Verona Invite - Varsity = 14th, JV = 2nd

When I awoke Saturday morning to thunder and lightning I was not sure if we would get our first meet of the season completed or not. The lightning passed but the rain persisted leaving a soft, wet, and muddy course to be traversed at Verona HS. Our inexperience in the varsity race showed as our team got out too slow for the first mile and struggled to pass people on the difficult course conditions. Our JV runners learned from this and did a much better job of positioning themselves in the field to place well. On the day, times were not super fast but cross country is not always about running super fast times. Saturday was hopefully a learning experience to be prepared for all weather conditions, to compete regardless what the course throws at you, and to realize we are better than what we performed on Saturday. We got our first look at many of our conference and sectionals foes at the Verona Invite... now it is time to set our sights on improving so we can compete with these teams in six weeks. The work we are putting in at practice will get us to our team goals. We need to carry that confidence from practice into our next meet and keep improving each day. As a whole, week 3 was a successful week and our 14th place finish does not represent what JMM Boys CC can do this season. I hope each member of our team comes out next week to really compete and show the progress our team is making.

The varsity race was a first for Peter B, Joey C, Brett N, and Sam S and combined Imaad S, Peter V, and Peter S have only run in 10 varsity races. Racing against this competition is different and difficult. Our group got out too slow in the first mile, spending too much time and energy on the second loop trying to pass people on the hills and mud. We needed to be out about 20 seconds faster the first mile which could have led to 40+ seconds improvement over the 5k. Imaad led the charge in the second half of the race finishing strong for 48th in 18:14. The 30 second gap we had between 1 - 2 will be helped next week with some new faces but today Peter B did a great job of leading our 2 - 5 runners to the finish. Peter ran a personal best 18:44 and in the next twenty seconds we saw Peter V (18:54), Brett N (19:02), and Joey C (19:05) cross the line. This group can work together in the coming weeks to really improve and make our team more competitive. Sam S (19:22) learned a lot as a sophomore in his first varsity race and Peter S (19:38) rounded out or top seven. Finishing 14th in a meet of 23 teams is tough but I know we can do better as the season moves on...so we get back to work and look forward to the next race.

Our JV team finished a very solid 2nd place as a few runners looked to earn a varsity spot. We have our work cut out to chase down Madison West but now we know how much improvement we need to make. JV was led by Sophomores Aidan P in 3rd - 18:20 and Dylan A in 5th 18:32. Aidan S was 11th in 18:43 and will join these guys in trying to help out our varsity next week. Another sophomore Cole W earned a medal with his 18th place 19:07 and junior Nick B set another PR rounding out our top 5 running 19:35 for 32nd. We'll need to tighten up our front group to have a chance to compete with some of the top JV teams in the state but these guys have been working hard and I know they will be able to continue to improve. The hard work is starting to show as even on a muddy and difficult course we saw 15 lifetime PRs set...these guys didn't care what the weather was like, they were going to compete and that led to fast times. Lifetime bests were set by Tim Z, Matthew B, Micah S, Liam J, Santi R, Sean S, Ethan Y, Alex B, Rees H, Jake K, Jakob M, Felipe R, Mick S, and Alex T. Keep up the good work!

School starts this week...start your year off right. Be on time to class, participate, ask questions, get help if need, turn in your homework, and make good decisions. Take care of business in the classroom so we have no distractions from taking care of business on the cross country course.

RESULTS
Boys Varsity
Boys JV

NEXT MEET
Saturday September 8th
Hadler Invite (Menomonee Falls) @ Rotary Park
Bus Departure - 6:45am (arrive early...bus will NOT wait)
9:45am - First Race
PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGES (different then parent handbook)
9:45am - JV Boys (2017 Results)
11:00am - Varsity Boys (2017 Results)
12:15pm - Awards (Varsity - top 15 individuals & top team, JV - top 5 individuals)
**** Bring $ to eat...we will stop to eat on the way home****
(This is our first year going to this meet... my guess for return time is 3pm)

UPCOMING EVENTS
9/3 (Monday) - Captain's Practice @ UW Arboretum (meet at visitors center) - 8:00am - 9:30am
9/4 (Tuesday) - School Starts - Practice starts at 3:45pm...change in locker room & meet by "shed"
9/9 (Sunday) - Ironman Volunteering @ Lot 60 on UW (optional) 12pm - 4pm OR 4pm - 8pm

NEWS & NOTES
- Clothing order...we are still waiting for Order #1 from July...we are hopeful it will be delivered this week and we will get it home to families right away (Order #2 from August is supposed to be delivered September 14th BUT #1 is over 2 weeks delayed.....so??)
- Get some SLEEP...school starts this week, get in a good routine
- Eat, hydrate, stretch, & ice to take care of your body
- To help with the recovery process - bring a water bottle to hydrate right after runs...you can even bring a snack to start to replace those calories
- JMM CC Bucket Hat - Available at practice from Coach Casey for $25