​The WIAA State Meet was another fun one, as Koda and Ethan both raced tough on what ended up being a slower day than last year at the Ridges Cross Country Course.   Koda ended up taking 51st place (16:44) and Ethan was 79th (16:57)!  Both finishers were in the top half against the best competitors in the State!

Both boys have a ton to be proud of this year.  

Let's start with Koda, who hadn't broken 17:20 last year and was, at most meets last year, our 5th-7th man.  Koda finishes his season with a PR of 16:12, 7th fastest all-time in Hale history! Furthermore, he went from 139th at last year's State Championships, up to 51st, almost making his way into the top 50!  Very proud of his growth throughout the year, from track, to a much improved summer of miles, to a great season in XC.  Congratulations Koda; we are very proud of you!

Now, to Ethan.  Ethan set the tone for our team this season, with his work-ethic and focus. Ethan ran the most miles on our team and ran them with consistent, quality intensity. That hard work led to some really cool outcomes.  He improved at every regular season meet this year, medaled at every regular season meet this year, won an individual meet title, finished top 10 at the GMC Conference Meet and improved his place from last year's State Championship.  Ethan caps off his career with a PR of 16:16, which moves him to 11th all-time in Hale history.  Congratulations on an outstanding cross country career Ethan; we will miss you next year!  

Another huge shout out to the support squad they had up at State!  It is so cool to see the boys and families continuing to support each other, even when that means traveling 2 and a half hours to do so.  

Banquet Date Change: now is Tuesday November 18th at 7pm at Hale cafeteria
Due to some conflicts, our coaching staff has changed the banquet date.  It will now be Tuesday November 18th at 7pm in the Hale cafeteria.  Again, it will be a dessert event, where families will be asked to bring a dessert for about 10 people, if possible.   

Winter Training and Uniform Hand-in: Monday November 17th at 3:15pm in room 108
First off, if an athlete is in a winter sport, I want to say, that's awesome!  It is great to get the opportunity to compete and we are excited to support them in that!

If an athlete is not, we highly recommend being a part of our winter training group.  A lot of growth can be made in the off-season and it starts with training together.  It is run completely by the boys, but I will often be around for it, as they meet in my room.  

Athletes meet each week day in room 108 and run miles together.  They can still use their lockers to store stuff in.  As it gets colder, kids will wear hats, gloves, pants and sweatshirts.  Often good to store some extras of these in their lockers.  In extreme cases, boys will use the treadmills or indoor bikes or go to the Pettit Center, but most days, bundling up with layers will do the trick!

Regardless if they are running on November 17th, athletes should bring me their washed uniform and jacket on that day.  Reminder, they are welcome to keep the green dry-fit shirt they received at the start of the season!

Look forward to seeing the boys, to hand-in their uniform on the 17th and all the families at the banquet on November 18th!  

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!


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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!