WISCONSIN VALLEY CONFERENCE MEET 2011
This meet was every bit as competitive as expected. Two good cross country teams were locked in an intense battle for 17 minute as they ran their hearts out for the chance to call themselves conference champions. Professional athletes with million dollar contracts could take a lesson from these young men and their courage, toughness, competitiveness, and incredible effort. These guys were willing to run to the point of collapse, not for money or fame, but merely the chance to stand with exhausted teammates, exchange high fives, and say “we did it”! Everyone at the meet knew they had seen something special. It was one of the best meets I’ve ever seen and absolutely the greatest conference meet in my 35 years. It made me not just proud of our team, but proud of our sport.
This was our first meet on the new Standing Rocks course. It was Pat’s idea; he got the ball rolling last November. I was skeptical at first (how unusual), but after seeing the land I was sold. I believe we run too many courses that don’t challenge us enough and the new course is designed to break that pattern. It’s a challenging but fair course and our times showed it. 25 of our 45 runners ran P.R.s today. Our varsity average of 16:43 was our 3rd best this season, (SPASH 16:37, Manitowoc 16:40) and our J.V. average of 17:47 was our best of the season. After many measurements and adjustments Cory Scott and I did the final measurement with two separate wheels and found it to be 20 meters short. That’s as close as we could get for the first year.
We had an inch of rain on Thursday but the course was completely dry. The sun was out with temperatures of 45-55 degrees and a strong wind of 20-30 MPH with a few gusts that might have been 35+. The course is fairly sheltered, but in the big field the wind was a certainly a factor.
Our J.V.s got us off to a great start giving us some insight as to how the course would run and showing that our team was ready to compete. Hatton hit the mile in 5:25 and reached the 2 mile with Cole in 11:05 on his way to a course record that would last about an hour. I am proud of the effort of all of our guys as they continued our string of J.V. conference titles, bringing the number to 35. It’s always a beautiful sight to watch our red JV jerseys work their way to the front of the pack. Hatton’s time would have placed him 16th in the varsity race and Cole would have been 18th. Had our J.V.s been in the varsity race they would have finished 4th, only 14 points behind Wausau East.
Evan and Cole were outstanding. Both were within seconds of making the All-Conference team out of the J.V. race. We had so many other great performance I can’t mention them all, but here are a few that stand out. Yonash and Scott nearly broke 18 for the first time. Franz showed great toughness by running the last 2 miles with only one shoe. Krutza had a great finish to what turned out to be a short season after missing the first 3 weeks with an injury. Klesmith and Negaard went sub 19 for the first of what will be many times. Brett Chojnacki, Wysocki, and Wallace all ran very well and were within seconds of breaking 19. Our seniors Byers, Suehring, Klein, Krutza, and “The Quiz” all gave tremendous efforts. They are not numerous or greatly talented, but they are excellent leaders and role models for our younger guys. They took their job seriously this year and made us a better team. They also left a positive influence on many of our young guys that will last for years to come. That will be their legacy.
The varsity race was as intense as any I have ever seen. The front of the pack was loaded with green and black jerseys. Everest held an advantage at the mile as Larson and Dirkman lead in 5:05. In mile 2 our guys moved up a bit but it was too close to call. By 2 and a quarter we had gained a slight advantage. The Everest 4 and 5 runners looked to be falling back a bit but they rallied in the last quarter mile to make it very close. Seldom have I seen our guys so exhausted and seldom have we had to ask so much of our guys when they had so little left to give. At the end we had nothing left, Everest had nothing left, and all we could do was wait as coaches, parents, spectators, and J.V. guys did the math in their heads.
Isaiah, a.k.a. “Long Baby” ran the race of his life and put us in position to win. This was his first varsity race since his bad ankle sprain at the Everest meet 5 weeks ago and was truly an amazing effort. Larson, Sheibley, and Anderson all raced well. Cruz broke 17 for the first time and stayed close enough to Everest’s 4th runner to keep us in the meet. Hodsdon and Hansen did everything they could to beat Everest’ 5th runner and add points to their total. Weisbrod didn’t have the race he wanted after returning from a thigh injury but gained experience, and I think motivation, for next year.
This was our 24th consecutive conference title and our 34th in the last 35 seasons. Going into this meet Everest was ranked 3rd in the state while we were ranked 7th. They are a good team that ran a good race and on another day it may have turned out differently. However, today we went home with the trophy. It was a hard fought, well earned win and one we should enjoy. It was the result of hard work, dedication, discipline, attitude, effort, and maybe a little luck as someone convinced Sheibley this might be more fun than standing on the football sidelines.
This was a great end to a great week for our team. It started on Tuesday with our Junior High runners wining their conference meet for the 10th year in a row. That was followed by a great Woodview mile in a cold downpour, an interesting fire up speech by “Reverend” Byers (not exactly “I have a dream” but a guys got to have something), outstanding stick race conditions (Iwanski won in his rookie year), and a tougher than usual Ho Chi Minh run (lots of downed trees and some shorts that I don’t think were V.C. approved – Summers and L.B.). There was great spaghetti and massive quantities of deserts from the booster club, (yes, we have a booster club), a huge turnout for bowling, one guy who could actually bowl (Byers 157), ice cream, root beer floats, and dodge ball with lots of little guys to throw at.
The 2011 Conference meet was a day filled with great memories. It’s hard to pick one, but I will never forget watching Kevin lead an army of guys around the course during the varsity race. The image of that unusual “band of brothers” will stick in my mind for a long time. After so many good things and so many fun things, I can only wonder, why would anyone not run cross country?