Hale XC Week 11 State!

Sectional Recap

The men finished third overall at the Muskego sectional this past Saturday.  The team took a huge step forward from last year and depended on each other to deliver their best team performance of the year!    
The Hale program will once again be represented at the state meet after a one year hiatus.  Elijah Sayeg and John Gruichich have punched their ticket to run as individuals and will race at the Ridges Course next Saturday in Wisconsin Rapids.  A year ago, John was in a boot and had his season cut short after the Betz Invitational.  It's awesome to see how far he has come since then!  Congratulations to both men, and let's go have our best race this weekend!

Oh so close to having a third qualifier, Ethan Plier finished as our third scorer as he consistently has all season long.  A heck of a sophomore campaign, earning third team all conference honors and helping lead the team to a successful season with his consistent low scoring week in and week out.  Like his teammates, Eli and John, Ethan will gain experience in championship racing and has some great individual and team opportunities ahead.  A great season for Ethan!

Scoring as our 4th man was senior Eric Harvey who did what seniors do!  In his last race as a Husky, Eric put out his best performance of his cross country career (just two seasons!) racing to a 22nd place finish and just 4 places off of our third man this week.  Eric has grown a ton and is another example of how championship racing experience helps.  He now has shown he can perform in championship racing and will look to carry that into a successful track season!  Awesome way to end the season for Eric!

Rounding out our scoring this week was a guy who the coaches have really seen take some major steps this past week.  Koda Bruner broke 18 minutes for the first time and finished 25th overall.  We could really see his intensity pick up on runs and he after a couple of months with the guys this is becoming important to him.  We look forward to what Koda and our other freshmen can do with their Hale careers!

Imperfections are a huge part of any season.  Looking to get a number of different personalities and men with different backgrounds to all gel and achieve on the same day is always a challenge that we have been fortunate to do pretty well with for years.  One of those imperfections arose during the warmup on Saturday.  A young man needed a pick up and his teammate was there for him, ready to step up and do what he could for him and the team!  Stepping in as an alternate, Kai Bruner raced fearless and even helped finish ahead of Wisconsin Lutheran's 5th man which helped our team!  Great work by Kai who continues to grow as a young man.  Joseph learned the value of team and will no doubt be a huge player for our team going forward, using this moment as an opportunity to build stronger as a person and runner.

Rounding out our top seven was Nate Hutter who has started turning it on at the right time, finishing championship season with two of his best races of the season.  He once again got strong position early, and our other men were able to go with him this week which significantly improved our team from conference where they didn't commit as early.  Finishing 30th overall and ahead of Greendale's 3rd, 4th and 5th scorers helped the team!  Nate is still early in his distance running development and with some skills to work on with the coaches, we are excited to see him continue building and being a strong leader.

The whole team is instrumental in every success and failure.  It's the efforts that matter, and when we all are giving our best efforts, the coaches are proud win or lose.  We definitely walk into state weekend with a big team win day.  There's definitely a lot to be excited and motivated about with the team and the number of men who will return next fall.  The season always goes by fast, and we are thankful for another week with two great young men.  

Awesome step forward for the program this fall.  Our overall record against teams was 89-31 this season, compared to 53-61 a year ago.  The team won the Druckery (Rocket) Invitational for the first time since the year 2000. We had three men all conference, and two state qualifiers.  Three different individuals won a race this fall.  We finished third at the sectional after finishing 11th at our sectional last year.  Of course that's not all and we look forward to sharing all of the men's team and individual successes, along with challenges along the way at the banquet in November.

Let's continue to build and love.  No Limits.
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This week
Elijah and John will practice at Hale Monday through Thursday after school.  Any other guys on the team are more than welcome to join!  Big shout out to our women's program and Sarah Norton as well who punched her ticket with a huge effort at sectionals on Saturday!  

Heading up to state to support!
We would love to see some Hale support up at State!  See the WIAA XC page for information on tickets and race times.  The D1 men's race is at 1:10 p.m.  Tickets for fans are sold only online.

https://www.wiaawi.org/Sports/Fall/Boys-Cross-Country/Tournament​

Post Season Banquet/Uniforms
A reminder that our team banquet is Thursday, November 2nd at 4:15 p.m.  We are hoping to once again do a potluck where families each bring an item!  Use the sign up below to sign up to bring food and/or utensils/plates/bowls.  We have 22 athletes and can assume around 2 family members per athlete.

​Banquet Sign up

The Monday after state on Monday, October 30th all athletes will need to turn in all issued uniforms (Jerseys, shorts, Jackets) after school in Coach Dewitt's room.  Anything not turned in will be assessed a fee to cover the cost of the item.  I'll touch base on winter sports and running opportunities there as well with a short meeting.  Should be wrapped up by 3:30ish if we can get guys there right after school.

Some freshmen have asked, so as a heads up those not in a winter sport, we have a group of men that meet up daily in Coach Dewitt's room 108 after school dressed to run.  These end earlier than practices since they just go out for runs.  I'll give more information on it at the meeting, we usually start them after the Thanksgiving holiday and leading up to the track season.