It had been awhile since the Madison Memorial boys cross country team had attended an invitational and what a great way to get back into the action. The boys competed in the Verona Invitational at the new Stewart Woods School Forest in Verona breaking in the new (very legit) cross country course with 24 schools from Wisconsin & Illinois. The field included 6 ranked teams from the state, many of our top competition from the Big 8 Conference, and our very own JMM runners. The course is a fun & challenging course for runners & spectators alike and our boys took on the challenge valiantly. The boys varsity started off the day being competitive the entire way and finishing 4th out of 24 teams. Now we set our eyes on taking down Middleton (#9 in state rankings), Verona (#8), and Madison West (#15)...all teams that are in our range of competition. The JV group had an impressive day taking 2nd in the large field of 389 runners only losing to cross town competition Madison West. We will return to this course for the Grade Level Challenge in just over a week and we can use what we learned today to help us run even faster on this course. This meet was a great way to start our competitive portion of our schedule and I look forward to bigger and better things in the weeks to come...including some 1st place team finishes!
Our varsity was led today by Jake Z who ran a PR, broke 17 minutes and earned a top 10 finish to lead our team. We look forward to having more join him in the sub 17 club and set our sights now to 16:30 & faster. Not far behind was Mick in 17:12 (PR) finishing 15th the 2nd best #2 runner on the day. AJ was our #3 runner earning a medal with his top 30 finish. Henry finished at 18:00 as our fourth runner and Jack G was 18:08 giving us 5 runners in the top 50. Our gap of #1 - 5 was 1:10 and we need to close this down under 1:00 again and closer to :45 if possible. If we had been there today...it would have been a team victory and we know we can do this. It is important in large field like this to work with your teammates and keep an eye on them during the race to keep our group closer together. Jonathan B in his first varsity race was our #6 runner and the best #6 runner in the field showing our depth and that he is ready to help push our scorers. Jakob M also in his first varsity race rounded out our top 7 by being the 6th best #7 runner in a 24 team field. This group has room for improvement and great things ahead as a team this fall. The competition for spots on varsity will only make us a better team and this group's ability to work well together in practice will help everyone reach faster times.
The JV ran well together today as we got a tough challenge from Madison West, now it is time to go to work and make improvements. Alvaro led the group to the finish with his 6th place finish in 18:36. The remainder of our pack closed in 11th, 12th, & 13th as freshman Finn G, freshman Nick Z, and senior Rees H all finished under 19:00. Charlie M ran a lifetime PR of 19:07 to round out the scorers in 17th place. The :30 gap between 1 - 5 is exactly what we are looking for in our JV race...now we just need to move this group forward 15 - 30 seconds and this will come with experience and the desire to race with the front runners. We had a group of runners join the sub 20 club and now set their eyes on joining their teammates chasing sub 19. Today Felipe, Tommy S, Diego, Jake K and Alex B all ran season or lifetime PRs and are seeing the successes of their hard work at practice paying off in meets. Other lifetime PRs today came from Aatman, Alex V, Sai, David B, Owen B, Liam B, Jack C, Tommy H, and Maccoy. The way our JV has been working hard all season long we have lots more PRs on the horizon. We just need to make sure we are taking care of business at school to stay eligible. Along with getting rest and taking care of our bodies to ensure we stay healthy. The next couple weeks of practice will be super important to how our season finishes in 6 weeks...keep up the good work and fast times will follow.
RESULTS
Boys Varsity
Boys JV
NEXT COMPETITION
Saturday September 11th
Hadler Invite @ Rotary Park in Menomonee Falls
** NOTE CHANGE IN TIMES **
Bus - 7:00am
9:45am - First Race
10:20am - Boys JV (2019 Results)
11:30am - Boys Varsity (2019 Results)
12:00pm - Awards - Varsity = 1 team & 15 individuals - JV = 5 individuals
**We will stop to eat on the way home...bring $ or a sack lunch to eat**
Approximate return to JMM is 3:30pm
NEWS & NOTES
JMM CC Running Hats for sale - $20 (bring cash) at practice starting 9/7 until they are all sold
Stay on top of your school work...don't let grades or attendance become an issue
Take care of your bodies...SLEEP, eat healthy, hydrate, stretch, ice, sleep
UPCOMING EVENTS
Sept 6th (Mon) - Captain's Practice @ UW Arboretum Visitors Center 9:00am
Sept 12th (Sun) - Ironman Volunteering (Optional) - Lot 60 on UW Campus - 12-4pm OR 4-8pm
Sept 13th (Mon) - Team Pictures - 3:45pm @ JMM
