Hale XC 2022

JV State / Sectionals 2022

The men closed out the season was some great performances this past weekend, kicking off with the Thursday meet at Grant Park.  We had ten men race with seven walking away with personal bests.  Kai Bruner highlighted the day with his first career individual win.  He stayed patient the first mile and moved into first during the second mile, never to relinquish the position on his way to victory in 17:35.   Learning to race up front is a skill that is developed and this race could be a spark that will put Kai on the local and state scene very soon. The team knows the important role Kai will play in their success for the coming track and cross country seasons.  

​Scout and Brody finished as the 2 and 3 scorers, squeaking out personal best times and capping off their first full season of competing.  From the split race squad, our freshmen crew of Mikel, Travis, Michael and Lincoln all ran their best race of the season and competed much more aggressive early in the race!  Some good racing to get excited about for track and next season.

Moving on to sectionals that Saturday, seven first time sectional runners took the line in a very competitive sectional.  Six of the top eighteen ranked teams in the state competed on the boys side.  You will hear many coaches from other teams complain about this, but we love competing against the best and will learn and prepare for whatever race we are in!  With that, we believe in our guys but also understood that qualifying as a team would be a year away and we wanted to gain experience and finish with our best races.  

Ethan stayed mentally tough after waking up feeling sick that morning.  He got himself to relax and warmup before letting adrenaline take over and carry him to his best race of the season.  How you feel before a race doesn't always correlate to how the race will end up!  He finished as our 2nd scorer and capped a very successful freshman season and is determined to build on that success with the commitment and buy in he has shown since the beginning of summer.  His battery mate Elijah also had his best race of the season.  While the time may show similar to his conference time, those times aren't always created equal even if on the same course due to changes in weather or how the race plays out.  The field proved to run about 30 seconds slower than average times through the season, so it's important to note he took 24th and beat some other great runners in the process!  He's also determined to continue developing as a leader of this young squad.

Our three through five scorers got a rare experience that many first year runners at Hale haven't and got to compete in GMC and sectionals this year.  Nate, Eric and Preston made some huge progress this season and will be super strong after completing their first full XC seasons.  Most teams have a few three or four year seniors that set the example and allow for patient development of younger athletes.  While we remained patient with the young athletes and continue to do so, they were definitely thrown into more high leverage situations that will only help them learn quicker and discover the type of runners they can become.  Wyatt got to finish his senior debut season at sectionals while Will got to visualize as well the effort of a state type meet.  

The message to the team was simple, whether we finished 5th, 11th or wherever this year, we still walk away with the same group.  Even looking at a couple other sectionals, we would have competed even this year to be at state which would have been awesome but wouldn't change the opportunities for the future.  Mukwonago won the sectional after finishing 9th place last year.  That group for sure got together and motivated each other to create something great together, and now they got to show off their hard work they did as a team.  Every successful Hale team of the past has had this same concept of guys coming together and wanting to create big goals.  The 2000 state championship team hadn't even qualified for state the year prior.  The 2018 and 2019 state teams hadn't qualified since 2012 and had an almost brand new team as well in those years.  The big question is, what do these young men want to accomplish in the coming year, and who will be the ones that live up to those goals through putting in miles together?  Everything will be up to the group. 

We do know one thing, we are extremely proud of this young team and they performed extremely well in their first/second seasons for most.  This sport is the best and we hope it is a life long pursuit of happiness and health for every guy on the team!

Last 2022 Season Events / Notes

Thank you everyone for your support and we are excited to celebrate the team on Tuesday, November 1st in the cafeteria at 5:45 p.m.  We are hoping to do a potluck if we get enough people to bring in snacks/food.  The sign up is below.

2022 Potluck Signup
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I told athletes that we saw on the weekend to bring clean uniform and jacket and lock back to Dewitt's room during this week some time.  

Go watch the state meet this weekend!

The state meet is this Saturday at Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.  The first race starts at noon and the information can be found on the WIAA site below.  Even though we didn't qualify anyone this year, we highly encourage guys to go up and watch it.  This is the best meet of the year and can be extremely motivating to see.  The 2017 team all went up together and then qualified for the meet in 2018.  Below are some historic links from the state meet.  State Meet Information

State Qualifying Teams and Individuals
State All Time under 18 (From List I have)