Sectional Champions!

​The focus for the week was to be the team we have been all year and take care of business by focusing on us.  Oh, and let's have a lot of fun.  The men did that in a commanding and loving way, leaving no doubt in route to a sectional title and a trip to state this coming week! 

With another great team focused effort, the guys established position up front early and found each other to run with.  Kai ran his race up front again and provided low points with a 3rd place finish, finishing with just one shoe at the end!  Racing as a pack from start to finish were John, Ethan and Elijah.  Seeing the mob of green in the top 10 meant we just needed a 5th man to seal the victory.  Koda and Joseph ran well early, with Koda moving up the second half and finishing a strong 17th place to put 5 ahead of the second place team's 4th runner.  The three man mob closed strong with John finishing 8th and Ethan finishing 10th to put three in the top 10!  Elijah held on for a strong 13th place finish.  Our close scoring margin continued with a 45 second spread between our 1 and 5 scorers.  Joseph provided a strong 6th man, finishing ahead of all other team's 5th man which will be important at state with close team finishes!   Caleb beat 5 of the 10 team's 7th man and was able to displace 3 team's scoring 5 while continuing to garner great championship racing experience as a freshman.

We turn our attention to state this weekend where the team looks to have it's best race of the season and our best state placing in many years.  Our focus will again be on running our race and being strong in the second half.  We look forward to a great opportunity, and another week together!

Fun notes - 

While the team had qualified for state in 2019, 2018 and 2012, all came via runner up finishes at sectionals.  The last sectional title to claim qualification was way back in 2004 (Coach Mach's junior year)!  This is the 28th year the entire team has qualified to the state meet!

A Fast Day at the Meet of Champions Last Chanced Meet!
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The Thursday last chance meet was huge for the team!  On a perfect and cool sunny afternoon, our crew went out for a shot at some fast races after a great season of racing.  While XC is not always time focused due to the vast differences in courses and conditions, we went to Rotary to run FAST.  And indeed they did!

With many top programs across the area and from far away, the race got out fast and stayed fast for a great opportunity to end the season with a personal best.  Damien took the guys out great and hung on for a huge personal best and first time under 19 to end his XC career with a 18:39 5k!  It was Preston and Brody rolling together from the gun and moving up strong all race.  Preston finished his jr. year with a big personal best and 18:20 5k, while Brody ended up breaking 19 for the first time in his career in his final race, racing to 18:28.  Both stayed on the pedal and found big races!  Scoring as 4th man, Ethan M. broke 19 for the first time and became our 2nd freshman this season under the mark!  Nearly breaking the 19 minute barrier and scoring in 5th was Henry, running a massive personal best as well.

Iker was looking for that sub 20 5k mark all fall, and was able to crush it with a 19:36 5k to finish his sophomore campaign.  Evan rounded out the 7 from the first race, running another solid race after having his 2 minute break through at GMC the week prior.

In the second race, Antonio earned a blood and guts by putting himself in the race and staying up there the whole way!  It helped him to a 2 and a half minute PR!  Yes you heard that right.  Nate S. , Wendy and Shaun packed up all in route to personal best times to end the season.  Payson also ran to a personal best to end his freshman year.

A cool team note too was beating Brookfield Central and Germantown, both who had beat us at conference the week before on the JV side.  

2024 Results Workbook

Congrats to our teammate chosen athletes of the meet and B&G winners so far!

Palmyra - Kai Bruner (Chosen by Elijah Sayeg).  B&G - Joseph Ventura
Betz - Henry Roemer.    B&G Nate Siepe-Pick, Payson Vahovick
Druckrey - Ethan Plier
Muskego - Iker Robles.  B&G Preston Plier, Caleb Jensen
Laser - Caleb Jensen.  B&G Brody Kaminski
Viking - Damien Sheridan.  B&G Elijah Sayeg, Ethan Muelrath
GMC - Evan May.  B&G Koda Bruner, U.P. Nate Hutter
JV State - B&G Antonio Lizalde Vega, U.P. Brody Kaminski
Sectionals -
​State -

State Meet Info

Those competing and alternates were sent detailed information for our weekend trip so please look that over.  The following information is for everyone!

