1

Waukesha South hosted the Waukesha Cross Country Festival at Minooka Park last Saturday. For the first timein years, the Spartan boys and girls teams swept titles in all four races (Varsity and JV) of the same Invitational.

Girls Score Thrilling 1-point Victory The stars were all in alignment for the Lady Spartans at the WaukeshaCross Country Festival. In a thrilling head-to-head show down with Beaver Dam, the Spartans gained key posi-tions down the home stretch to secure their first Invitational win of the season, edging the Golden Beavers 42-43.

“Every girl counts,” said Coach Naomi Fulton. “One girl could be the difference between first and second.” And itwas. West and Beaver Dam are similar teams, having improved significantly from a year ago. They were shuf-fling positions up front throughout the 2.5 miles, leaving spectators and coaches uncertain of the final scoring untilthe awards ceremony later. “We had our eyes on them the whole race and barely squeaked out a win. It allcomes down to passing one more girl,” said Fulton.

The team was paced by sophomore Taylor Uebersetzig who finished 2nd in a PR of 16:38 on a tough course.Freshman Molly Hertz ran a strong last mile, picking off key places and finishing 5th in 17:05. Raina Wedeward(8th, 17:10), Kayla Janto (12th, 17:21), and Cate Virnich (15th, 17:34) completed the scoring for the Spartans, but

Jenny Lemminger (16th, 17:36), Candice Wayne (17th, 17:36), and Eden Rogers(20th, 17:42) were close behind. No team in the field came close to putting all 8Varsity runners in the top 20 like the Spartans, or keeping them all within 68 sec-onds of each other.

( Spartan Sweep Continued on page 2)

Spartans Sweep the Waukesha CC Festival!Girls, Boys take 1st in Varsity and JV (9/19/09)

Volume 1, Issue 4 September 30, 2009

Girls

Pl Gr @ WaukeshaSouth

Time

2 10 Taylor Uebersetzig 16:38

5 9 Molly Hertz 17:05

8 11 Raina Wedeward 17:10

12 9 Kayla Janto 17:21

15 12 Cate Virnich 17:34

16 12 Jenny Lemminger 17:36

17 10 Candice Wayne 17:36

20 9 Eden Rogers 17:42

Top 5 Average 17:09

1 West Bend West 42

2 Beaver Dam 43

3 Milton 67

4 Pius 106

5 Elk Grove 112

6 Jefferson 163

1 JV West Bend West 33

2

The depth of the Lady Spartan squad was on full display in the JV race too, where Melissa Dock (1st, 18:12) andJonelle Ritger (2nd, 18:17) led the squad to an impressive victory with a low score of 33 points. “Melissa and Jonelledid a great job of pushing each other the entire race out front,” commented Coach Fulton, who was elated with theefforts and results of the JV. They claimed 7 of the top 14 places in the race.

“I am so proud of the whole team,” concluded Fulton. “It was such an exciting meet!”

Boys Cruise to Victory While the boys race wasn’t nearly the nail-biter that the girls experienced, Spartan victorywas in the air again when they toed the turf at Minooka Park. Putting three runners in the Top 10 and all five scorersin the Top 16 will almost always secure a title, and that’s the type of lead-pack race the Spartans put together.

Coach Scott Hammer said there was nothing fancy about the race strategy thisweek. “We just wanted to get through the first mile within :05 of each other andthen feed off of one another throughout the remainder of the race,” said Hammer.

What Hammer always seems to count on is team depth. What he wasn’t sure if hecould count on Saturday was his lead runner Ben Skurek, who spent much of theprevious day and night battling the flu at home. Skurek took the battle to the fieldSaturday morning nonetheless, and promptly posted a time :06 from his PR in lead-ing the Spartan attack. “I didn’t even expect to see Ben make it to the starting line,”said Hammer. “What a gutsy race. He had it in his head that he was going to com-pete, and that nothing was going to prevent him from that.”

Following Skurek (5th, 17:47) were the Eichner brothers, who also had Top 10 fin-ishes. Sam (9th, 18:06) and Noah (10th, 18:08) finished together as did the 4thand 5th scorers Ryne Goralski (15th, 18:20) and Eric Stoll (16th, 18:21). AaronSerwe, Mason Petrin, and Josh Ulickey rounded out the West attack.

