A muggy start of fall (end of summer?) morning greeted the Spartans as they headed to their first official meet of the 2026 season. The Madison Memorial boys joined 36 other teams from around the state of Wisconsin to compete on the Verona cross country course. Our team was looking to continue our improvement from our intrasquad and take a step forward from last season. The varsity race started off the day where our team placed 8th out of 36 teams improving upon our 9th place finish from last year. As for the JV we finished in 11th, a huge improvement from 20th place last year. As we continue to get experience in races we hope to see our JV runners continue to close the gap on our varsity and show some of our strength in numbers.
The varsity team was led by Charlie G who moved up from 99th place at 1-mile to 39th place at the finish. Charlie ran a great race earning a PR of 17:39. Patrick H also ran a big cross country 5k PR of 18:32 to break 20-minutes for the first time on a cross-country course. Overall, the varsity squad moved up significantly through the race from 16th place at 1-mile to 8th at the finish. I'm excited to see this group continue to cut down the gaps between runners and get out more aggressively at the start of races. Each week is an improvement, and we will return to this course in a month and a half for the Sectional championships.
Bowen D led our JV squad in a very deep and competitive Verona Invite with a 43rd place finish and a sub-20 time of 19:51. Elias K was our top freshman on the day running a time of 21:41. There were several PRs among the returning athletes: Luke H - 22:37, Owen G - 23:59, Abhi K - 25:28, and Brayden T - 25:59. First cross country 5ks were also run by Ephraim M, Levi B, Eli B, Oliver K, Henry M, Devon M, Luke S, Declan K, Elias K, Milo L, Jaxon P, Coda S, Ryan S, and Walter S. Many improvements were made from Elver to Verona and the JV guys are looking forward to getting to a Monona golf course with more rolling hills than steep climbs and opportunities for fast times and new PRs. If this group keeps working hard at practices and challenging themselves in workouts, there will be lots of fast races in their future.
NEXT COMPETITION
Saturday September 12th
Monona Grove Invitational @ Monona GC (Course)
Bus - 7:00am
8:30am - First Race
9:40am - Boys Varsity (Lane 11)
11:00am - Boys JV (Lane 11)
11:40am - Awards - top 2 teams and 15 individuals
- Clothing order #2 is open until 9/9 if you want some spartan gear https://bsnteamsports.com/shop/VPMXC2NDSaturday September 12th
Monona Grove Invitational @ Monona GC (Course)
Bus - 7:00am
8:30am - First Race
9:40am - Boys Varsity (Lane 11)
11:00am - Boys JV (Lane 11)
11:40am - Awards - top 2 teams and 15 individuals
Approximate return to Madison Memorial will be 12:30pm
We will be using the fieldhouse parking lot for drop off/pick up
SPECTATOR PARKING = easiest parking is at Monona Grove HS which is North of the golf course by about .25 mile....and then walking over to the course...leave yourself time
SPECTATOR PARKING = easiest parking is at Monona Grove HS which is North of the golf course by about .25 mile....and then walking over to the course...leave yourself time
NEWS & NOTES
- Stay on top of your school work...don't let attendance or grades become an issue...ask coaches/upperclassmen if you need help.
- For all the photographers - Upload pictures here https://photos.app.goo.gl/XCx5pYMw4uhwsVht8
- Sign up for meet snacks - https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0948AEA72CA3FB6-65337408-memorial?useFullSite=false
- The Rothamer family (Berndt - 12th grade) and Regehr family (Zoey - 12th grade) are hosting a family potluck for the boys and girls cross country teams on Saturday September 12th. They ask families sign-up to bring a dish if possible. The potluck will be 6 - 8pm at the Garner park shelter and all family members are welcome to attend.
- Snap Raise... Try to get 20-emails uploaded! Fundraiser will start 9/8
