2011 INTRASQUAD RACE
Today was a great way to start what could be another very good season of SPASH Cross Country. The weather was perfect, the air was filled with the smell of flapjacks at the Civil War reenactment camp, the newly constructed skateboard park was vacant at this early hour, and a large contingent of the girls team turned out to watch. The only obstacle on the day was a large tree which had been knocked down by a fierce July wind storm. The detour around it was slight, not worthy of an asterisk, but worth noting.
After a good summer of training and a great first two weeks of practice we were ready to find out what kind of team we might have this year. The leaders did a good job of keeping an even early pace. Larson took the leaders through the mile at 5:10 and Kevin had a big group with him at 5:20. The uneven surface in Mead Park split the group as it always does, but from my perspective everyone held up pretty well in the second half of the race. There were a few exceptions, but most of our guys looked good and ran as well or better than expected.
Here is my list of statistics. In our 25 previous years on this course only our 2008 team ran a faster total time. They ran 78:10, we ran 79:21 today, our 07 team ran 79:54, last year we ran 80:01 and in 03 we ran 80:58. (The 08 and 03 teams were state champs, in 07 we were runner-up) I don’t want to draw too many conclusions from these numbers, but I think it’s safe to say we ran well today. This is only the 4th time we have had 3 or more guys under 16 minutes and only the 6th time we have put 8 runners under 17 minutes. Thimmesch (18:32) became our fastest 7th grader all –time, passing Sam Anderson by 40 seconds. Smith (18:29) is now our 6th fastest 8th grader on this course. Cruz (16:17) became our fastest freshman, passing Joel Brusewitz (16:49). Anderson (15:48) moved to 3rd on the sophomore list behind Larson (15:33) and Solinsky (15:46). Larson (15:17) ran the fastest time buy a junior, moving ahead of Solinsky’s 15:20. Our seniors are not very far up the all time list but Suehring and Hansen went sub 17 and made the varsity. Hansen’s time (16:53) is our 4th best 8th runner time on this course. Only 15 guys have run faster than Hodsdon (15:56) and only 20 have been faster than Sam Shebley (16:03) and it was the first 3 mile race of his life.
These are all good numbers, a good reference point at the start of our season. I hope it gives our runners some perspective and to helps them clarify their goals. With 25 years of data, a clear picture has evolved. Our junior high guys start out at 21 to 24 minutes, they improve a minute or more each year and if they stick with it they may be a 16 of 17 minute runners by the end of their career. It’s my hope that many of our young guys will aspire to be one of the next great SPASH runners.
Here are some of the biggest improvements from last year’s race: Wallace -1:17, Drake-1:21, Luetschwager-1:23, Yonash-1:38, Smith-1:47, Cruz-1:56, Jones-1:59, Scott-2:00, Hladky-2:03, Jfo-2:03, Summers-2:06, Colby-2:17, Erler-2:42, Salewske-2:43, Meilahn-3:27, Schoonert-3:38, Ashenbrenner-4:01, Peretz-4:09, Schroeder-4:18, Palmgren-4:40 and Brocken -5:13.
At our first practice I asked “Can we really hope to compete with the best teams in our state?” Today we took a big step towards answering that question. We are a young and inexperienced team but we have talent and a great work ethic. Our guys have set their sights on building a team we can be proud of and carrying on the tradition of SPASH cross country. We can’t predict what happens next but it has been a great first two weeks and I look forward to testing our guys against Marquette and Neenah next Friday.