MHS Cross Country 10.14.2017 Big Rivers Conference Meet Girls Comment Sheet Living easy. Living free. Season ticket on a one-way ride. Asking nothing. Leave me be. Taking everything in my stride. Don t need reason. Don t need rhyme. Ain t nothing I would rather do. What a fun day! I was seriously worried after Old Abe, when we didn t run very well. I blamed it on homecoming, but I was worried. Could we bounce back? Could we recapture the awesomeness that we showed at New Richmond? Would we beat EC Memorial? Could we get 2nd place in the BRC? Yep. We could, and we did. I started coaching the ladies in 2005. Prior to that it was boys varsity and JV. This was the 13th time the ladies I ve coached have run at the BRC meet. In those 13 BRC meets, we ve never once beaten Eau Claire Memorial. We ve beaten them at regular season meets, but never at a championship meet like Conference or Sectionals. They are a great team with huge numbers and an amazing coaching staff. They have a tradition and a history that is unmatched in the area. And you ladies got ahead of them. That s pretty cool. It might not ever happen again, but you ladies were able to do it at the 2017 Big Rivers Conference Meet. Still, we didn t win. Hudson is just too good. They have an amazingly talented team of sophomores and a great front-runner. I knew they were going to be good, but I didn t know they d be THAT good. They made huge progress from last year. They will probably be 5th at the state meet, maybe even 4th. So while we beat Memorial, we didn t win a BRC title. We were 2nd. And that s pretty darn good. We ve finished 2nd in the BRC the past four MHS ALL-BRC Girls from 2005 Present (the Olson era) Year 1st team 2nd team Hon. Mention years in a row. This is the longest period of 2005 T. McCoy stability and success for any current sport in the 2006 T. McCoy school, outside of football. It s certainly the 2007 K. Andrist longest period of stability and success for our 2008 J. Kelch (BRC Champ) C. Sawle cross-country team. When I took over the girls 2009 J. Kelch, K. Thoe, N. Schmidt K. Wemmer 2010 N. Schmidt, C. Sawle in 2005 we had some good runners but 2011 N. Schmidt nothing like we have now. Check out the results 2012 N. Schmidt K. Bischel of the all-brc awards, going all the way back to 2013 I. Kilde, B. Boecker my first year with the varsity ladies. 2014 G. Bilse, T. Boettcher, E. Welch F. Zertler From 2005 through the 2013 season (that s 2015 G. Bilse T. Boettcher, E. Welch E. Peterson 2016 E. Welch, T. Boettcher E. Schwartz, K. Imsande, G. Bilse E. Schmidt, M. Sorenson nine seasons) we had girls earn all-brc honors 2017 G. Bilse, T. Boettcher E. Schwartz K. Imsande, M. Flug 16 times. From 2014 through 2017 (that s four seasons), we ve had 20 all-brc awards. 16 awards for the first nine, 20 awards over the past four. During those first nine seasons we mostly earned one or two all-brc awards a year. Way back in 2009 (aka the Swine Flu Year) we had four. We ve averaged five all-brc awards every year since 2014. The conference hasn t fundamentally changed or gotten worse. If anything, it s gotten better. Heck, in 2014 and 2015 our conference had team state champions AND individual state champions. That s a tough conference. But through it all, over the past 4 years, we ve had girls earn all-brc awards 20 times. That s amazing. Eight of those 20 all-brc awards belong to Tyra and Grace. They have 4 allbrc 1st team awards and four all-brc 2nd team awards between them. Add in Madee and that s nine all-brc awards from this year s seniors over the past four years. Clara, Annie, Grace and Tyra were part of our Run N Fun class going waaaaay back. Madee came to the program her freshmen year after a pretty good series of middle school races. These ladies, all five of them, changed our program for the better. They made the girls that were on the team at the time better. They ve made the underclassmen better. They ve made me a better coach and a better person. They, more than anything, are responsible for the stability and success. One of the questions I ve begun asking of the girls is the following: Are you leaving the team in better shape than you found it? With these ladies, the answer is a resounding yes. Before they came to the team we were struggling. We were lucky to get 4th in the BRC, and we even had a year where we finished in last place. Now? We ve been 2nd place in the BRC the past 4 years and we are certainly one of the better teams in the state. What we have is a culture of success, grit, determination and hard work. It s not always easy getting up and go running in the morning. It isn t always easy doing the same routes with the same group over four years! But you do the work, you have the discipline, you put in the miles, you battle and train and race and you ll have stability and success. Success isn t always measured with a stopwatch. It isn t always a time or a PR or an award. Clara and Annie and Madee have had frustrating seasons, as has everyone who s ever laced up the shoes four years in a row. A couple of weeks ago I had an
