MHS Track and Field and BRC Championships Boys Comment Sheet

MHS Track and Field 5.16.2017 and 5.18.2017 BRC Championships Boys Comment Sheet Only the Rugged Survive We won. Well, we tied for 1 st, and I don t know if I ve ever seen a tie at a BRC championship. It s easy to look at the results and try to find that one point. What could we have done to win the BRC title outright? That s a mistake. If we had been 2 nd by a point, then we could be playing that game. Instead, we should look at all of the things that went right for us to tie for a title. Before we do, let me say that I never thought we would be able to win this year. Last year we were last 7 th of 7. That s not very good, obviously, and I ve talked about changing the culture. I ve talked about it so much it s become a punch line. But what does it mean? What is the culture of boys athletics at the HS, and how does it change? Our culture needs to be about process, and focus, and not winning, but on doing the small things right. Our culture needs to be about toughness, and having fun, and being competitive with yourself. Our culture needs to reward and focus on improvement, because that s what matters. When I think of what Devin and Brian and Sam did at the BRC meet managing multiple events, stepping up HUGE at the end of the meet, being able to shift focus from high jump to handoffs to approaches this is a shift in culture. This is what allowed us to do well and win the meet. Clutch performances when it counted most. That s the cultural shift we ve been looking for. A few other things allowed us to win. Injuries to our opponents were a contributing factor. EC Memorial lost Drake Schneider. He would have scored, perhaps, 28 individual points, and he would have bumped us down in the hurdles and jumps. River Falls lost Chris Wright in the high jump, and he s gone 6 3. EC North s sprint crew lost quite a few guys as well. We were healthy, and a BRC title doesn t come with an asterisk, so we get to enjoy it. Another contributing factor was the nature of the teams we faced. No team was complete. Every team had a weakness or two. Chippewa Falls, for example, had awesome triple jumpers and hurdlers, and they scored in nearly every event. Still, they didn t have distance depth, so they struggled in the 3200m and 4x800m. They didn t have any pole vaulters, and their long jumpers were not as strong as their triple jumpers. Hudson, on the other hand, had great distance runners and hurdlers, but their jumpers and long sprinters weren t as strong as they usually are. And they didn t have the throwers that we ve seen in the past. Rice Lake was dominant in the long sprints, and they had a high jumper and pole vaulter, but they didn t score in about half of the events. We had amazing jumpers, a talented 3200m guy, some very strong sprinters and the best young hurdler in the area. In the end, every point counted. Every single one. ANATOMY OF A VICTORY DAY 1 TJ Devin Williams 2 nd, Sam Zbornik 7 th 4x800m Relay Fichter, Jemilo, Westphal, Dittman 5th Pole Vault Shawn Halverson 8 th 110m Hurdles Sam Zbornik 2 nd, Kevyn Perkins 6 th 100m Dash Brian Wheeler 3 rd, Evan Husby 5 th, Devin Williams 8 th Discus Channer Schutts 3 rd 4x200m Relay Grey, Wilson, Weber, Suckow 5 th 10 pts 4 pts 1 pt 11 pts 11 pts 6 pts 4 pts After the 4x200m the meet was postponed due to lightning. So after 7 events, we were in fourth place, and about 10 points out of first. It was close, though. At this point, with the High Jump, Long Jump, 300m Hurdles and 3200m upcoming, I thought we might have a chance at a win. So it was a restful Wednesday and then on to day 2 on Thursday. And what a crazy day it was! DAY 2 4x100m Sorenson, Husby, Wheeler, Williams 1 st 300m Hurdles Sam Zbornik 1 st High Jump Sam Zbornik and Brian Wheeler 2 nd (tie), Kevyn Perkins 7 th Shot Put Channer Schutts 6 th 3200m Run Matt Kieffer 4 th Long Jump Brian Wheeler 1 st, Devin Williams 2 nd 4x400m Relay Westphal, Dittman, Suckow, Sorenson 10 pts 10 pts 16 pts 3 pts 5 pts 18 pts 3 pts It came down to the final event, the long jump, and wow did Brian and Devin come through! Prior to this day, Brian had never jumped longer than 21 7. Devin had never jumped over 19 11. Brian was able to go