The Spartan JV team came close to a perfect score in dominating yet another race.Nic Lache (1st, 18:45) and Miles Petrin (2nd, 18:56) led an 18-point attack. PatKelley, Chris Passet and Aaron Awve went 4th, 5th and 6th to close out the compe-tition.

While victory is sweet, Coach Hammer is realistic as he looks ahead to when thecompetition stiffens again. “We’ll need to be more consistent and willing to racethrough discomfort and fatigue,” said Hammer. “I don’t think any of the guys havefigured out how to race outside their comfort zones yet...something everyone needsto figure out on their own. I think we’re getting close, but we’re not there yet.”

(Continued from page 1) Spartans Sweep

Boys

Pl Gr @ WaukeshaSouth

Time

5 11 Ben Skurek 17:47

9 12 Sam Eichner 18:06

10 10 Noah Eichner 18:08

15 11 Ryne Goralski 18:20

16 11 Eric Stoll 18:21

23 12 Aaron Serwe 18:35

28 11 Mason Petrin 19:03

29 11 Josh Ulickey 19:12

Top 5 Average 18:08

1 West Bend West 55

2 Germantown 66

3 Beaver Dam 91

4 Bremen 92

5 Milton 119

6 Elk Grove 122

7 Heritage Christian 163

1 JV West Bend West 18

Taylor Uebersetzig challenges Beaver Dam up front. The Spartan boys string together three more in Top 16.

3

33 of 37 Boys Set Personal Records or Season Bests The Spartans Boys team ran to an impressive 3rd place finish, just 7 points from firstplace Waukesha North (ranked 13th in State) and 4 points behind second placeWauwatosa East at the Cedarburg Bulldog Invitatonal Saturday.

All teams have their challenges. It’s how they work through them that makes the dif-ference down the stretch of a season. The Spartan boys team doesn’t have the luxuryof numerous lead-pack studs each week, so Coach Scott Hammer continued to workthe entire team hard in an effort to reap gains later in the season. Because of thisworkload, he wouldn’t have been surprised if legs were dull and times were slow atCedarburg. They weren’t.

“I was completely blown away by the way our entire team performed today,” enthusedCoach Hammer. “Out of 37 guys that raced today, 33 of them had either personal orseason best times. Mark (Assistant Coach Rasmussen) and I were expecting the ex-act opposite after the week of workouts we had this week.”

Coach Hammer changed things up by letting team leader Ben Skurek go out hard withthe leaders to see how the rest of the Spartan pack would respond. The tactic re-sulted in a PR for Skurek (6th, 17:32) and pulled sophomore Noah Eichner to his all-time best (8th, 17:34) as well. “Noah just had a great race, and it puts him 18th on theall-time WBW list of fastest times for a sophomore,” noted Hammer.

Ryne Goralski (13th, 17:43), Sam Eichner (15th, 17:52), and Nic Lache (18th, 17:57)rounded out the scoring for the Spartans, who put their Top 5 under 18 minutes for thefirst time all season. Two runners under that time had been their previous best. Ham-mer also noted that junior Mason Petrin won the JV race in 18:07, marking the secondweek in a row that the JV team captured the Individual, as well as the Team, Title forthe day.

After a week of practice that included Decorah Hill repeats, an 8-mile long run, and a 7-mile fartlek...Hammer now ex-pects the physical demands to start getting lighter the rest of the season. But the mental demands will only increase.“I’m happy so many guys had career days today,” he said. “But we got in a dog fight with (Waukesha) North andWauwatosa East and they simply wanted it more than us the last 800 meters. Two seconds a man could be the differ-ence between finishing 2nd or 5th at Conference in a few weeks.”

( Girls Bulldog Invite continued on page 4)

Spartans Bulldog Way Through Mid-SeasonBoys 3rd, Girls 4th at Cedarburg Bulldog Invitational (9/26/09)

The Bloody Harrier Award

Coach Hammer said the race Josh Ulickey had at MinookaPark will stand out in his memory for years. Hammer’s com-ments:

“Not because it was his best time or anything, but becauseafter the race he took his shoe off. His sock was completelydrenched in blood. Upon inspection of his racing shoe, wecould see that just after the 1st mile, he stepped on a thornthat was as long and as sharp as a nail.

The thorn punctured his shoe and the sharp end was digginginto Josh's heel with every step he took. JOSH RACED OVER2 MILES WITH A THORN THE SIZE OF A NAIL DIGGINGINTO HIS FOOT! The determination and toughness it takes torace in that condition is mind boggling to me!”

