Stoughton Invitational - Varsity = 5th, JV = 2nd

Madison Memorial descended upon Stoughton High School Saturday morning arriving to cool fall temperatures, a brisk wind, and sunny skies. The meet guaranteed to be competitive as 7 of the top 20 teams in the state were attending the 14 team meet (LaFollette #1, JMM #5, SPASH #6, Sun Prairie #7, Middleton #9, Verona #15, & Baraboo #20). Coming off of a race Tuesday and contending with homecoming week festivities the boys look to put their best foot forward as we took this last stepping stone before starting the championship season. Good times were run by both groups leading to a 2nd place finish in junior varsity and a 5th place finish in varsity. The JV was able to take down SPASH who beat us at Smiley but lost to Middleton in a close race. Luckily we see Middleton one more time at Conference & two weeks and we will have a good chance to best the in that meet. The varsity finished 5th out of the 7 ranked teams but all 5 teams could be top 8 teams at the state meet. It will be important for this group to continue what they are doing over the next three weeks to insure the opportunity to prove this at the state meet. As a team it is important we get our rest and get back to full strength in the coming days. The last weeks of the season will be competitive but exciting and all of our team goals are still attainable.

The racing began with the JV race that pitted Middleton (beat us at Verona) and Stevens Point (beat us at Smiley) against our JV squad. Our group got stuck a little back at the tight start but moved up well throughout the race. They were led by Austin W (17:44 - 4th) and Dom G (17:47 - 5th) who earned top 5 finishes. Our next three all finished in the top 20 as Jared G (17:57) finished 10th, Benton DD (18:00) finished 11th, and Sam Z (18:13) finished 20th. Unfortunately Middleton had all their scorers in the top 15 but are well within reach over the coming weeks. Seniors Ben T (30th - 18:32) and Calvin J (38th - 18:44) rounded out the top 7 on JV today. This group had 23 season best performances including lifetime PRs by Zane R (1:08), Walker V (1:01), Pete B (:37), Imaad S (:32), Finn J (:22), Garrett K (:18), Joey DR (:14), Matt B (:13), Adrian A (:10), James B (:08), and Stryder C (:01). This group has two races remaining against good competition at potentially fast courses...looking forward to even more and bigger PRs in the coming weeks.

In the varsity race our squad got out to a good position in the early part of the race but just lacked the extra energy on this day to move up throughout the race. Our team had 5 runners under 17:20 and that should not take 5th place at a normal 14 team meet but the competition on Saturday was not a normal 14 team meet. There were just not enough teams in this field for our team to benefit from our strong 4 - 5 runners and therefor led to our 5th place finish. Our top 5 had another strong finish with a spread of only 36 seconds. They were led today by Luke V (16:43 - 14th),  Rory S (16:55 - 20th), and Jonas B (16:57 - 22nd) who all earned medals with their top 25 finishes and sub 17:00 performances. This group was followed closely by Casey GT (17:09 - 27th) and Trevor R (17:19 - 35th). Jack Z had another nice race being the 2nd best #6 runner in the race finishing 40th in 17:26 and Zach H joined him in the top 50 with his 49th place 17:47 performance.

Take care of business in the classrooms (check out those progress reports), get some rest after homecoming week, and mentally prepare for the upcoming championship run. The hard work over the summer and last couple months is ready to be used to end with some spectacular times and finishes for this season.

STOUGHTON RESULTS
Varsity

Junior Varsity

NEXT COMPETITION
Friday October 9th 

City Championship @ Lake Farm Park

Early Release - 1:45pm

Bus - 2:00pm

4:00 - Meet Begins

4:30 - Boys Varsity (2014 Results)

5:40 - Boys JV (2014 Results)

NO BUS HOME - EVERYONE IS INVITED TO ALL-CITY CELEBRATION
All City Boys Cross Country Post Meet Celebration
Madison LaFollete HS @ 702 Pflaum Road  
$6.00 for all you can eat Pizza Oven pizza
Begins immediately after the awards (~6:45pm) and goes until you are full - Awards presentation at about 7:15pm

UPCOMING EVENTS
Saturday October 10th - Team Practice - 8:00am ~ 9:15am @ Ice Age Trail & Military Ridge Trail Junction Park & Ride in Verona - MAP

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

JV Athletes last day of practice is Monday October 19th

Order JMM Cross Country Clothing

Click HERE and order clothes