22 6, and Devin was able to go 21 1. Did you see them at the long jump? No fear. Relaxed. Focused. Having fun. That s the change in culture I ve been looking for. Looking at the point totals, Brian won the long jump, was 2 nd in the high jump, and 3 rd in the 100m. He was also on the 4x100m relay team, which won. Sam won the 300h, was 2 nd in the 300h and 2 nd in the high jump. Devin won the 4x100m, was 2 nd in the triple and long, and was 8 th in the 100m. Those three guys had HUGE, clutch performances. Check this out; seven kids scored more than 15 points at the BRC meet in individual events. Here they are: 2017 BRC CHAMPIONSHIPS TOP POINT SCORERS IN INDIVDUAL EVENTS Zbornik (10) Menomonie 27 Spaeth (12) Chippewa Falls 24 Wheeler (12) Menomonie 23 Bednerek (11) Rice Lake 20 Clerveaux (10) Rice Lake 18 Sworski (12) Chippewa Falls 18 Williams (10) Menomonie 17 Three of the top seven scorers were from MHS. Sam Zbornik scored more individual points at this meet than any other athlete. And he s a sophomore. Brian Wheeler scored more points at this meet than Kenny. That s pretty cool. Then there were the guys that weren t supposed to score as high as they did, but they had amazing performances. Check this out NAME EVENT SEED PLACE FINAL PLACE POINT SHIFT Channer Schutts Discus 6 th 3rd +3 Kevyn Perkins 110h 9th 6 th +3 Kevyn Perkins HJ 8 th 7 th +1 Devin Williams LJ 7 th 2 nd +6 Devin Williams 100m 10 th 8 th +1 Wilson, Weber, Suckow, Gray 4x200m 7 th 5 th +2 Sam Zbornik HJ 5 th 2 nd +3 Sam Zbornik 110h 4 th 2 nd +3 Sam Zbornik 300h 2 nd 1 st +2 Brian Wheeler 100m 6 th 3 rd +3 Evan Husby 100m 7 th 5 th +2 Those one and two and three point swings don t seem like a lot, but it adds up to 29 points. And every time we get a point, another team loses one. Us getting points, getting into finals, advancing through prelims - takes points away from our opponents. And at a BRC meet when every single point counted, these swings proved to be crucial. So we won a BRC title - through toughness, determination, clutch performances and nearly everything going our way. And I m extremely proud of you boys. SPRINTS 26 points Marquez is fast. Fritz from River Falls is fast, too. I know Brian thought he might have a chance to win the 100m, but Marquez is fast. He s been a bit inconsistent this year, but he came through when it mattered. Fritz has also been a bit inconsistent this year, but he, too, had a great day. Brian also had an amazing day, running an 11.00. That s the fastest time in my years as a coach. Husby ran 11.13. That s Marcus Smith s lifetime high school PR (and Marcus has run the 100m twice in college, running 11.23 two years ago and 11.80 this year). Husby battled back from his knee injury only to get a hamstring injury. My guess is that all of the physical therapy he got strengthened his injured leg significantly, and his non-injured leg overcompensated by overextending a bit, which pulled the hamstring. But Husby was ready to go when it mattered, and he scored some nice points for us, running an extremely fast time. The surprise was Devin making finals. Now, Devin is fast, and 11.4 is amazing for a sophomore, but we have a pretty brutally fast conference right now. Marquez, who won the 100m, isn t even the fastest 100m guy in the BRC. Kenny is. For Devin, a guy who really never ran the 100m much last year, to be able to go and make finals in an extremely talented field of runners is really quite something. Mitch broke the B standard in the 200m. His time of 24.1 will usually score at the BRC meet, but the 200m is loaded. The top guy in the state won the event, and the 2 nd best guy in D2 was 2 nd place. That s a loaded conference. So Mitch didn t break the top 8, but he did have a PR. He ran a B standard. I don t know if you remember Jonah Breneman, but Mitch s time was a little faster than what Jonah would usually run. Then there is Wyatt. I knew he was a long-shot to score in the 400m, but I didn t know it would take a 53.7 to score. That 400m was crazy. It s very rare that a kid runs a 51.5 and gets fourth. So Wyatt did a