Boys

Pl Gr @ Cedarburg Time

5 11 Ben Skurek 17:32

8 10 Noah Eichner 17:34

13 11 Ryne Goralski 17:43

15 12 Sam Eichner 17:52

18 12 Nic Lache 17:57

22 11 Eric Stoll 18:09

33 12 Aaron Serwe 18:26

Top 5 Average 17:43

1 Waukesha North 52

2 Wauwatosa East 55

3 West Bend West 59

4 West Allis Hale 91

5 Cedarburg 107

6 West Bend East 158

7 New Berlin West 199

8 Greenfield 229

1 JV West Bend West

4

The Spartan Harrier

Girls Middle of the Pack

The Spartan girls team had a few challenges of their own this week. Competingwithout two of their top varsity runners due to illness and injury, the Lady Spar-tans put together a solid 4th place finish at the Bulldog Invite.

Cedarburg was impressive at their own meet, overcoming a 1-2 finish byWaukesha North standouts, and beating the 13th ranked team in the state.West’s scoring pack was tight, but pushed too far back to factor in the top teamplacings. “Cedarburg competed well...they have a strong pack of girls,” saidCoach Naomi Fulton.

Freshman Molly Hertz continued her surge this season, by leading the Spartansfor the first time this year taking 14th in 17:02. Veteran Raina Wedeward (19th,17:21) was followed closely by Cate Virnich (21st, 17:24). Senior Jenny Lem-minger (25th, 17:27) and freshman Eden Rogers (27th, 17:33) each stepped uptheir efforts by setting season-best times when their team needed them most inthe scoring five.

Candice Wayne’s higher finish (28th, 17:35) than DSHA’s 6th runner (38th)broke a tie and helped secure a 4th place finish in the team standings. MelissaDock (32nd, 17:56) and Jonelle Ritger (36th, 18:07) ran well in their first varsityappearances of the season.

Senior captain Brittany Varano (3rd, 18:23) ran well in the JV race, pacing theteam to a 3rd place finish.

“We Need to work on running strong the entire race...especially the second mile.,” commented Coach Fulton. “Thegirls practice in specific training groups and should also be able to compete in those groups on race day”.

Staying healthy is one Fulton’s main goals now. “We are coming up on the biggest meets of the season,” said Fulton.“Up until now we haven’t done any tapering and have been working hard in practice. It's going to be exciting to startgearing up for Championship season!”

(Girls Bulldog Invite continued from page 3) Girls

Pl Gr @ Cedarburg Time

14 9 Molly Hertz 17:02

19 11 Raina Wedeward 17:21

21 12 Cate Virnich 17:24

25 12 Jenny Lemminger 17:27

27 9 Eden Rogers 17:33

28 10 Candice Wayne 17:35

32 11 Melissa Dock 17:56

36 10 Jonelle Ritger 18:07

Top 5 Average 17:21

1 Cedarburg 39

2 (13) Waukesha North 45

3 Wauwatosa East 60

4 West Bend West 106

5 DSHA 106

6 New Berlin West 171

7 Greenfield 184

3 JV West Bend West

5

The Spartan Harrier

An excerpt from the Milwaukee Journal SentinelFocus on Cross Country Page:

Focus on Growth

One of the schools where cross country has gained in popularity is Pewaukee.

The program has 39 boys and 30 girls. In 2004, it had 12 boys and 18 girls.

"Not too long ago we started a middle school program, which has had a great deal to dowith the growth," said coach John Kashian, in his 13th season. "Our kids know thatcross country is about guts. Anyone can be good if you have the will to work.”

"We teach kids to put themselves in a position to make something happen. If you teachthem to win and they don't, often they feel like they have failed.

"Another draw is that cross country is a very fair sport. Everyone has the opportunity torun each week at every meet. Nobody sits on the bench."

What Are Those Cross Country People RunningAway From?

This question was answered in the following manner in a recent running blog:

At one point in a cross country race, you will come to a place where all conversationceases, and there is only the sound of spikes hitting the grass and of runners breathingevenly. The others around you are deep in their own thoughts, alone with their discom-fort or despair, with their dreams or determination. This is a time of transcendental soli-tude, when no external source - no fans lining the course, no coaching, no high-techshoes - can get you to the finish line. You are locked away in negotation with your abili-ties and your limitations. It is an elemental moment that is redefined each time yourprotesting feet hit the ground.