alumni special, and I asked those ladies about their memories about cross country. Only one mentioned a race. None mentioned a PR. They talked about teammates, runs, fun and working hard. That s what you will remember as well. You will remember the culture. And Clara, Annie and Madee have been a big part of that culture, each in their own way, contributing to this team and it s success. As for Tyra and Grace, they have been able to run together all four years. They have raced together 33 times while in high school, and they ve finished, on average, within 15.6 seconds of one another in those races. Tyra has been ahead of Grace 17 times, Grace has been ahead of Tyra 16 times. We ve never had such a great one-two punch. Not Nicole / Courtney. Not Tara / Killer. We ve never had two girls that could race together, all four years, and have the kind of success that Tyra and Grace have had. That s a huge reason for our success. I hope they appreciate how special it s been for them to have a teammate a partner. It doesn t happen all that often, and it s been very fun to watch. OK. Now let s talk about the 2017 Big Rivers Conference Meet. A little background, here; in 2014 we had a near-perfect meet, and we finished 2 nd, ahead of Hudson. EC Memorial won, of course, and they went on to win state, but our 2 nd place finish was a huge accomplishment. In 2015 we were 2 nd at the BRC meet, after beating River Falls on a tie-breaker. That was also a huge accomplishment. Last season we were 2 nd as well, and that was, perhaps, a little disappointing. This year we had run well all season. But the Old Abe Invite was a wake-up call. Hudson was amazing, and they would be the favorite to win conference, but EC Memorial had beaten us for the first time this season. At the Old Abe Invite, they looked really good. We didn t. This year s BRC was going to be a battle for 2 nd between us and EC Memorial. Old Abe Invite Big Rivers Conference DIF 1 Rachel Ball 10 HUD Rachel Ball 10 HUD --- 2 Katie Fairs 12 CHI Katie Faris 12 CHI --- 3 Ella Behling 9 CHI Karina Gilson 11 HUD * 4 Ella Young 10 HUD Ella Behiling 9 CHI +1 5 E. Fillipiak 10 HUD Emma Filipiak 10 HUD --- 6 A. Czupryna 10 HUD Anna Czupryna 10 HUD --- 7 A. Penzkover 11 RL Grace Bilse 12 MEN -2 8 Alicia Belany 9 HUD Tyra Boettcher 12 MEN -5 9 Grace Bilse 12 MEN Anna Penzkover 11 RL +2 10 S. Hagstrom 10 ECM K. Anderson 12 ECM -6 11 S. Czupryna 12 HUD S. Hagstrom 10 ECM +1 12 Abbi Faust 11 HUD Ella Young 10 HUD +8 13 T. Boettcher 12 MEN E. Schwartz 10 MEN -2 14 Grace Cole 12 ECM S. Czupryna 12 HUD +4 15 E. Schwartz 10 MEN Alicia Belany 9 HUD +7 16 K. Anderson 12 ECM Grace Cole 12 ECM +2 17 G. Leondardson 10 ECM Savannah Palmer 12 ECN -7 18 A. Pankratz 9 ECM K. Imsande 11 MEN -2 19 S. Garborg 11 ECM Miciah Mills 12 ECN -3 20 K. Imsande 11 MEN Mackenzie Flug 10 MEN -12 21 M. Wiedman 10 RF Ava Pankratz 9 ECM +3 22 Miciah Mills 12 ECN S. Garborg 11 ECM +3 23 Emma Handlos 12 RF M. Weideman 10 RF +2 24 S. Palmer 12 ECN Elsa Putzier 11 RF -5 25 Olivia Saggese 10 HUD Morgan Priem 10 ECM -3 26 H. Silman 11 CHI H. Sillman 11 CHI --- 27 Cady Buchli 11 RL Abbi Faust HUD +13 28 Morgan Priem 10 ECM M. Barnhardt 12 ECM ** 29 Elsa Putzier 11 RF Emma Handlos 12 RF +6 30 TJ Landeweher 12 CHI TJ Landwehr 12 CHI --- 31 H. Lindaman 10 RF Cady Buchli 11 RL +4 32 M. Flug 10 MEN Mati Ihinger 12 ECM -3 33 Abigail Parent 10 RL A. Cihasky 12 CHI -3 34 C. Dexheimer 11 RF Katrina Mousel 11 ECN -7 35 Mati Ihinger 12 ECM H. Lindaman 10 RF +4 36 A. Cihasky 12 CHI Maisy Wingert 12 CHI * 37 I. Sorenson 10 MEN I. Sorenson 10 MEN --- 38 Tricia Cich 11 RL Grace Arrigoni 10 RL -2 39 M. Sorenson 12 MEN C. Dexheimer 11 RF +5 40 Grace Arrigoni 10 RL Lauren Flynn 10 ECN -3 41 Katrina Mousel ECN M. Sorenson 12 MEN +2 RESULTS HUD 24 ECM 75 MEN 89 RESULTS HUD 27 MEN 66 ECM 80 OLD ABE v. BRC So we ran at Old Abe last week. It was rough. Homecoming. We were defeated by New Richmond and EC Memorial (and Hudson and Rochester Century). Every conference school was there, so we got a great look at the BRC heading into conference. I took out all of the non-conference runners and put together the chart to the left. The first chart, to the most left, is our performance at Old Abe. Taking that race into account, and removing the non-conference athletes, we get crushed by Eau Claire Memorial. The girls knew this. I explained it on Friday at our race planning session. I had this exact