Smiley Invite - Varsity = 4th, JV = 2nd

It wouldn't be a cross country season without fun bus stories and sometimes those stories include the bus not being there. Luckily, we got everyone to Wausau for the meet where we were greeted with summer like conditions. The D1 boys were the last two races of the day, during the hottest part of the day, and times were effected by the heat. The JMM boys did their best to battle the heat and the difficult competition, and turned in a nice performance at the 62nd Annual Smiley Invitational. The varsity took on state ranked SPASH (#2), Sun Prairie (#14) and Eau Claire Memorial (#18). While the JV once again battled the strong SPASH team (in the 9 years we have run this meet...either JMM (twice) or SPASH has won the JV race). Overall it was another great day of cross country in the state of Wisconsin.

The varsity started off the meet with a strong 4th place overall (3rd in large schools) performance finishing behind SPASH and Sun Prairie. This is the 2nd time we have seen Sun Prairie this season and we are closing the gap nicely on this team. Early in the year they put 4 runners in front of our #1 runner while today our #1 was only 9 seconds behind their #2 and ahead of their 3rd runner. Imaad S once again led our pack finishing 18th overall with a time of 17:20. Aidan P (22 - 17:25) and Aidan S (25 - 17:30) came in during the next 10 seconds and earned top 20 large school finishers giving us 3 medalists on the day. Dylan A hung on tough for a 37 place finish in 17:49. Our gap of 1:01 back to our number 5 is too large and with improvement back to our pack we had at Menomonee Falls we would have beat Marshfield and would have been closer to Sun Prairie. Peter V and Peter B battled the heat to finish 56th & 57th in 18:21 & 18:22 respectively. Sophomores Cole W (18:36 - 69) and Sam S (18:52 - 80) continue to gather valuable varsity race experience. As a team each race better prepares us for the championship season and teaches us how to race against tough competition. This group continues to improve and compete. Staying healthy and consistent over the last month of the season will give us an opportunity to reach our team goals.

In the JV race it was evident that SPASH has a strong deep program. I was excited to see our guys willing to compete with these runners. In some cases this led to fast times and other quality learning experiences. This group needs to remember to stay focused on their training & pace and keep that competitive attitude to keep improving. We see this group again in 2 weeks and we'll see which group has improved more. Our JV was led today by senior Neil K who ran a lifetime PR of 18:36 to earn 10th place right in front of junior Brett N who ran 18:37 for 11th. Joining them in the top 20 were Jacob W (18:51 - 16th), Peter S (18:53 - 17th), and Avery G (18:58 - 20th). Our scoring group had a spread of 22 seconds and will just need to nudge this group forward to keep pace with the top JV teams in the state. Gavin H and Nick B rounded out the top 7 giving us our 5th best group of JV runners on this course having them all under 19:05. Some other notable performances go to the runners who had lifetime PRs on the course today including Liam J (22:38),  Jackson P (23:55), and Felipe R (21:48). Keep up the great work! The JV runners are getting through their toughest part of training all season. Staying consistent during the coming days will be accomplished by stretching, icing, sleeping, and doing strength exercises. Less than 4 weeks remain...things are getting real now!

RESULTS
Overall D1 Varsity Results
Large School D1 Varsity Results
Overall D1 JV Results

NEXT MEET
Tuesday September 18th
Big 8 Grade Level Challenge @ Verona HS
1:45pm - Early Release (only competing athletes)
2:00pm - Bus
4:00pm - Boys Frosh/Soph (2017 Results)
5:20pm - Boys Jr/Sr (2017 Results)
6:40pm - Awards (top 5 in each grade level)

NEWS & NOTES
Monday Sept 17th - TEAM PICTURES - 3:45pm - bring your uniform TOP & BOTTOM
Saturday Sept 22nd - Midwest Invite @ Janesville
***Families who have 4th - 8th grade siblings who are interested in running the middle school mile at Midwest Invite should e-mail Casey ASAP with name, gender, grade (crhopp@hotmail.com)
Still NO word on clothing order #2
Captain's shirts information will come home this week
Wednesday Sept 26th - Light of Life Walk 6:00pm - 6:45pm (team event...apart of homecoming week)