About three-quarters of the way through a race, the fuel in your muscles is exhaustedand you are literally running on empty. No one is quite sure what powers you through thelast kilometer, but this much is known: you are given an opportunity to reach deep intoyourself to achieve personal greatness. By accepting this opportunity, you become ex-traordinary. In the end, it's not your legs that carry you across the finish line. It is yourheart and soul.

In answer to the question: we harriers are running away, but not from problems orchubby thighs or the stresses of the world. We are running from the shadow of the ordi-nary man, from the purgatory of spiritual indifference, and ultimately we are running outof mere being and into our essence.

We run in order to demand something supernal of our bodies and our souls...and to feelthem respond!

Did You Know?Did You Know?Did You Know?Did You Know?

One of the most

stunning races in Big

Ten history was

turned in last spring

by a Minnesota team-

mate of former Spar-

tan Megan Duwell?

If you’re ever feeling

sorry for yourself in

a workout or race,

come home and

search “Heather

Dorniden” on You

Tube and watch the

Indoor 600 meter fi-

nal at the Big Tens

Try it now. It will be

the coolest 2:38

you’ve spent this

week.

Speaking of Megan

Duwell...did you

know the former

Spartan won the Roy

Griac Invite last

weekend?

Read the next page

for the details from

gophersports.com.

6

From www.gophersports.com:

There were plenty of motivating factors for Minnesota's Megan Duwell in the women's gold race of the

Griak Invitational and the senior delivered to give the Gophers just their second individual champion in

the 24-year history of the event.

Duwell ran 25 seconds faster than her runner-up finish from a year ago and posted a time of 21:01 for the

victory. It was her final career Griak race and she wanted to overcome that runner-up finish from last year

while joining Rasa Michniovaite in 1998 as the only Gophers to win on the home course. Along with

Hassan Mead's men's win for the Gophers, it was only the second time a school swept both the men's and

women's titles as Wisconsin accomplished the feat in 1997.

"It's a pretty sweet victory, especially being my last year of Griak," she said. "You're sort of sentimental

when it's your last big race like Griak. I'd say it's a great way to go."

Iowa State placed five runners in the top 10 to dethrone Minnesota as the team champion and capture its

first Griak title. Iowa State matched the Gophers' low team score from last year with 31 points, while

Minnesota was second with 48 points. Iowa State became the third school to win both men's and women's

Griak titles in the same year, joining Providence in 1998 and Wisconsin in 1997. The Cyclones had three

runners even with Duwell through the first mile, but the Gopher senior pulled away in the next mile and

extended her lead throughout the final four kilometers.

"I felt pretty good," Duwell said. "The competition was tough. I could feel them all around me or right be-

hind me pushing me the whole way, so it was a great race for everyone. It was a fast day."

Iowa State's Lisa Koll was second in 21:13 and teammate Betsy Saina was third in 21:28. The Cyclones

also got top 10 finishes from Alphine Tuliamuk, who was seventh in 21:56, Semhar Tesfaye, who was

ninth in 21:58 and Grace Kemmey, who was one second back in placing 10th.

Minnesota's Nikki Swenson was eighth overall in 21:57 and the Gophers had three consecutive finishers

from 12th to 14th place as Minnesota and Iowa State combined for 10 of the top 14 finishers. The Go-

phers' Elizabeth Yeter posted a time of 22:02, Amy Laskowske ran 22:04 and freshman Kayla Wagner

timed 22:08. Minnesota ran without its No. 2 runner Jamie Cheever, who was ill.

Michigan State finished third overall with 80 points and was led by a pair of top-five finishers in Emily

MacLoed, who was fourth in 21:41 and Carlie Green, who placed fifth in 21:44. Utah Valley was fourth

in the team standings with 135 points and got a sixth place finish from Mary Nothum in 21:53.

Duwell was disappointed the Gophers were unable to make it three straight team titles, but hopes for big-

ger things later in the year when Minnesota goes for three consecutive Big Ten championships.

"We didn't taper much," she said. "This meet is so early in the season we're still training pretty hard. We

maybe let down a little bit so we could have fresh legs for the race, but we're going to be right back at it

again to get good training for the rest of the season."

Spartan Alum Megan Duwell Victorious in Last Roy Griac Invitational