wonderful job, running a time that will usually place you in the top 8, but he missed out on points. Big deal he got a huge PR. That s what matters, after all. As for the relays, I remember telling the 4x200m guys, do your job. Get the baton around the track, let your opponents mess-up. You are the 7 th seed, just get the baton around the track and score some points. I ll admit that those words aren t the most inspirational, but that s what the 4x200m group needed to do. Adam took off from the start, and it was a good start. At the first exchange, Rice Lake was on our outside (we were in lane 1). One of their runners ran out of the zone and fell. Emmett saw this happen as he was accelerating, but he focused and was able to get a clean exchange. He concentrated, grabbed the baton and took off. A yellow flag went up. Rice Lake was disqualified. Now we re in 6 th. The next exchange was clean for all teams, and we were in 6 th (Rice Lake s guy was way back after the botched exchange). Alan had a brilliant race, closing the gap on EC Memorial in 5 th. He ran into the zone and handed to Mitch for another clean exchange. Memorial s runner left early, then had to slow down drastically to get the baton. We got ahead of them. Mitch had a great race, and we finished in 5 th. Those 2 points proved to be the difference. So I told the boys, before the race, do your job. Get the baton around the track. Let your opponents make a mistake. We ll move up a spot or two. Occasionally, just occasionally, I m right. As for the 4x100m, they won. And we were.02 seconds away from the BRC Record. The exchange between Evan and Devin wasn t very clean, and this is good news because they can pick-up some time on that turn at Sectionals. Three of the top six 4x100m teams in the state are in our sectional. Congrats on the BRC victory (by about a second), but as you get to Sectionals remember the 4x200m relay at the BRC. Relax. Do your job. Let your opponents make mistakes. Get the baton around the track. If you can do this, you have a chance at state. Anyway, great job to the sprint crew. It was a wonderful two days. And, by the way, the sprints are loaded right now. LOADED? It s fun to look back at individual events and compare them from one year to the next. In 2005, Jesse Merkel ran 4:17 to win the 1600m. Brent Kahn was 4:19 and Sean Olson ran 4:26 that year. The sixth place guy in that race would have won the 1600m this year. That same year, a 20 1.50 won the long jump. That jump wouldn t place you in the top six this year. This year 5 10 was 2 nd in the high jump. That s pretty rare usually there will be three or four guys at 6 or better. This year the discus was crazy, with three guys in the 140s. The 400m dash was the fastest it s ever been. The pole vault, though, was a little soft. The 800m was very soft, with a 2:10 scoring and a 2:02 winning. In 2014, a 1:59 was 4 th. And you probably didn t notice, but four of the top 16 times in the state were run in the girls 3200m. It wasn t that long ago that we had a kid place 3 rd in the girls 3200m with a 12:32. Now that time won t finish in the top nine. And it wouldn t even win a JV BRC title. Things fluctuate. One of the events that s fun to watch is the 100m dash. Here are the results of the 100m dash over the past few years - Boys 100m Dash Finals 2011-2016 2012 2013 2014 Name Team Time Name Team Time Name Team Time 1 Marcus Smith MEN 11.53 Brandon D Andrea HUD 11.15 Tyson Humes ECM 11.20 2 Ritchie Stafford CHI 11.81 Marcus Smith MEN 11.40 Ryan Bjornstal RF 11.42 3 Nathan Sylte CHI 11.86 John Malliette RF 11.42 Tanner Homme HUD 11.47 4 Alex Bohl CHI 11.90 Tyson Humes ECM 11.43 Kyle Webb CHI 11.71 5 Dan Kelly HUD 12.12 Turner Borgstrom MEN 11.46 Nick Greenlund ECN 11.73 6 M.Martenson ECM 12.16 Brad Freeborn RF 11.58 Max Osterbauer RL 11.74 7 C. Okoroji ECM 12.24 Ryan Bjornstal RF 11.62 Isaiah Secrest RL 11.75 8 Charles Meyer RF 12.26 Brady Skifstad ECN 11.92 Bryce Rasmussen ECM 11.75 Time Needed to Make Finals: 12.24 Time Needed to Make Finals: 11.65 Time Needed to Make Finals: 11.73 2015 2016 2017 Name Team Time Name Team Time Name Team Time 1 Kenny Bednarek RL 10.88 Kenny Bednarek RL 10.70r Marquez Clerveaux RL 10.84 2 Tyson Humes ECM 10.98 Kole Mewhorter CHI 10.99 Sam Fritz RF 10.98 3 Isaiah Secrest RL 11.20 Nick Greenlund ECN 11.01 Brian Wheeler MEN 11.00 4 Bryce Rasmussen ECM 11.25 Marquez Clerveaux RL 11.19 