Rain, mud, and cold have become a common setting for races at Lake Farm Park over the past couple years and this year's City Championships didn't disappoint. Runners dashed through puddles, slipped and slid through mud, and raced to stay warm with near freezing wind chills. Some athletes came prepared and others just made due for the day but the racing was competitive again as we saw some great competition. LaFollette (currently ranked #2 in D1), West (#5), Memorial (#16), Edgewood (#8 in D2), and East provide great competition for our boys each and every year. Today was no different.
The varsity started off the competition where we were looking to run to get some guys on All-City and protect our third place spot in the city. Dylan worked his way up to 7th before holding on to 9th and an Honorable Mention All-City finish with his sub 17 time of 16:57. Bobby R and AJ K worked together in the middle part of the race and finished 13th & 14th respectively. Our next group included Jake Z, Aidan P, and Brett N coming in 18th, 19th, & 20th. Cole W rounded out the varsity in 17:56 giving us all seven runners sub 18. Our gap today from #1 - 5 runners grew a bit and we want to close that up before Conference. Today there were fewer bodies in the middle of the race making it harder to stay together and less damaging to our team scores. At Conference and Sectional it will be important we keep our group together and towards the front. Our group in varsity today only had one senior and the future looks bright for what we could accomplish next year and beyond. The question is, are we willing to do the work to be the 2020 City Champs?
We started the season at Verona Invite taking 3rd place to Middleton and West in the JV race. Our goal from that day forward was improve enough to beat both teams and claim the JV City Championship and the Big 8 JV Championship. Today our top runners were prepared for the conditions and determined to run better then the last couple of weeks. We got the front of the race early and then competed. As the race progressed we saw many JMM jerseys appear at the front of the race, looking strong and determined with good race strategies. It was fun to see this group appear at the 2 mile mark and three green jerseys leading the way. Henry B, Mick S, and Peter B then worked to pull away from the other runners and give us three more runners finishing sub 18. Henry B became our third JV City Champion under Coach Casey in a time of 17:45 and our first since 2015. Mick was Runner-Up in a lifetime PR of 17:54 and Peter B was third in a season best of 17:55. Joining them in the the top earning awards were Jacob W in 8th and Charles ML running a lifetime PR for 10th. Having five runners in the top ten gave us a team score of 24 which was very impressive. Our group was spread less then 30 seconds. We will need to repeat this next week to have a chance to beat Middleton. Our top seven today was rounded out by Sean S who ran a lifetime PR of 18:37 and Sam S. This group will represent in JV1 at Conference as our next group will take on the JV 2 race. Today we also had lifetime PRs from Alec H and Owen R. Our JV guys will wrap up the season at Rockport Park and we are hoping for good weather and conditions to see how many more guys can PR at the end of the season. After securing the JV City Championship this week their is still one more goal looming next week for our team. Lets go get it...Every Runner, Every Run, Every Day!
RESULTS
Varsity
JV
NEXT MEET
Saturday October 19th
Big 8 Championships @ Rockport Park - Janesville, WI
Bus - 7:00am
9:30am - First Race
10:00am - Boys Varsity (2018 Results)
11:05am - Boys JV1 (2018 Results)
12:20pm - Boys JV2 (2018 Results)
1:00pm - Awards - top 15 in each race recognized
**Bring $ - we will stop to eat on the way home**
Approximate return to JMM is 3:00pm
PARKING INFORMATION FOR FANS - additional MAP
NEWS & NOTES
Mandatory Meeting - Monday Oct 20th - 3:45 - 4:15pm - Team Locker Room
- ALL JV athletes should turn in uniform on Monday!
- Athletes will receive end of the season and off-season team information
Practice the week of October 20th will be just for athletes on the Sectional team (other running options available for those looking to continue running)
Athletes should bring $10 to their captains for Coaches' Gifts/Thanksgiving Day Baskets
