on Saturday against some tough competition but the team rose again to the occasion. The varsity scored 72 points to beat Stevens Point by 6 points. Both Madison Memorial & Stevens Point averaged a 17:03 for their scorers and had a total time of 1:25.12 but our top 5 runners were separated by 35 seconds were as the competitions spread was 1 minute 5 seconds. Our group was again led by Jonas B (7th - 16:46) and Luke V (9th - 16:51) who earned top 10 finishes with there sub 17 minute times. Casey GT (16th - 17:06) and Trevor R (18th - 17:08 PR) worked together throughout the race to stay in the top 20. Our #5, 6, 7, & 8 runners were the best of any team in the race and did a wonderful job of moving through the pack throughout the race. Austin W (17:21 - 22nd) & Jack Z (17:27 - 24th) finished strong as Zach H (17:44 - 36th) got this group out in a good position and Dom G (17:57 - 53) gave us 8 runners under 18 minutes (Stevens Point had 7 runners sub 18 where as the next best was 5 runners). The varsity team beat some very strong programs and continues to improve each meet.

From the start of the JV race our guys knew they were in for a strong battle from a very young but talented Stevens Point JV squad. Our team was missing a few key components but again the guys who were in the race stepped up to compete at a high level. We fell short to beating Stevens Point by 11 points but we will have an opportunity to compete against them again in two weeks at Stoughton. This race should be motivation for our JV guys to want to improve every day at practice to finish the last month of the season strong. The JV was led by Jared G (18:15 PR - 3rd) who ran with the lead pack throughout the entire race. Gabe B (18:25 - 5th) and Davis B (18:26 PR - 6th) closed the last mile great to get into the top 10 while Ty B (18:35 - 11th) just missed but still ran great. Frosh Peter V (18:50 PR - 18th) broke the 19 minute barrier rounding out the top 5 scorers. Ben T (18:50 - 19th) and Eli T (18:56 - 23rd) gave us 7 runners in the top 25. In addition to these great races we had PRs run by Imaad S (1:57), Zane R (1:48), Garrett K (1:45), Joey DR (1:11), Richard T (1:11), Liam H (:57), James B (:52), Peter S (:34), Stryder C (:31), Adrian A (:16), Martin V (:05), Elliot B (:03), Ameya K (:03), & Kyle W (:02). We look forward to more PRs each week as we run on some "faster" courses and hopefully get some more good cross country weather.

Things are getting busy both at practice and in school...take care of business to stay eligible, healthy, and ready to compete. If you need help in the classroom make sure to ask your teachers or classmates NOW for help to ensure you don't fall behind this quarter. Get some sleep, eat healthy, hydrate, stretch, and sleep so we are at our best each day to perform and the end of the season will be a positive and fun experience.

SMILEY INVITE RESULTS
Varsity D1 Combined
Varsity D1 Large
JV D1 Combined

NEXT COMPETITION
Saturday Sept 26th
Midwest Invitational @ Blackhawk GC - Janesville, WI
Bus - 6:45am
9:00am - First Race
9:40am - Boys Frosh/Soph (top 7 fr/so runners) (2014 runners)
10:55am - Boys Varsity (top 7 runners) (2014 Results)
12:10pm - Boys JV (all other eligible & healthy runners) (2014 Results)
12:45pm - Middle School 1 mile race (4th - 8th grade siblings/friends)* (2014 results)
Awards (Fr/So - 2 teams & 20 individuals Var - 3 teams & 30 individuals, JV - 20 individuals)
Bring $$$...we will stop to eat on the way home!

* 4th - 8th Graders who are sibling/friends of Memorial athletes or attend Memorial feeder schools can compete in a mile cross country race at 12:45pm representing JMM...to be entered in the race, parents must contact Coach Casey (crhopp@hotmail.com) by Wed 9/23 before 11:00am 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*

NEWS & NOTES
CHANGE OF VENUE - Please note the Big 8 Grade Level Challenge on Tuesday September 29th hosted by Madison East will be held at Lake Farm Park

Carpooling - Families interested in participating in a cross country carpool for practice &/or meets should contact Sherri Swartz (sherrribeth@gmail.com) - whether you are willing to drive or just looking for help with rides

UPCOMING EVENTS
Wed Sept 23rd - Light of Life Walk @ JMM - 6:00pm - 6:45pm (required for athletes...families are welcome to join) $5 donation towards Cancer Research - turn in to Casey ASAP