chart on the screen (well, the left side of it). Had the BRC been that meet, we would only have four all-conference runners, and none on the BRC 1 st team. Those are your all-conference spots, ladies, I told them. Look at those groups. Look at those packs. Where can we pick-up some points? Then there are the BRC results. If a kid went from 10 th at Old Abe to 12 th at BRC, they had a +2. That means they lost two places. If a kid dropped from 12 th at Old Abe to 10 th at BRC, they had a -2. So Tyra went from 13 th at Old Abe to 8 th at the BRC. That s a -5, and it s a huge -5. Those are five very fast runners that Tyra was able to pick-up (Faust, Young, Hagstrom, Penzkover, S. Czupryna). As you look through the results you can see how we were able to pick-up so many points. Tyra picked-up five spots. Grace picked-up 2. Emily picked-up 2. Kaylynn picked-up 2. But the anomaly, the outlier, was Mackenzie Flug. She picked-up 12 spots and there were some great runners in those spots (Buchli from RL, Barnhardt from ECM, Faust from Hudson, Silman from CHI, and the entire RF pack). She went from 32 nd amongst BRC runners at Old Abe to finishing 20 th at the BRC meet. She had the race of her life, running brilliantly. And she helped push Kaylynn along extremely well. It was those couple of spots by Grace and Tyra and Emily and Kaylynn, sure, but it was mostly that HUGE push by Mackenzie. We got our #1 and #2 ahead of Memorial s #1. We got our #3 in front of their #3 and our #4 and #5 in front of their #4. That s how we did it with our #5. Mackenzie Flug had the race of her life. Had she held-serve and gotten 32 nd, Memorial would have beaten us on tie-breakers. In our pre-race meeting on Friday I showed the ladies the chart. I told Mackenzie that those were her spots. Go after River Falls and Chippewa. There were four River Falls girls ahead of her at Old Abe, and two solid Chippewa runners right there. I told
her to go after them, break them up. She did. Not a single River Falls girl was ahead of her at conference, and she caught both Chi-Hi girls in that pack as well. Mackenzie Flug was 1:20 behind Grace at Old Abe. She was only 59 seconds behind Grace at BRC. Mackenzie Flug is the reason why we beat Memorial handily. In a meet, and in a year, where everyone needed to step-up, Mackenzie Flug took the biggest leap forward, and it got us a 2nd place finish. THE VARSITY RACE The race started well. Kaylynn took the group through the K at pace. It was awesome. Our pack was all in the top 15 (or so) with the Memorial pack holding back and the Hudson and top 2 Chippewa ladies taking it out hard (as usual). One of the things that has happened over the past three meets is that the Hudson chase pack has generally found their way right into our pack for the first half of the race. Their top three take off, but the rest sit with our pack. It s fun. Memorial is always patient. Look at the picture. You see our four working together and Emily is looking at something, Hudson girls right in with our group. But look in the background. There s Mackenzie, keying off of those River Falls ladies nice and relaxed, patient and looking strong. The group hit the 2k, by that 180 degree turn, and Kaylynn was back, and looking rough. Tyra and Grace and Emily were right where they needed to be. Mackenzie was moving-up. They hit the Highway to Hell, that stretch of dirt road that would loop back to the horse trails. That was the speed zone. As they hit that road, looping around to the half-way mark, Kaylynn was really looking rough in 20th place. Mackenzie was in about 28th place, but she was moving up. Madee and Izzy were in about 35th place, not quite together, but not quite apart. The line of runners turned at the flag, then they were gone, through the horse trails. I waited This was the most difficult part. Waiting. The girls were in the woods, and no one was there to cheer. There were little hills and rolling turns and the footing wasn t all that good. And I waited for about 7 hours. Maybe 3 minutes, but it felt like 7 hours. Then I saw the lead vehicle, and Rachel Ball. The group was coming down the highway. As they came around again, Grace was in 8th and Tyra was in 9th, but they had a couple of targets. Emily was in 15th. Mackenzie had pulled-up to Kaylynn and now Kaylynn was looking extremely strong, both battling with EC North girls, and there was a Memorial pack right behind them. That was the race right there. If Mackenzke and Kaylynn could stay ahead of those Memorial girls we d be 2nd. Izzy and Madee were still back in about 35th, wrestling with River Falls and Eau Claire North packs. Everyone was battling, and everyone had a battle. They moved down the dirt road, then around the fence. I sprinted down the