Evan Spaeth CHI 11.02 5 Kole Mewhorter CHI 11.27 Eric Swenson CHI 11.20 Evan Husby MEN 11.14 6 Kyle Web CHI 11.29 Hunter Henk RF 11.32 Dawson Stroik RL 11.42 7 Nick Greenlund ECN 11.30 Tanner Homme HUD 11.38 Mitchell Hockbein HUD 11.46 8 Codie Meinen CHI 11.37 Codie Meinen CHI 11.42 Devin Williams MEN 11.51 Time Needed to Make Finals: 11.63 Time Needed to Make Finals: 11.62 Time Needed to Make Finals: 11.48 Marcus won back in 2012, but his time wouldn t make finals this year. It would win JV BRC this year, but not by much. Husby and Wheeler ran times that would win the 100m dash most years. When you look at these results, you see Kenny being the first guy to break 11.0 in a while. In fact, Kenny was the first guy to

break 11.0 since Jamal Franklin did it back in 2002. Now we have multiple guys breaking 11.0. Kenny has elevated our conference, and people have gotten better as a result of his dominance, so our conference is much faster now in the 100m, 200m and 400m than it s ever been. Our boys at MHS are faster, too. That s how it goes. HURDLES 21 PTS Zbornik is an absolute beast. Here he is, right along side Kulzer from Chippewa. Kulzer was supposed to win this. Sam pulled along side at the 6th hurdle, as you can see in this picture. This created pressure. Both surged toward the 7th hurdle, and Kulzer stumbled a bit. Sam pulled away and won by over a second. Sam was able to use his height and strength and technique to separate. That s how it works. So Sam is the 300m hurdle BRC Champ. Last year he ran 45.5 and was 10th. This year he ran 41.5 and 1st. That s amazing growth! Sam was also 2nd in the 110m hurdles, improving his time by about a second. His 110m race was also outstanding. 15.5 is wonderful it s faster than Cole Werner ran in the 110s in his career, and it s a time that should qualify for sectionals, despite our blazingly fast regional. So Sam scored 18 points in the hurdles, and he s now the premiere young hurdler in the area. Kevyn made finals in the 110m hurdles. I thought the 300h would be his event, but it happened to be the 110s. Kevyn was supposed to get 10th, and not make finals. Instead he was 6th, and he improved his time by about a second. Remember Trevor Strand? Kevyn is just as fast, and that bodes well for our future. As for Labs, he had two great PRs, and that s all we can ask from a runner at the BRC meet. Aside from those two PRs, Jason has provided some awesome leadership and stability to this group of hurdlers. Sam is a sophomore, and Kevyn is really a rookie hurdler. Jason has been the constant, and his kindness and work ethic is also responsible for the tremendous success of this hurdles crew. And Coach Gores. THROWS 9 pts If only. That s the question we ll be asking for a while. If only Channer had stuck with this, and not left the team after his freshmen season. If only Weber had been out all four years. If only Waylon had done this last year. It s natural to ask these questions, but we have to be thankful that these guys went out this year, and they improved and got better and worked on their technique. Channer is a beast. I recall, not that long ago, when he asked me if he could only do shot put. Nope. Try the discus. It will make you better in the shot. Well, he threw 146 in the discus, and was 3rd. Most years, that will win the BRC. Most of the time. This year, though, is a freak year for throwers. Check the picture to the right and the huge shoulder muscle. Awesome. You can see the force coming off of that throw. Channer is clearly a very powerful young man. And he didn t want to throw the discus? Yep. Anyway, Channer had the highest finish for an MHS thrower at the BRC meet since Grant Luer, way back in 2008. As for Waylon, he missed finals in the discus by a few feet. Harmston, after starting the outdoor season strong, has struggled lately. And Mason, who is a great guy, missed finals as well, but I thought it was important to include Mason at a championship meet. He has some massive potential. Mason and Harmston and DJ are leading this group next year, assuming all three come back, and hopefully we can find some huge guys in the hallway this coming winter and convince them to try track, just as we did with Channer, Mitch and Waylon.