Order JMM Cross Country Clothing

Click HERE and order clothes

West Invitational - Varsity = 1st, JV = 2nd

Boys Varsity - West Invite Champions

Thursday night the Madison Memorial boys cross country team headed to Lake Farm park to compete in the Madison West Invitational. The temperatures were cooler than our first meet, the size of the field was smaller, but the JMM boys stayed on their hot start to the 2015 season. The varsity started the meet off with a solid performance winning the race with a point total of 30 points. They outdistanced Madison West by 25 points (at Verona the distance was only 5 points). In the JV race it came down to a dual meet between West and JMM with our guys narrowly missing out on the victory (4 points compared to 23 points at Verona). Both teams made nice improvement from our 1st meet to our 2nd meet and it will be important to keep improving as the season continues. The coming weeks of practice are very important to our teams success for the end of the season. It is important EVERY runner is taking care of themselves in the classroom and in running so we get the most out of EVERY day of practice. We look forward to continuing to build on this early season momentum.

The varsity team ran another great TEAM race on Thursday working off their teammates and helping each other to solid performances. All 7 finishers were in the top 30 of the race and our top 5 were all in the top 12. The group was led by Jonas B (2nd - 16:52) and Rory S (3rd - 16:53) both who challenged for the overall victory. They were closely followed by Casey GT (6th - 17:08) and Luke V (8th - 17:10). The top 5 scorers were rounded out by Trevor R (12th - 17:16) providing another solid pack running with a #1 - 5 gap of only :24 seconds. Senior Zach H (22nd - 17:49) and junior Dom G (29th - 18:04) rounded out our top 7 and were the top #6 & #7 runners respectively in the race beating many scoring runners for other teams. The 30 point total was the lowest varsity point total scored during Coach Casey's tenure and the first meet championship by a varsity squad.

Our JV team was focused going into Thursday's race and ran very motivated to follow up their varsity counterparts success. The boys came up short in winning the race but learned a lot about themselves in racing and this was a big step forward for this group as we head into the middle of our racing schedule for the season. The JV team was led by a 2, 3, 4 finish by Jack Z (17:39), Austin W (17:50), and Jared G (18:22). Seniors Sam Z (18:40 - 12th) and Calvin J (18:44-14th) rounded out the JV scoring putting our JV scorers all in the top 15. It wasn't quite enough as West also put their top 7 all in the top 15. If continue to close the gap between our #1 - 5 runners this team will continue to get stronger because it has great leadership at the front of the group. The scoring group was rounded out by junior Davis B (18:47 - 15th) and senior Gabe B (18:55 - 17th). On a soft and sloppy course due to the rain earlier in the day many of the times were not too fast but we still had 15 runners perform at a lifetime PR (personal record). These included Garrett K (3:32), Zane R (3:19), Peter S (1:27), Liam H (1:08), Davis B (:57), Finn J (:55), Joey DR (:53), James B (:32), Pete B (:12), & Elliot B (;01). If we keep working hard at practice, take care of our body, get good sleep, and stay eligible we will see a lot more time drop in the coming weeks from EVERY runner.

WEST INVITE RESULTS
Varsity & JV 

UPCOMING EVENTS
Sat Sept 12th - Team Practice (Elver Park) - 8:00 - 10:00am
Sun Sept 13th - Ironman Volunteering (Optional) = 12-4pm OR 4-8pm @ UW Lot 60
Mon Sept 14th - Team Pictures - 3:45pm (need uniform top & bottom)

NEXT COMPETITION
Saturday Sept 19th
Smiley Invitational @ American Legion GC - Wausau, WI
Bus - 5:30am
8:30am - First Race
10:00am - First D1 Race
11:10am - Boys Varsity (2014 Results)
11:35am - Boys JV (2014 Results)
12:00pm - Awards (Var - 2 teams & 20 individuals, JV - 1 team & 20 individuals)
****Bring $$$...we will stop to eat on the way home!!!!!