road, yelling at Mackenzie. They wound through the fence, then looped back through to the finish. Grace passed a Hudson runner. Then Tyra passed the same runner. Then Emily passed her as well. Mackezie and Kaylynn were battling with Miciah Mills and the other North girl (Palmer). That battle allowed them to gap the Memorial pack. At that point I could tell we were 2nd. Then Izzy came around toward the finish. She had a battle and she kept upright no sideto-side motion at all, head straight. Madee turned the corner and her breathing was difficult, but she made it through. I stood there for a moment, in the grass, and I enjoyed the moment. We were 2nd. Every single year we ve had a battle at the BRC meet, and our girls always show-up most when it counts the most. I gave myself a couple of minutes to reflect on this wonderful group of ladies. The summer mileage, the up-tempo Mondays on the trail, the workouts, the conversations and the fun. I d love this team just as much if we finished in 3rd or 4th, but it was nice to get 2nd. A goal well accomplished by a tough group of girls. I got back to the finish area and our ladies were shaking hands with opponents and high-fiving one another. There may have even been a hug, and maybe a tear or two. That s cross country. This is our fourth year in a row as runner-up, and that s OK. We are going against legacy programs at schools almost twice our size, and we are holding our own. Menomonie Girls Cross Country could have some more amazing seasons yet never win a BRC title. That s how it goes when you are the small fish in a big pond. So 2nd place is pretty darn good. And I m
tremendously proud of the effort that you ladies showed. It was outstanding. I even brought back my signature arm move for the day. JV RACE I thought we would be fighting for 5 th. I thought Rice Lake would be incomplete and I thought we might be able to get ahead of Eau Claire North for 5 th. I knew that Hudson and Memorial would battle for 1 st and 2 nd. I knew that Chippewa and River Falls would battle for 3 rd and 4 th. I thought we might be able to get our JV team ahead of EC North for 5 th, with North taking 6th. We d have to have a great day, but I thought we might be able to do it, especially with Clara running JV. We hadn t beaten a single BRC opponent in a JV Race all year, and I didn t want our JV group to finish last in the JV BRC. Could we get ahead of just one team? What happened was AMAZING. Hudson and Memorial battled for 1 st, and Memorial edged out Hudson. That wasn t unexpected. What happened after that, though, was a little surprising; maybe even a little shocking. Our JV girls were 3 rd. Chippewa Falls, which had a great JV team all season, only had one girl race, and I have no idea why. Rice Lake was incomplete, and we knew that was going to happen. Still, we had never once beaten EC North or River Falls. In the end, River Falls ran well, as did EC North, but our JV girls ran out of their minds, and they were 3 rd. Third place. It was amazing. There were 91 girls in the JV race. Eau Claire Memorial had 40 girls in the race. Only seven count for scoring, so the rest are taken out of the results. Hudson had 16 girls in the race. After watching all of these girls go by, with our pack mixed-in, I had no idea how well we were doing. It turns out that our ladies were holding their own, and they battled brilliantly for a 3 rd place finish. Here s what happened. Clara took it out hard. She wanted that letter, and she knew a 22:30 was possible. Annie wasn t too far behind, as was the plan. As they rounded the K everyone was faster than what we had planned. Clara was about 4:15, Annie about 4:25. Abbey and Caitlin were right around 4:40 with Jordan in-between them. She had a huge smile on her face. A smile. Jess was being aggressive and she hit the K sub 4:50, with Holly and Allison right behind. We were out hot! The group rounded the turns and hit the fence by the 2k. Clara was looking good at this point but Annie was starting to look a little pained. They pack of Abbey, Caitlin and Smilin Jordan were together. I said something like are you feeling good to Jordan and she nodded with that huge smile. Then Jess came around, charging hard. Allison was steady but Holly was hurting. I yelled relax you re just going for a run, Holly just an easy run. Then they entered the trail and I lost them as they looped around. