Midwest Invite - Varsity = 7th, Blue JV = 3rd, White JV = 7th

Boys Varsity @ Midwest Invitational

Over 40 schools gathered at Blackhawk Golf Course in Janesville, WI for the 82nd Annual Midwest Invitational. Including teams from Illinois, Texas, and 14 ranked teams from Wisconsin. This type of competition is exciting and leads to fast times on a course that had great footing despite the wet conditions. For the second year in a row we ran a looped course that although it might not be exciting it allows the spectators to see you multiple times. It is a great midyear checkpoint for our team and prepares us for the end of the year stretch run. Our team passed the test with flying colors placing well in all three races and setting 32 lifetime best PRs. We head into the last three weeks of the seasons looking towards a strong finish to the 2019 season. Keep taking care of business in the classroom and at practice. Even faster times are on the horizon and more fun times. Every Runner, Every Run, Every Day.

Racing began with the Blue JV race which was meant for athletes who had broken 20:30 on the season. We got to see some impressive JV squads this year and Green Bay Preble can be added to that group today as they put 5 JV runners under 17:40 (a good goal for our team in the future). Our team took 3rd scoring 111 points behind Preble and Arrowhead. It is no surprise to see the JV teams that run well correlate with the teams that are strong (and ranked) at the varsity level. These athletes make our team better every day. Today they were led by Henry B who ran a PR to place 8th in 17:32. He was followed by other medals in Aidan P (19th - 17:49), Jacob W (21st - 17:50), and Avery G (27th - 18:00). Jakob M ran a nice PR to round out our scoring with a 38th place finish in 18:10. Our 1 - 5 gap was at 38 seconds and we'll need to see this tighten up in the coming weeks to finish at our best as a team. Keep running as a group and keeping an eye on your teammates during the race and we can close up this gap, similar to how we run in practices. Other lifetime PRs on the day included Jack G (18:24), Alvaro S (18:40), Sean S (18:42), Matthew B (18:54), Gio B (18:58), Alex T (19:32), Felipe R (19:40), Derek R (19:51), and Jack M (20:03).

Our varsity race wasn't perfect but good teams can help each other out and as a group can have a great performance even when they aren't perfect. Today our team finally achieved that and maybe the future still holds that perfect race. We took 7th place to LaFollette (ranked #3), Preble (#4), Arrowhead (#5), Oconomowoc (#9), Warren Township (from IL), and Brookfield East (#7). Our 7th place finish is third best finish at this meet since 2003...the other two better finishes were teams that went to state. We were able to beat Kimberly (ranked #10), Houston MacArthur (from TX), Sun Prairie (#19), Shorewood (ranked in D2), Kenosha Indian Trail (#17). While this performance will certainly improve our state ranking (we were 20th) it does not guarantee us anything the rest of the way. It was nice to beat some of these teams at Midwest but it will be more important to be them at Conference and Sectionals. Our team was led by Dylan A who earned a medal with his 30th place finish in a PR of 16:41. Close behind was AJ K who dipped under 17:00 for the first time crossing in 16:52 for 41st place. Our 3 - 6 runners worked together to finish nicely. Bobby R was 54th in 17:00, Cole W was 67th in 17:11, Jake Z finished in 17:19 for 79th, and Brett N was 83rd in 17:21. Mick S rounded out our varsity group finishing very strong after a tough start to the race. Our varsity #1 -5 gap of 38 seconds is what helped us place well at this meet. We did a great job of moving this group forward and it was great seeing fiver under 17:20 and a 6th runner being the 4th best in the race and beating multiple #5 runners. This group keeps improving and it is a direct reflection of the work they are doing at practice.

The white JV race wrapped up the day and it seems not all coaches followed the guidelines for this race. Regardless, our kids went out and competed at a high level leading to multiple PRs. Thomas L had a nice PR that led to him earning a medal finishing 9th in 19:02. As a team we finished 7th (getting beat by some teams actual JV teams) and were led to this by Logan S (19:47), Jacob T (20:10), Peter H (20:14), and Alec H (20:14) who all ran season bests. Other lifetime PRs set in this race included Diego A (20:45), Max L (21:24), Soren D (21:41), Owen R (22:17), Will T (22:18), Elijah E (22:25), Peter S (22:28), Adrian C (22:32), Devin S (22:46), Nicholas S (23:08), and Daleep S (23:49). A lot of runners reached their season goals today and now need a new goal for the last three weeks of the season. We look forward to seeing more fast times and more goals reached.

RESULTS
Varsity Boys
JV Blue Boys
JV White Boys
Middle School Boys

NEXT MEET
Saturday October 5th
Stoughton Invite @ Stoughton HS - Stoughton, WI
PLEASE NOTE RACE TIME CHANGES
Bus - 7:00am
9:30am - First Race
10:00am - Boys Varsity (2018 Results)
11:10am - Boys JV (2018 Results)
11:45am - Awards - Varsity = 2 teams & 25 individuals, JV = 1 team & 15 individuals
**We will NOT stop to eat...bring money for concession or eat upon return
Return to JMM around 1:00pm

NEWS & NOTES
- We raised $280 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society...THANK YOU to everyone that participated in the Light of Life Walk
- Progress Reports are coming out soon.....make sure you have all your work turned in and you are ready for any quizzes/tests
- We had lots of kids sick this week....wash your hands, get good sleep, hydrate, and eat well...TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF