Saturday was an emotional day, with some really special things and some really hard things.

If you weren't there or didn't see results, the boys ran outstanding. Running for each other and pushing themselves to new depths, all 7 boys either essentially matched their PR (Koda, Ethan and Preston) or PR'd (Joseph and Henry each PR'd by about 25 seconds each and Caleb and Evan by about 10 seconds each)!    You couldn't ask for a better day from our guys, putting it all on the line and maximizing our outcome.  I'm so proud of how they competed and they should be too!

The hard part of the day was we came so close as a team to making it to WIAA State, as we took 3rd place by just 1 point.  In fact, it was an extremely close race between 4 teams: the 2nd place team scored 102 points, we scored 103, 4th scored 106 and 5th was 115.  It was the best race for the last spot in the State amongst all 10 Sectionals and it was painful to come so close to winning that battle.  

Despite us not getting the outcome we wanted as a team, I am so proud of our boys' efforts and know that, although these moments are painful, we can grow from disappointments.  Without the pain of disappointment, the moments of success wouldn't be as meaningful.  This is just one chapter of their stories and there are more chapters ahead, whether that be in high school or beyond.  I'm hopeful that this end to the chapter will lead to more beautiful things in future chapters.  I'm so proud of our boys for putting it all on the line, going for what they wanted, and competing for each other.   

And, despite not getting the team outcome we were hoping for, guys hopefully realize that we had a really high-quality season as a team.   In a 12-team WIAA Sectional, we were 3rd, meaning we finished 9-2 (beat 9 teams, only losing to 2), which is a very good record because we are a very good team that had a very good season.  Our boys should be proud of the season they put together and our returners will look to grow from here.  


Finally, although we didn't get the team outcome we wanted, we DEFINITELY have some outcomes to celebrate as a team; the boys had two individual WIAA State qualifiers!!!!

Special congratulations to Koda Bruner and Ethan Plier on punching their tickets to the WIAA State Meet next weekend in Wisconsin Rapids!  It is a testament to their hard work this season and over the years previous, as it takes many miles over many seasons to get to where these kids are.  There are only 5 individual qualifiers per Sectional, so it is quite the honor for these kids to represent Hale at State!  

Also worth noting, the girls had Piper Meunier qualify as an Individual as well! Congratulations to her and the girls squad on their season as well!  

We will be excited to support these three athletes as they compete next weekend!


​












​

​
​
Here's the info you need for State week:

We have practice all week (Monday through Thursday at 3:15pm).  We would love for all athletes to join us for that, continually training with Koda and Ethan.  

State Fan Sweatshirts
We will be selling State Fan sweatshirts, with our three qualifiers names on the back.  They will be $20 each and money will be due upon pick up on Friday (or Saturday, we'll bring them to the meet).  

**The sweatshirt this year will be grey, with green print**

Orders for fan sweatshirts are due Monday by 9am, so please email me if you would like one ASAP!





WIAA State Details:2025 State Boys & Girls Cross Country Championships
Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025
Ridges Golf Course, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
2025 WIAA State Championships: Live results link LIVE LINK
Boys' Competition
Division 3 - Noon - Division 3 Boys 
Division 2 - 12:35 p.m. - Division 2 Boys 
Division 1 - 1:10 p.m. - Division 1 Boys 
Girls' Competition
Division 3 - 1:45 p.m. - Division 3 Girls 
Division 2 - 2:25 p.m. - Division 2 Girls 
Division 1 - 3:05 p.m. - Division 1 Girls 


To buy tickets, here is the link:
https://gofan.co/event/4046286?schoolId=WIAA2

Parking is $10 per vehicle and info for that can be found here:
https://www.wiaawi.org/Portals/0/PDF/Sports/Cross_Country/2025/Parking%20Shuttle%2025.jpg?ver=NPj1mJ5jDmYdKJEGEIiQoA%3d%3d

Course map:
https://www.wiaawi.org/Portals/0/PDF/Sports/Cross_Country/2024-WIAA-CC-terrain-profile.pdf

Meet apparel info:
https://www.wiaawi.org/Portals/0/PDF/Sports/Cross_Country/2025/2025%20Clothing%20Color-Cost%20to%20Post%20Online%20and%20Email%20to%20Coaches%20-%20Clothing%20Sizes%20Ordered%20for%20WIAA%20State%20CC%20(2).pdf?ver=bVkKaETjdMS05C-257Kbtg%3d%3d






Looking forward to a fun week!  

Cross country goes by so fast, as each week is so fun to be a part of.  Here's how the Greater Metro Conference Meet shook out on Friday.

JV- 7th out of 9
I was really proud of how our boys ran overall.  Landen Remer really set the tone with his aggressiveness and focus, bringing Evan May out with him through the mile.  From there, Evan went on to lead our team and Landen was our 2nd guy, both with around 40 second PRs!  Great races from those guys.  Weston was our 3rd guy with another PR and Iker and Dylan battled home to round out our scorers.

Worth noting that we tied with Menomonee Falls, which then goes down to your 6th man.  Isaac Kuenzli had a really nice race, with another PR, but unfortunately got beat out by Fall's 6th man.  Very proud of his efforts this season, as he has been incredibly consistent at practice and that has shown itself on the course, as he improved every meet this season!

As for the JV Athlete of the Meet, we were excited to see Evan May show the courage to make the move in the 2nd half of the race and put our team in the best situation to be successful.  He led the way for our JV squad and will compete with the varsity squad at WIAA Sectionals this upcoming Saturday.  Congratulations Evan and our entire squad on a great meet!

Varsity- 4th out of 9
The Greater Metro Conference is an incredibly tough conference, so to be in the better half means that you are amongst the toughest in the State.  I was really proud of how our boys fought for each other.  

We had three all-conference finishers (24 get all-conference, split into sets of 8)
Koda Bruner- 7th overall- 1st team All-GMC
Ethan Plier- 9th overall- 2nd team All-GMC
Caleb Jensen- 24th overall- 3rd team All-GMC

It is a really high-caliber conference, so to finish All-GMC is a very impressive feat.  All 3 of these guys PR'd, as well, which is always fun to see.  Joseph and Henry both battled home to round out the scorers, while Preston Plier had a season best time, narrowly missing his PR, as our 6th man.  

For our Varsity Athlete of the Meet, we went with the guy who had the biggest breakthrough.  Caleb Jensen put himself in a new situation and battled better than he had.  Even on the home stretch, Caleb continued to chase down opponents, made a huge difference for the team, and earned himself All-Conference as a sophomore.  Congratulations Caleb and our entire team on a quality conference meet!


For this week, I actually was able to sneak our JV team into one last meet at Grant Park on Thursday October 23rd.  I talked with each JV guy individually and most of them wanted to race one last time.  For the few who didn't, we understand, but I wanted to give guys who wanted one last shot at a PR that opportunity.  The race is at 3:00pm.  We will leave school at 1:30pm and will hopefully be back to Hale around 4:30pm.  

Friday: Pasta Dinner at the Pliers- 5:30pm- whole team is welcome 
Address: 12018 W Ohio Avenue, West Allis, WI


This week Saturday (October 25th) is also WIAA Sectionals for varsity.  We will be at Arrowhead High School.  Race is at 11:00am and results will be on pttiming.com.  This means bus time will be 8:30am, with the bus leaving at 8:45am.  We would like all of our athletes to attend, varsity and JV.  

For those who don't know, the top 2 teams at WIAA Sectionals will compete at WIAA State on November 1st in Wisconsin Rapids.  Once the top 2 teams are decided, the top 5 individuals that are not on those 2 teams will also qualify.

This is also a great time remind athletes to get quality sleep this week (maybe going to bed 15-30 minutes earlier each night compared to usual) and make sure to get good meals and drink fluids this week.  We can't control everything, but we should always do our best to control what we can.

That's all I have, looking forward to a great week!

We are entering championship season this week, as the Greater Metro Conference Meet is this Friday!  