Team Shirts - I will be calling early tomorrow morning to try and get team shirts in time for departure Friday.  Athletes competing and alternates will get a free shirt.  Any additional shirts will be available for purchase and will have very short turn around time.  I'll send information once I can confirm shirts.

Tickets and Race info - https://www.wiaawi.org/Sports/Fall/Boys-Cross-Country/Tournament

Please come up to watch!  We encourage guys not competing to drive up and support the team on Saturday!  If any parents want to volunteer to take some guys just let me know and I can let our guys know!

Practice this week
We would love if everyone can come to Monday for the meeting and are welcome to run as well!

Only varsity and alternates will have practice this week.  The team will have a send off in the auditorium this Thursday and leaves for state Friday morning.  Information will be provided by Mr. Lesar early this week on the send off that the guys will get information on.

Team Awards Reminder

The team awards night will be Wednesday, November 6th at 7:00 p.m.  The site is Free Methodist Church located at 2975 Sunny Slope Rd, New Berlin, 53151.  Hope everyone can make it for the fun and important night of celebration!  

Uniforms
We will ask athletes to turn in uniforms (Jerseys, shorts, jackets issued) to Coach Dewitt's room 108 right after school on Wednesday, November 6th.  You can just drop everything off and get checked off in about one minute, so should be out by 3:10 p.m. if you come right away to drop off.  We appreciate getting them all back at one time!

Team Photos from season-
Many of you have been adding photos to this album and I appreciate it!  Let's keep adding photos from the season to the album and I can take many of them to use at the awards at the end of the year!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/N41ayfsqUG47gwzc9

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Men Finish 4th at GMC

With three all-conference athletes and 5 scorers in the top 31, the men's team had a strong showing in one of the best conference meets in the state.  This was the men's highest team finish at conference since 2012!  Repeating All-Conference honors were Ethan Plier (third team) finishing 24th overall and Elijah Sayeg (2nd Team) finishing 15th overall.  This was Ethan's 2nd all conference honor and Elijah's 3rd.  Kai Bruner earned his first all conference honor finishing 11th overall (2nd Team).  Congratulations men on the accomplishment!

The conference consists of some of the top teams in the area and state, and our guys continue to represent as one of those best teams with a consistent team focused mentality. 

Koda Bruner and John Gruichich came in as the 4 and 5 scorers, both helping each other out to strong 29th and 31st place finishes respectively and help the team finish 4th overall.

The emerging varsity crew lit it up in the last race of the evening. Seeing improvements in race preparedness and energy going in has been fun and paid off for some major breakthroughs for many.  Brody Kaminski led the scoring with a strong race and a 29th place finish.  Just missing his goal of breaking 19 on a fair GF Park course, he will look to continue his progress and take a shot at it at Rotary Thursday!  Breaking through with a strong race and a very strong last 1.1 miles was our second scorer Ethan Muelrath who broke 20 by a large margin for the first time.  Evan May ran like a mad man and brought energy that the coaches knew was there, running a personal best of 2 minutes and breaking 20 minutes for the first time as the number 4 man.  Damien Sheridan was third man, closing strong to pass a lot of guys the last 400 meters.  Rounding out the scoring and breaking 20 for the first time was Henry Roemer.  Great pack running all around, made it fun to race and cheer for guys!

Great job to the team supporting each other.  We were loud and proud and showed a ton of love out on the course from start to finish on Friday.   Many guys also showed great leadership with warmups, cooldowns, and this is been practiced each and every other day.  You all are leaders!

Thank you to for all the families that helped and supported Friday.  Hosting the conference meet is a lot of work, but a lot of fun!  We were proud to host and put on a great meet!

​2024 Results Workbook

Congrats to our teammate chosen athletes of the meet and B&G winners so far!

Palmyra - Kai Bruner (Chosen by Elijah Sayeg).  B&G - Joseph Ventura
Betz - Henry Roemer.    B&G Nate Siepe-Pick, Payson Vahovick
Druckrey - Ethan Plier
Muskego - Iker Robles.  B&G Preston Plier, Caleb Jensen
Laser - Caleb Jensen.  B&G Brody Kaminski
Viking - Damien Sheridan.  B&G Elijah Sayeg, Ethan Muelrath
GMC - (To be chosen by Damien)

Meets/Practice info for the week

We will all practice Monday through Wednesday, with the varsity team this weekend practicing through Friday.  
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Newly added this Thursday we will take the athletes that are not competing at sectionals Saturday to Rotary Park for a chance a last chance race!  We hope all can compete and the info is included in the meet information below.  We understand if there's a conflict with the late add to the meet, but hopefully most if not all are able to race for a big personal best to end the season!  This will also be great for alternates to keep race ready for the state meet the following week.  The seven varsity racers Saturday will practice like normal from Hale Thursday.