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Then they come back around. Out the trail Abbey and Caitlin and Jordan had made-up some huge ground. Annie was now in their group, trying her best to hang-on. Clara was 20 meters ahead of them. That was five girls, all right there, and even though they didn t start the race together they were going to finish it together. Abbey was looking extremely strong and Jordan was still smiling. With a K to go Jess was charging. She was a BEAST. Allison came around next, and she looked solid. Holly was hurting. Into the final K they went that loopy K around the grass. It looks sooo short, but it feels terribly long and impossible. Step after step in the open, on the long grass, with the sharp turns your body yelling at you to stop, you willing your legs to keep pumping. That internal struggle of pain and excitement and anticipation. The finish is right there, but it s a ways away. But it s right there. The pack charged hard, with Abbey leading the way. Onto the final straightaway, Abbey and Jordan blasted down the final 100m, passing gobs of runners. Clara was right behind, mustering up a nice kick. Then Caitlin, just 10 seconds behind, with Annie 20 seconds back. Our top five ran very well, as a group, over the last k. Annie and Jess had season PRs on this brutal course. Abbey, Caitlin, Jordan and Allison had lifetime PRs. And the team was 3 rd in the JV race. Clara missed her varsity letter standard, as did Annie. What could we have done differently? I don t know. Was it burn-out? Were they too busy? Should they have done more mileage? Less? More workouts? Less workouts? More rest days? Less rest days? I don t know. It s a mystery. I do know that they are terrific kids, and they liven-up our runs (especially lately). I wish they could have gotten that 22:30. I wish I knew what we could have done to get them there. But this is life. You make a goal, work hard and you sometimes fall just short. I can t
SEASON IMPROVEMENT Husky BRC TOTAL Abbey 26:56 24:03 2:53 Caitlin 27:02 24:15 2:47 Jordan 24:50 24:05 :45 Jess 27:30 26:18 1:12 thank Clara and Annie enough for their hard work and courage and dedication and kindness. They don t ever complain, they work hard, they are great leaders and they are good friends. I m going to miss them next year. Check out the times from 1 st race to last race. Look at the awesome drops in times. That s fitness, ladies. Fitness. That s the workouts, the runs, the trials of miles and miles of trials. That s the concentration, the effort and the teamwork. Having a group of JV runners that can pack-up like they did on Saturday was a big reason why we were able to get 3 rd. Jordan felt good. She felt good! All of those summer miles on the RCT paid-off and she ran a lifetime PR after a season of struggle and pain, she did it. She had a 17 second lifetime PR, running comfortably for the first time this season. Abbey had the race of the day for the JV ladies, finding some fitness. Fitness takes a while, and it took Abbey a season before she could run as fast as she did. 24:03 was an amazing time. Caitlin ran 24:15 again, an amazing time considering she started the season at 27:02. Jess ran with a purpose, with toughness, without fear. She had the best race of her life, even if the time wasn t the fastest (it was a hard course). What a tremendous leader she s been this year, working with that JV group, staying positive, setting a great example. Allison only managed two races this season, but she shed about 2 minutes from her time from the first race to the 2 nd. Imagine how fast she would have run with an entire season in her legs. I m looking forward to having her back on the team next year. Hopefully we can get her to do some winter running and do track as well, because she could show some serious improvement. And yes, Holly struggled. It happens. Her season has been one big puzzle, but she s a great teammate. She s starting to talk more and she had an awesome The Game the other day. That was fun. Racing is a part of the puzzle, though, and she ll have to keep working to figure out how she can race the way she trains. Still, 3 rd place from the JV. Isn t that something? After being beaten by those other teams all season, the JV ladies came on strong to finish with the most impressive turnaround I ve been a part of. It was amazing. And awesome. Moving into next season, especially with you JV ladies, who s going to lead? Who s going to be positive, set a great example and get kids out everyday running? Who s going to improve and find a voice? Who s going to work to be a captain? We have a huge group of freshmen coming in next year. Let s work hard to continue the culture of excellence you girls have built. As for the varsity, they move on to Sectionals. It s going to be a battle. Onalaska is looking great. EC Memorial and New Richmond and LX Central are terrific. Hudson is in a class of their own. We have our work cut out for us this weekend. No matter what happens, though, this season was a terrific success and I can t possibly thank you ladies enough for your hard work.