JUMPS 44 pts This is our bread and butter the jumps. The jumpers scored a TON of points. We have amazing jumps coaches. Coach Wilson is outstanding. She s extremely kind, fair, she works hard and she is a wonderful tactician. She knows the jumps. She knows how to coach. In the long and triple jump there are six all-brc spots. MHS athletes got three of them. Way to go, Coach Wilson! As for Coach Anderson, he s also a great tactician. He knows the event. He also knows what other kids can do he knows the rosters of our BRC opponents very well. He knows who s jumping well, and who is not. In the high jump there are three all-conference spots. We got two of them. So we got six of the nine possible all-brc spots in the jumps. AMAZING! Devin improved his triple jump by exactly a foot. He is now Triple Jump J. Smith, 44 9 (1994) the 2 nd best triple jumper since I ve been coaching all the way 1 Dylan Harmston (2014) 44 8.75 back in 2000. In fact, if you look at the school record of 44 9, I 2 Devin Williams (2017) 43 6 would say that Devin has a very good shot at that record next 3 Jon Heimler (2008) 43 5.25 year, if he continues to work hard and improve. AND find 4 Dustin Creaser (2005) 42 10 balance with grades. He could be the first MHS guy to triple 5 Cory Andraschko (2006) 42 5.5 jump 45. And he could do it next year. Wouldn t that be 6 Quincy Olson (2015) 42 4 something. At the BRC meet he jumped 43 6. He actually had 7 Jim Mooney (2009) 41 4 the best jump going into the finals, but Spaeth from Chippewa 8 Ryan Teitz (2007) 40 11.75 jumped a little better on his final 3 jumps (44 3) so Devin was 9 Sam Zbornik (2017) 40 9 2 nd. 10 Evan Bolin (2002) 40 2.25 Devin went on to long jump 21. That s massive. He had never jumped above 20 going into the BRC. He was supposed to be 6 th or 7 th. Instead he was 2 nd. That s amazing. He s going to be the premiere jumper in the area next year. Colleges are going to start looking at you, Devin. The Maintain that balance, get those grades in and you might be looking at scholarships, especially if you can take your triple jump into the 45 s next year. In the long jump, Brian was a force, jumping 22 6 with the wind. That s awesome. The news cameras had Brian jumping head on, and you never get a good look at the distance from a head-on jump. Look from the side. Right now, Brian is 7 th in the state in D1 with his 22 6. Just do that, Brian 22 6, and you ll not only go to state, but you ll get a medal. Brian won the long jump by about a foot and a half. That was a massive margin of victory, and it was one of the things that allowed Brian to win the Field MVP. The other was his 2 nd place finish in the HJ. He cleared 5 8 at Chippewa, then had to clear 5 10 opening height, cold, at Menomonie. He did it on his first attempt. Then there was the 4x100m and 100m a first and a third. A pretty solid day for Brian and the first MVP BRC award for our boys since Dylan Harmston won the MVP Field award back in 2013. And Sam was 7 th in the triple jump, which isn t too bad either. Logan made finals, and while he didn t score, he took another opponent out of finals. That opponent could have improved and scored and that could have been the difference between us wining and getting 2 nd or 3 rd. Great job, boys. Amazing work. MID / LONG DISTANCE 10 pts The 4x800m was outstanding. Everyone had a PR. Simon PRd by three seconds. Dane PRd by about a second. Rocco PRd by a second and a half and Ryan PRd by over four seconds. The team ran 8:58. Last time, with Kieffer, they ran 9:06. So, this was a great improvement. I thought this relay would get 6 th. I figured they would beat Rice Lake, but every other team would be stronger. It turns out they were in 4 th until the final leg. Memorial had a beast on the anchor, and he ran down Ryan. Ryan battled extremely well, and hung on as best he could, but you aren t going to hang on to