The sectional meet is this Saturday and will be varsity only with 7 men racing and any alternates.  We are encouraging our guys that aren't racing Saturday to come on the bus to be there and cheer loud for the men's team looking to punch their ticket to state next weekend.  While not required to come to this meet to watch, we are requiring that anyone who does come along to commit to being positive and be there to support in a positive way.  

There will be a pasta party Friday at the Gruichich family where all team members are invited.  The team will likely watch a movie again as a team which has become a tradition before sectionals.

Sectional + Meet of Champs Meet Info

Team Banquet Date

The team awards night will be Wednesday, November 6th at 7:00 p.m.  The site is Free Methodist Church located at 2975 Sunny Slope Rd, New Berlin, 53151.

Viking Invite Recap

The team had a strong meet for their last regular season invite of the season, with varsity finishing 4th overall and emerging varsity finishing 8th.  

Elijah, Ethan and John raced great together, moving up well throughout the race and finishing in solid scoring positions.  Elijah led the men with a 12th place finish with Ethan close behind in 18th both with significant season best times and Ethan shattering his all time best time.  John held on to 28th place and is starting to come on strong as well at the right time, gaining confidence each week.  Rounding out the scoring were the sophomores Koda and Joe.  Running together most the way, Koda pulled away mid race with Joe having a great finish to get back close to him by the finish and rounding out the scoring with 36th and 38th place finishes.  Caleb moved up the all time frosh list with a personal best race and the 6th man.  Preston ran a season best race as the 7th man and Brody ran a personal best in his first varsity race.  It was a fun and positive day to build off of heading into conference, sectionals and state!

Damien was the first Hale finisher in the emerging varsity race with a big personal best time.  Getting out strong were Nate H and Ethan M.  Unfortunately, Nate has been battling a tough injury that flared up around the mile mark and had to exit the race early.  Ethan then finished the race as the team's 2nd scorer and will work on a more confident second half of racing next week.  Iker, Henry and Evan rounded out the scoring and are ready for big races as well coming up at conference.  Shaun ran his debut 5k, while Nate S and Payson picked up big personal best races as well.

2024 Results Workbook

Congrats to our teammate chosen athletes of the meet and B&G winners so far!

Palmyra - Kai Bruner (Chosen by Elijah Sayeg).  B&G - Joseph Ventura
Betz - Henry Roemer.    B&G Nate Siepe-Pick, Payson Vahovick
Druckrey - Ethan Plier
Muskego - Iker Robles.  B&G Preston Plier, Caleb Jensen
Laser - Caleb Jensen.  B&G Brody Kaminski
Viking - Damien Sheridan.  B&G Elijah Sayeg, Ethan Muelrath
GMC - (To be chosen by Damien)

GMC
We host Greater Metro Conference this year!  We are excited to be on our home course and host one of the best cross country meets of the year.  Just got back a bit ago from painting the course, it's looking fast!  It will be awesome to be on the home course, having fun and running for each other.

With hosting, we could use a bit of help if available when your son/daughter(s) not racing.  We will have tshirt and small concession sales set up again.  Please use the following document to sign up for a shift if you are able.

​Concession/Shirt Helper Sign up

Below is time info and our race lineup for GMC,

Meet Info and Roster

The Vahovick family is hosting pasta this week Thursday!  Thank you!

The plan for the weekend is to have a Saturday morning practice for those that can make it at 8:00 a.m.  This will again be ok to be an on your own run if you can't make it Saturday, with prior plans just ask coach for the run!

Sectional shirts (from hosts)

The sectional and state meets are varsity only meets with 7 entries racing.  The top 2 teams will advance to the state meet the following weekend.  
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Next week's sectional meet is selling t shirts only online in advance and the store closes this Wednesday night (October 16th at midnight).  They sent the link here,

Sectional Shirt Link