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
