Week 10: Sectional and Thursday Grant Park Meet

Weekly Recap

Full photos from James Kees here!  GMC Conference
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We came off a nice performance at Viking and carried that momentum into this last week.  The culture at practices has been great, with every guy pursuing excellence and growing our front pack.  Some great character being shown.  The evolution of selflessness and running for each other has been the theme since the start of summer, and it continues to build and help our team run well.  

We trust and believe every guy on our team can be the best man out there every race day.  We're all progressing and have no limits.  Last week, one of our men who had a big breakthrough at Viking got sick and thus we decided it was best to rest him at conference and have him ready for sectionals.  For some teams, this may have been a setback, but for our men we know it's a team effort.  We have had many meets this season where different guys have scored or had to fill scoring roles with someone or multiple people being out of the lineup.  Those experiences help build every man's confidence that they can step up and score.  And even if not scoring, they know the power of racing to their best and how that raises the level of everyone on the team.  It's about US and not ME.  Soft roads create soft people.  While we don't want obstacles, we need them to become our best.  These men have been incredible in the ways they have used each one this season as fuel to improvement.  We let nothing limit us and continue to control only what we can.  Every man on this team is capable of greatness.

Men in the first race got out very well and put themselves in a position to compete well.  Alex White had a great performance, attacking, racing fearless and racing to win.  He got out to the lead early and stayed up front most the way.  At about 2.5 miles, a pack of 5 passed him, but he responded short after (and upon seeing his teammates cheering him on) by immediately passing that entire group and getting back into 2nd place in his pursuit of first!  He ended up 3rd overall against great competition.  He set an example of responding and making a move (although it may not feel great!) to pass the guys right ahead of him.  We have to be willing to take that chance, create some discomfort to pass guys and you'll always get momentum and strength from it!  Last note on this one here is Alex ran 5:38 in the 1600 this spring, and held 5:45 pace in his 5k this past weekend!  In running careers, it's not about where you start.

Brennan and Carson formed a solid 2/3 combo with Brennan running a career best as well and Carson with another consistent performance.  Three men under 18:20 in the first race showed the continued improvement of depth and the team concept.  Frank Bevsek stepped up to be our 4th man and had his personal best race as well on a day where a couple of our past scorers were a bit further back than last week.  Nick Burgess rounded out the scoring.  11 of our 15 men in the first race ran career bests!  I was especially pumped with Tyler Koney getting more out of his comfort zone and helping pull his teammate's Jordan and Kyle to some great performances as well!  

The varsity men were up next.  6 men toed the line with the confidence that all 6 were all conference level runners whether it showed on the day or not.  Liam got out like he does and cleared himself well of the pack.  He did his job well, ending up 16th for 2nd team all conference honors for the second straight year.  Our other 5 got out a bit too calmly and got caught up behind early on the narrow course.  Two guys from other teams broke away early and Joshua was way back even at the mile.  We know he would have been neck and neck with the leader with a better start, but we are more preparing for next week and to watch him make up the ground he did in the last two miles is a testament to his strength and ability.  He's ready to roll and just keep improving.  Our pack was able to move up a lot as well and got us in a better position as a team.  Collin raced a lot more aggressive and helped our 4 and 5 continue to get closer to our top 3.  We look for continued aggressiveness from all 7 of our guys who will go out smart and set the tone from the gun next Saturday.  If you look at the team standings, it was very close.  We were in a position to take 3rd overall with just some slight adjustments early, so we know we're in a good spot and are glad we have more to go after.  We learn each race and are fueled for much more this coming week!

I'm incredibly proud of the team culture and this group.  I love watching them and seeing them every day!  A huge shout out to the top 3 men at conference all running under 15:32 and the top 3 times in the state.  The old conference record was 15:30.  It was so fun to watch all of them and see other competition push each other to new heights!

Much love for all the men, a lot more write ups to come as I continue to work on our season book.  Keep supporting and loving each other, it's been so much fun to see this group of men grow.

We look to be full strength and have another great week this week.  We will continue our focus on building and loving one another.  Total selflessness as we hit the line the next two weeks.  Business as usual, always just improving, learning and growing.  There are no limits.

This Week

Be sure to read over the sectional info on parking and some rules they don't enforce all year but now they do.  Big things are no electronics on the course (including use of cell phones) and no dogs.  We can obviously take photos and all that at awards but we will just be respectful of the rules as they ask per the WIAA.  

Sectionals  Meet Info

Lineups are tough this time of year as we have said, a lot of guys are contributing.  We believe in all the guys and the 7 we have going to the line this Saturday.   The 3 alternates are very important as are ALL members of the team.  We will all be at both meets this week to support some huge performances.  Guys not racing Saturday will do a run together and then be out on the course and well behaved for positive performances from the guys racing.  Together we will make history in the program.

Hale Meet Info for both meets

Friday's practice I'm currently planning to have at 11:30 a.m. and is only required for the 7 guys competing and the 3 alternates.   Others are welcome to come and bring positive energy, just as all men will be welcome next week to train the entire week with the team.  Only be there to live the standards and max effort if you plan to join.

Pasta Dinners

Wednesday's pasta party will be for guy's racing on Thursday only.  Guy's racing Saturday should be using that extra day for sleep and homework.  Guys racing too it's a school night so plan ahead and take care of business to finish on a huge performance Thursday.  Thanks to Jaylon for hosting!

Jaylon's address is, 4151 S 104th St, Greenfield, WI 

Friday's pasta party will be open invite to all guys since it is Friday.  It will be a low key probably watching a movie together.   It's an off day at school so plan for 5:00 p.m.!  Thanks Joshua for hosting!

Joshua's address is, 2113 S. 98th St., West Allis

I want to be a bit smarter at these.  Have fun but let's be sure to not be running around too much.

Team Banquet Reminder

As emailed last week, a reminder our team banquet is Tuesday, November 12th at 6:00 p.m.  We plan to do a potluck again, don't feel obligated to bring anything and a big thank you to all of you for your support of the program in many ways.  

Potluck Sign up

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