NEWS & NOTES
Carpooling - Families interested in participating in a cross country carpool for practice &/or meets should contact Sherri Swartz (sherrribeth@gmail.com) - whether you are willing to drive or just looking for help with rides

Captains Clothing - Captains are ordering 2 items for 2015...boys are encouraged to get both
$25 - JMM CC Bucket Hat and $15 - Long Sleeve Shirt (design by captains...kids can see it at practice but it is pretty cool :)....bring $ to captains on Friday or Saturday

Order JMM Cross Country Clothing

Click HERE and order clothes

Verona Invitational - Var = 2nd, JV = 3rd

Boys Varsity - 2nd Place Overall

The Madison Memorial Spartans made the short trip to Verona Area High School Saturday morning to compete in the 39th annual Verona Invitational.  In the team's first action against competition from outside their own squad the boys competed against some of the best competition in our city, conference, sectional, & state. We learn a lot about our team right away and then hope we can improve from this starting point. Today our varsity had their best finish at the Verona Invitational by scoring 90 points to finish in 2nd place behind Madison LaFollette, narrowly beating both Madison West & Middleton. Our JV was missing some key components and finished in 3rd place behind Madison West & Middleton. Hopefully all the athletes can take something away from their performance this weekend and prepare for the their next race this coming Thursday.

The varsity squad started off the hot & humid morning for the Spartans in the 25 team competition. The group got out well on the first loop and fought hard on the second loop. At the finish they were led by Rory S who finished in 12th place in 17:02. He was closely followed by Luke V in 16th (17:13), Casey GT in 19th (17:16), Jonas B in 21st (17:19), and Trevor R in 22nd (17:20). The top seven were rounded out by Zach H (17:56) and Austin W (18:22). The :18 second gap between our #1 - #5 runners and the 17:14 average time for our varsity were both the best we have seen on this course and the reason leading to our best finish in meet history. We hope to continue to move this varsity group forward while maintaining the small gap for continued success.

Our JV group ran during the hottest part of the day and provided our team with a new challenge to handle this week. After now competing on a flooded course and running through the muggy heat our junior varsity runners are ready for the ever elusive perfect cross country running day. While personal records were still hard to come by at the Verona Invitational we still had many great performances on the day to lead our team to their 3rd place finish. The JV squad was led by Dom G who had a great finish narrowly winning the race placing 2nd in 18:00. He was closely followed by Jack Z in 4th (18:10). Ty B finished in 18th (18:44), Jared G placed 22nd (18:52), and Sam Z rounded out the scoring squad by placing 34th (19:12). The JV1 team was rounded out by Ben T (19:15) and Calvin J (19:17). Our JV gap of 1:12 between our #1 - #5 runners is too large and we need to close together this group (less than :30 gap) to have the success we hope for this season. This will happen by working closer together on workout and mileage days and carrying that over to race days. Some notable races from the day include Peter V who was our top frosh in 19:24, Malcolm B who was our top soph in 19:31, Davis B (19:44) and Chris X (20:54) who set lifetime PRs on this difficult course in difficult conditions because of their hard work over the last year, and for our freshman class who continues to improve each week and have a bright future still ahead of them.

To continue to improve and have success we need to make sure we are staying healthy and taking care of our body. It is important we are at practice daily and communicating with the coaches to insure we are getting the most out of every day. As classes begin we need to make sure we are in class daily, positively participating in the classroom, and turning in our homework regularly. REMINDER TO ALL...TUESDAY REPORTS START THIS WEEK (No Tues Report = No Competition). Keep up the good work at practice and continue to encourage your teammates.

VERONA RESULTS
Varsity Team
Varsity Individual
JV Team
JV Individual

UPCOMING EVENTS
Mon Sept 7th - Captain's Practice (UW-Arboretum) - 8:00 - 9:30am
Sat Sept 12th - Team Practice (Elver Park) - 8:00 - 10:00am
Sun Sept 13th - Ironman Volunteering (Optional) = 12-4pm OR 4-8pm @ UW Lot 60
Mon Sept 14th - Team Pictures - 3:45pm (need uniform top & bottom)

NEXT COMPETITION
Thursday Sept 10th
West Invitational @ Lake Farm Park
Early Release - 1:45pm
Bus - 2:00pm
4:00pm - First Race
4:30pm - Boys Varsity (2014 Results)
5:45pm - Boys JV (2014 Results)
6:45pm - Awards (Var - 2 teams & 25 individuals, JV - 20 individuals)

NEWS & NOTES
Carpooling - Families interested in participating in a cross country carpool for practice &/or meets should contact Sherri Swartz (sherrribeth@gmail.com) - whether you are willing to drive or just looking for help with rides (note the corrected e-mail address 9/6 2:30pm)

Order JMM Cross Country Clothing

Click HERE and order clothes