WISCONSIN VALLEY JUNIOR HIGH CONFERENCE 2011

            Once again the junior high conference traveling trophy took a road trip to Wausau and returned with us to Stevens Point. This is the 10 consecutive year we have won the meet and with the strength of our 7^th graders the streak has a good chance to continue at least another year. We had some interesting weather, drove through a heavy downpour on the way to Wausau and another shortly after we arrived. Somehow all 33 of us were able to stay dry in coach Ceplina's 10 by 10 foot pop up tent. Other than a few wet areas on the course and a lot of very sharp turns, conditions were perfect.

            As often happens in junior high races, many runners went out way too fast. Our guys were patient and lead by Kinney, they moved up gradually as others began to slow down. It was a fun race to watch and good to see that our young guys are already learning to be smart racers. At the mile mark Thimmesch and Brady K. took the lead and began to run away from the pack of 8^th graders. It was an impressive and brave move. Just when it looked like they had stolen the race a runner from Everest and one from Antigo moved up to out kick them in the last 200 meters. Both had run extremely well, they were faster than Hatton had run on this course last year and very close to Cruz’s time.

            Our score of 41 point was higher than last year but this was a better and deeper field of runners. It’s also important to note that our top 3 runners and 6 or our top 8 are 7^th graders. Six of our 7^th graders were in the top 22 places, that’s something we have never done before. Our 8^th graders showed some nice improvement since running here last year. Kinney was 32 seconds faster, Brocken, 1:15 faster, Schroeder, 47 seconds, Schoonert, 1:06, Meilahn 2:14 and Meyer improved by 2 minutes and 30 seconds. They are good examples of what happens when you work hard and put some time into our sport.

            We were clearly the best and deepest team at the meet. We could have won with a lesser effort but our guys fought for every place and every second. It was an outstanding effort and great way to end our junior high season. We have some talented 8^th graders and the best group of 7^th graders we have ever had. Add in their fearless attitude, work ethic and incredible energy and this could be a very good high school team some day. We are, of course, years away from that, years filled with distractions, other sports, jobs, cars and maybe even girlfriends. I can’t predict what will happen to this group except to say that this is a great group of young men, fun to coach, fun to watch and fun to have blended into our high school team. I hope they will stick together and learn to love running as so many of their older teammates do.  After the meet, they went to Pick n Save, bought a cake and hid it inscribed with “Respect the Sag”. It is well known that I am not a fan of the “Sag” but I have great respect for the race our “little guys” had today.

            It was a great day to be a SPASH runner.