State Championships - 7th Best D1 Team in the State!!!!

The culmination of the 2015 Boys CC Season took place on Saturday at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids. The race included 20 of the best division one teams and 50 of the best division one athletes. This season the Madison Memorial boys team participated in the State Meet for the 16th time in school history. The season began in August but the work for this one day started for most of these athletes in June. Many of these kids have been working towards this event since their freshman year and multiple years of hard work, long mileage, fast workouts, countless strength exercises, endless hours of stretching/icing, and many sacrifices were rewarded with seventeen minutes of racing on one of the hardest courses in the state of Wisconsin in muddy and wet conditions. To many people outside of the sport of cross country (and some even in the sport) it doesn't make sense to work that hard and be that wet but the smiles on the faces of the kids cheering along the course and the boys who finished the race explain that it is all worth the effort. Our team, like every team, had its fair share of ups and downs this season with illness and injuries but throughout it all we kept our team goals in sight and this is what led to our good end of the season. The JMM CC boys team was not satisfied with just making it to state but instead wanted to make sure they had one more good race to end their 2015 campaign. Our team did exactly what we did all season long, run like a TEAM, and this led to a strong 7th place finish. As we turn the page on the season the questions become can we seek out the hard work and dedication that can earn us a spot back at this meet again next season, who will step in to replace our seniors, and can we improve upon this 7th place finish?

The Madison Memorial boys team was comprised of 67 athletes this season and on Saturday that team was well represented by the boys who toed the line at the WIAA State Championships. Luke V (56th overall - 17:01), Rory S (58th - 17:02), Casey GT (62nd - 17:05), Jonas B (69th - 17:08), Jack Z (86th - 17:14), Trevor R (119th - 17:33), and Zach H (148th - 17:47) put forth a great effort on a difficult course in even more difficult conditions. Our work throughout the season and the meets on the tough course in difficult conditions helped this team improve on their 10th place ranking to finish with 213 points in 7th place. Kimberly (80 points) and Madison LaFollette (99 points) earned state trophies on the day and the Big 8 was represented amazingly by LaFollete (2nd), Middleton (4th), Madison Memorial (7th), and Sun Prairie (10th). Our team plan all season long was to keep an eye on your teammates and move together as a group. This is difficult to accomplish at the state meet with 190 of the best athletes jammed into a small window but our guys did it better than ever on Saturday. Our team split of 13 seconds between 1 - 5 is what earned us the 7th place finish. Jonas did an amazing job of getting the team out to a strong start through the mile. His teammates followed the lead and we saw great kicks from the likes of Luke, Rory, & Casey as they fought for every point in the finish. Jack had a great race as he moved through the pack to be our 5th runner, he passed 42 people between the mile mark and the finish. Trevor R ended up being the 3rd best #6 runner in the state while Zach H was also the 3rd best #7 runner...Trevor bumped up the score of every team behind us (13 teams) and Zach would have been in the top 5 of 7 teams today. To take that next step as a team we need to move this group forward. It is just small amounts that accomplish it, notice the 13 seconds that separated Luke & Jack was 30 places. I look forward to seeing what the returning juniors in this group can do and wonder which athletes will step up to be the next runner to represent JMM at the State Championships.

This season our JV team reached its goal of winning the Big Eight Championship and our Varsity reached the goal of earning a trip to the State Meet. We have one last team goal left and that takes place in the classroom. Let's make sure we finish the 1st quarter strong and keep up the hard work in the classroom all school year long. We hope to have every athlete with a 3.0 or better GPA and a team GPA over 3.4.

THANK YOU to the fans who braved the weather to be a part of this special day...lots of proud Spartans out there today!

STATE RESULTS

Boys D1 Interactive Results

Boys D1 Team Results

Boys D1 Individual Results

COVERAGE
Video from 1 1/3 mile mark
Video from the 2 mile mark
VIP Photos (official WIAA photographer)

END OF YEAR NOTES
- Please send pictures that can be used for an end of year slideshow on a memory stick/flash drive to Coach Casey at school ASAP
- End of year banquet will be Thursday November 5th @ Rocky's - starts @ 5:30pm ($10 per person pay at door) RSVP to jmmcc@rocketmail.com
- Athletes who have not yet turned in $10 to captains for Thanksgiving Baskets & Coaches' Gifts...please do so ASAP

END OF YEAR SURVEYS
End of Season Survey (PARENTS)
End of Season Survey (ATHLETES)

Order JMM Cross Country Clothing

Click HERE and order clothes