Neenah Invitational 2011
We’ve been waiting a long time to get our season started and for a while it looked like we might have to wait a little longer. A huge storm blew through the Neenah area the morning of the Invite knocking out power and closing many schools and businesses. School officials informed us they were considering canceling the meet, but luckily things cleared up and shortly after noon we were told the meet was on. Two schools decided not to attend which made the meet slightly smaller than usual.
This was the 10th Neenah Invite, the 9th time that we have competed here, and our 4th team title. It has always been a good quality meet and the last 6 years have been especially competitive. Most years have been a matchup between Neenah, Marquette, and us, three of the most consistently competitive programs in the state over the past 30 years. In 2010, Marquette was 2nd at state, Neenah 5th and we were 7th. All three teams were hit hard by graduation and are in the process of rebuilding for 2011. As a result team competition was not terribly strong and we didn’t run quite as fast as I thought we might, but overall it was a very good start to our season. The weather was pretty warm and very humid, the trails were a little mushy, and yet we ran nearly the same total time our ‘06 and ‘07 teams did here. Both of those teams finished 2nd at the state meet.
Seldom have we put a younger, less experienced team on the line and finished with the kind of success we had today. Larson ran only 6 seconds faster than last year, but the race winner Selner from Ashwaubenon ran 7 seconds slower than he had in 2010. Mike ran well but was never able to get any closer than about 5 seconds back from Selner. Anderson had a 1:20 P.R. and posted our fastest varsity debut time ever. After being hurt all of last season it was great to see Sam back in the lineup. Only 8 of our guys have ever run faster than his 16:38 on this course. What Sheibley did in his first race was just amazing. It was the first cross country race of his life and he broke 17 minutes and he looked good doing it. I’m sure it’s been done before, but in my 34 years of coaching we’ve never had a SPASH runner accomplish this. It was a nice way to start what could be a very good career. Hodsdon ran a P.R. and had a 10 second improvement on his time here last year. It may not seem like a lot, but of the top 20 returners from last year’s meet half of them ran slower times. That’s not something you see very often, and I’m sure the weather had something to do with it. Cruz had a great race and posted one of our best times ever by a freshmen in his first race. Only Gary Anderson (17:14 in 1980) ran faster. Clint Eiden (17:21 in 1994), Kevin Hopp (17:27 in 1991), and Solinsky (17:46 in 1999) round out our top 5. It puts Derek in some very good company.
The obvious problem for our team at this point is the huge time space between our 5th and 6th runners. I know we have guys with the ability to run in the mid 17’s but we clearly have a long way to go to create the kind of depth we need to become the team we would like to be. Luetschwager took a big step forward to claim a varsity spot. Hatton was the 2nd best freshman at the meet, and George, Weisbrod, Scott, and Drake all improved by more than a minute on their time from last year. It was nice to win the J.V. race but a little surprising that Marquette was able to put 3 in ahead of our first runner.
The junior high race was a good matchup between our guys and Neenah’s. Our group of 7th graders fought hard but a 1,2,3 finish by three very good Neenah 8th graders made it next to impossible to pull out a win. It was fun to watch our young guys compete but the Neenah runners were just stronger at this point. I have no doubt that many of our young guys will become outstanding runners one day.
Overall it was a very good meet, and other than the fact that half of our 7th graders didn’t know how to pin their numbers on and 2 of our busses were late, everything went well. After today, it’s clear to me that we are a good team with the potential to become very good. If we continue to focus on our goals and work hard we can have a very good season. Just keep encouraging each other and believe in what we do.