an all-state Cross Country runner. So the team was 5 th. Still, that s better than I thought, and this group gets another shot at Regionals and, maybe, at Sectionals. Run your race, run a PR, and don t worry about the rest. All of you could break 2:10 on Monday! In the 3200m, I saw Matt before the race. Do your job, Matt. Run your race. Get us those points. Get 4 th. And what a great race he ran! Splits were 1:14, 1:16, 1:17, 1:18 for a 5:05 at the 1600m. Then the race began. Everyone, except the leader, was bunched up at this point. Look at the picture, at the end of lap 3. It was a mess. Matt was in traffic. On lap 5 Matt broke out and took off. 1:16. Brilliant! In doing so he separated his group of four runners (he, two Memorial and a RF) from the rest. At that point we knew he was at least going to get fifth. He ran a 1:18 on lap 6, leading the way and

pushing the pace with his group. Now, Matt isn t the strongest kicker. He s going to be a great 10k guy, if he runs in college, but a kick isn t his strong point. It was lap 7 that was crucial. Sell out on that lap! We ve been saying it all season, and Matt has done a good job of this. So, on lap 7, Matt ran a 1:19. That might look slow, but he was pressing extremely hard, and he was able to gap the River Falls guy a bit. Most of his opponents ran that lap in 1:21, in fact. So he was right up with two Memorial guys, with River Falls guy a few seconds behind. Everyone else was back. And it was due to lap 6 and 7. Still, RF guy was there, and Matt was going to have to find a kick somewhere to hold off that River Falls guy. In the end, Matt ran a 1:17 and was 4th. That was his fastest final lap of a 3200m this season. Was it a kick? Not really a kick, but more of a maintaining of pace at a time when maintaining pace was almost impossible for the rest of the field. River Falls guy dug down, but Matt was able to hold him off. The gap was too big. The kick didn t matter, as it shouldn t in a well paced race. Matt s race was a whole bunch of lessons and experience all coming together for one glorious moment. You need to be disciplined on laps 5, 6 and 7. You need to separate and break your opponent. Don t let him hang on, because he ll be in a position to outkick. Separate and break. Move hard on lap 7. Matt did everything required of him, and it hurt, and it was brutally hard. But he did it. He held on to 4 th, and that, among a whole host of other things, allowed us to win. Then he stuck around for the JV meet and clerked with Mr. Berger. You don t get leaders like Matt all that often, and we are extremely lucky to have him and his discipline, toughness and kindness. POLE VAULT 1 pt (and this was a crucial point) Well, this was interesting. I thought a 10 6 would place, only if you did it first attempt. It turns out it took a 10 0, on the first attempt, to place. Shawn Halverson, who has vaulted higher than any other freshmen in the history of our school, was able to score a point. One point. That one point mattered. This is a nice group of young vaulters, but here s another static that might be interesting. In the history of MHS, no pole vaulter has ever scored in four BRC meets in a row. It s never happened. Shawn has the potential to do it. And wouldn t that be something? Jake was there, too, but he didn t clear a height. No big deal, Jake. I knew it was going to be either you or Shawn who had a good day that s why I put both of you in the meet. It was Shawn s day. Monday might be your day. But what an amazing group of young vaulters we have this season! Well, that s it. Every single point counted, and we won a title. Sharing a title is still winning, and we went from last to first. After the meet, when I saw Channer and told him we won, he said, you re welcome. Thanks, Channer. Thanks Shawn, and Evan, and Brian and everyone. This was a total team effort. You all deserve the win.