The Bluejay boys finally put it together, and just when it mattered most.
A season of solid results and special potential gelled into a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s difficult 12-team Stevens Point Sectional, a single point behind D.C. Everest.
“It was truly a great season finale,” MHS coach Craig Hoffman said. “Our goal was to reach at least the top four spot as we did last season, and true to our goal, we achieved that effort and we were a whisker away from garnering a coveted third place finish in a very tough field of runners When you’re competing with the best, you have to believe that you can beat the best, and we were literally in the running with no pun intended!
“We gave Wausau West a cardiac scare with our top four boys pushing their top five boys runners. A number of Valley coaches commented on our boys finish at sectionals this year and that was a mighty fine thing to say coming from some of the state’s best running programs. I couldn’t be more proud of our five senior boys this past season. They were an easy group to work with because their hearts were in doing the best they could. No one emerged as a frontrunner because they all shared in finishing first for the team sometime during the season.”
For this meet, the Jays were paced by Brett Swan (17th, 17:42), Jacob Jensen (18th, 17:43), Reese Beyersfdorf (22nd, 17:57), Brady Schmelling (23rd, 17:57) and Treven Oberg (32nd, 18:18). Losha Heisinger (45th, 18:45) and Nathan Koch (78th, 20:27) also competed.
The girls ranked 12th, within 12 points of Shawano. They were led out by Kennedy Soderberg (61st, 23:22), Christa Schleif (65th, 23:45), Mickenna Comstock (71st, 25:00), Shelby Harris (72nd, 25:05) and Morgan Pettit (76trh, 25:31).
“As our season ended this past Saturday, our varsity girls finished with improved times, but remain unsatisfied with their overall season performances” Hoffman noted. “We have a lot of work over the off-season to build our girls team into a competitive force.
“We’re losing senior Christa Schleif, but we’re committed to do a better effort at recruiting girls to build up our team. This year was a wake up to improve our team numbers and team talent.”
Team standings–Boys– SPASH 20, Wausau W. 89, D.C.E. 111, Merrill 112, Shawano 125, Wausau E. 162, Wis. Rapids 182, Hortonville 193, Marshfield 270, Pulaski 272, Superior 273, Rhinelander 328…….Girls–SPASH 51, Pulaski 52, Wausau E. 102, Hortonville 114, Wausau W. 132, D.C.E. 136, Superior 170, Marshfield 179, Rhinelander 254, Wis. Rapids 309, Shawano 333, Merrill 345.