Before that though, let's recap our meet from last week:

Wisconsin Lutheran Invitational
Out of the 18 racers, all 18 of them ran either a personal best or a season best time on Thursday!  This is evidence of them being fit and focused coming into the meet and reminds our guys that we are ready to rumble for these championship meets upcoming.

On the JV side, we wanted to recognize two different athletes this week.

Payson Vahovick has been working hard all season, just hoping to break 30 minutes.  We've seen it at practice and we were just waiting for it to show itself in the race. Sure enough, Thursday was his breakthrough, as he pushed it as hard as we've seen him and came through in 29:37.  We are so proud of Payson and excited for him to continue to break barriers moving forward.  

We also recognized Iker Robles.  As one of our upperclassmen, Iker has been a model of consistency for the younger guys, showing them how to push themselves each day at practice.  He had his best race of the season and led our JV squad, really looking strong over the last two miles. 

Congratulations to Payson, Iker and our entire JV squad on a breakthrough meet this week!


On the varsity side, we were 4th out of 17 teams.  We really mixed it up with some of the best teams in the State and took big steps forward, with still room to grow.   

Ethan Plier (16:17) and Koda Bruner (16:18) both PR'd big and were 10th and 12th place respectively in the race, earning medals for their performances.  Also, their times were all-time noteworthy performances, 10th and 11th on our Hale All-Time Fastest Performances list (can be found in the records section on Halexc.com)!  Pumped for those guys and our entire team.  We believe we have bigger things to come for these guys and all around.

As for our Athlete of the Meet, O stands for "Overcome" in our VICTORS motto and our AOM did just that.  Joseph Ventura got spiked in the heel right before the start of the race and was not even sure he was going to be able to race.  After gutting out a couple strides and us making sure that the injury wasn't anything muscular that could linger, Joseph decided to step up for his team and race.  Joseph ran super tough and ran a new PR of 16:59, first time under 17!  A really nice race in any circumstance and an outstanding one, considering what he was going through in that moment.  Way to step up Joseph and congratulations to all the boys on their step forward!  





This week is our last week for the JV competitors.  After this week, we will be down to 9-10 guys left (7 competitors for Sectionals and 2-3 alternates who will be ready, just in case).  

However,  looking forward to next week, we would invite our whole team to continue to train with the Sectional Team next week (October 20th-24th) to support the guys training for the WIAA State Series (Sectionals and State).  Also, we would ask the entire team to attend Sectionals on Saturday October 25th, riding the team bus and supporting their teammates hoping to qualify for the WIAA State Meet.  



This week:
Monday-Thursday is normal practice, 3:15pm at Hale.
Thursday evening at 5:00pm- Pasta Dinner at the Jensen household!
Address: 12125 W. Cleveland Ave., West Allis, WI

Friday (October 17th)- Greater Metro Conference Championships- Boys will get out of class at 1:00pm for a 1:15pm bus 
(unlike last week, we will ride a bus to and from the meet- parents can pick up their athletes around 6:20pm at Hale)

Mitchell Park in Brookfield
2:45 P.M.  Boys Junior Varsity 3:30 P.M.  Girls Junior Varsity 
4:15 P.M.  Boys Varsity 
4:45 P.M.  Girls Varsity
5:30 P.M.  Awards Ceremony

COURSE   The course is a true 5k course run mostly on grass with some pavement where runners cross the park road. The course is lined and flagged.  Course Map:  Mitchell Park 5k Course Map  

Results will be on pttiming.com
AWARDS: Varsity :  All conference Awards to top 24 finishers.  Top 8 awarded first team all conference, next 8 awarded second team all conference, next 8 awarded 3rd team all conference.

PARKING  Spectators should park in the lots at the south end of the park, filling the southernmost lots first. Please follow the directions of the parking volunteers. 
Buses should park in the lot at the north end of Mitchell Park north of the course.

Spectators are discouraged from bringing dogs to the meet.

CONCESSIONS: - For sale while supplies last

T-Shirt:  Meet t-shirts are for sale for $15.



Saturday- Varsity boys and alternates for the State Series will meet up for a short shake-out run at 8:30am at Hale.


Let me know if you have questions or concerns!  Looking forward to a fun meet on Friday!