Statebound trio
By Jim den Hollander
The South Central Conference will be well represented in the boys’ race with the entire team along with Mattei and Mauston’s David Linsmeyer who finished about 10 seconds in front of Mattei. Mattei spent much of the race running right behind a pack that included a couple of Nekoosa runners and Linsmeyer along with a few others, ultimately finishing right behind that group. "They were the pack I knew had to stay with," said Mattei. "It was okay to be a little bit behind as long as I didn’t lose contact with them and they were what pushed me to go. I was very unsure of my pace and I needed something to go with. They were what I needed I guess." Mattei said he picked up his own pace if that pack got too far in front of him and he felt like he had about maxed himself out at the end. "If there was another 800 meters to go, I might not have made it," said Mattei with a chuckle." It turned out the race was about that much too long for senior Jared Funmaker who came close to finishing the race right on Mattei’s shoulder. Having picked off runners steadily for much of the second half of the race, Funmaker was about 40 meters behind Mattei with nobody in between. Injury abbreviated the season for the senior but he ran the race of his life at Ettrick and was in the mix that late. He fell off the pace in the last stretch and ultimately crossed the line 30th in 17:59.9 PR’s all around After a solid day at Conference, coach Knetter said he told his crew he wanted them to be ready for Sectionals so they wouldn’t have any regrets afterward. He strengthened that thought when they arrived at the Ettrick Golf Course. "When we pulled up in the bus, I said to them...see, there it is. Leave everything you have on that golf course. When a team comes within 13 points of going to state, it basically means, if each runner had improved their position by three, the team would have qualified. But in this case, they can have no regrets as this team clearly did as they were asked. On the girls’ side, all but Swatek enjoyed personal best times and Swatek was close. After the front two, the next three came in together, senior Jessica Sweet ending her high school career with an awesome final week, crossing the line in 17:25, just one second in front of sophomore Theresa Madland and another second ahead of junior Kiersten Norgard. They finished in order in spots 36-38 in the field. Junior Tesa Barney took a huge chunk of her personal best time as well, crossing the line in 18:24, two spots and just four seconds in front of freshman Abby Vandenlangenberg. Hickey is clearly the leader in this group and has been all season. But she also will be the only one leaving...with modest improvements from everyone, it is conceivable this team could be even stronger next year. For the boys, the improvement this season is just amazing. After improving from fifth to the runners up position in their conference, behind only the team that likely will claim a state championship (Nekoosa) on Saturday, Mattei became the first runner since Tom Cook to reach the state championship meet. Grimsled injured The lone disappointment was for Dakota Grimsled, a second team all-Conference runner who was unable to run at Sectionals due to injury. Apart from that, every runner except Mattei ran their fastest 5,000 meter time of the season. Billy Leonard led the rest of the Dells’ boys pack, crossing the line 37th in 18:15. Not far behind in 54th spot overall as Dells’ freshman Jacob Synott, crossing the line in 18:57. The remainder of the squad coming in close together and all under the 20-minute plateau. Junior David Biffert finished in 19:20 followed by Jake Johnson five seconds later and just one tick in front of sophomore Max Hocker. Cross Country WIAA Division 2 Sectional
at Ettrick Golf Course
Oct. 24, 2009 GIRLS TEAM State Qualifiers - Westby and West Salem teams along with — 1. Jaden Roddick - Sparta 14:46.4; Dells Runners - 3. Taylor Hickey 15:17.2; 7. Stacey Swatek 15:40.9; 36. Jessica Sweet 17:25.4; 37. Theresa Madland 17:26.7; 38. Kiersten Norgard 17:27.4; 58. Tesa Barney 18:23.9; 60. Abby Vanden Langenberg 18:27.0 - Runners in Race - 99. BOYS TEAM State Qualifiers - Nekoosa and Westby teams along with — 2. Will Peasley - Black River Falls 16:32.2; 6. Christian Koepnick - West Salem 17:01.5; 9. Jed Dodge - Durand 17:09.8; 10. David Linsmeyer - Mauston 17:10.7; Dells Runners - 11. Max Mattei 17:20.3; 30. Jared Funmaker 17:59.9; 37. Billy Leonard 18:15.6; 54. Jacob Synott 18:57.4; 62. David Biffert 19:20.7; 65. Jake Johnson 19:25.4; 67. Max Hocker 19:26.5. - Runners in Race - 100.
Events Sports Editor
A week after claiming the first conference championship in team history, the Wisconsin Dells High School varsity girls cross country team came within a whisker of claiming the team’s first state championship bid. What seemed perhaps an over enthusiastic goal in the pre-season came with 13 points of happening Saturday at the WIAA Division 2 Gale-Ettrick-Trempeleau Sectional held at the Ettrick Golf Course. However, the Chiefs will send its largest contingent in some time to the event as both senior Taylor Hickey and junior Stacey Swatek qualified to move on. They will be joined by junior Max Mattei, the lone qualifier for the boys. In the past decade, the Chiefs have sent single runners to the state meet several times, including four straight trips by Tom Cook, then later, Swatek as a freshman and Hickey last year. However, the Chiefs have plenty to boast about. Every member of the girls team set a personal record on the day, including both Hickey and Swatek who ironically were both not pleased with their runs. Hickey finished third in 15 minutes, 17.2 seconds, a little more than 30 seconds behind race winner Jaden Roddick, a Sparta freshman who has to be a favorite to win the state title at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids Saturday. Swatek crossed the line seventh in a season best 15:40.9 to earn a return trip to state. The pair can normally be picked out quickly in a race as the two leading the field within seconds of the opening gun, but this year Hickey and Swatek hung back in the field for the first little while, unwilling to match the blazing pace by some others. "Oh my God, they sprinted out so fast," said Hickey of some of the runners. "That’s because their nervous, they just go out (fast). That’s what I did last year and it sucked," added Swatek. Clearly, the Dells junior learned from that mistake a year ago in what turned out to be a huge disappointment. She battled nerves a lot in the past. This past summer Swatek made a long trip with family to a national track and field event in South Carolina to conquer her fears and it apparently worked. "Last year, every meet I got nervous for. But this year, it’s not so bad because nationals for track, that’s really the last time I really got nervous. This I was more excited for (than nervous)." As for the race, they were their own harshest critic. "I didn’t like where I was," said Hickey. I had a terrible race. May legs were dead. I know I could have stayed with the Sparta girl. I should have been able too." Both knew they ran personal best times shortly after the race and said they can’t tell how fast they are going during a race. "I thought my time was going to be so bad," said Swatek. "The whole race my legs were just...heavy," added Hickey. However, they got the job done and Almost gave up Mattei was even more hard on himself and said afterward that he almost gave up on trying to go to state. He ultimately finished 11th in the race in 17:20.3, grabbing the final invitation for the state dance. Mattei said afterward he battled as hard in his head as he did in the pack. "I gave up at one point," said Mattei a few minutes after his race, still unsure if he qualified to move on or not at the time, but thinking he had indeed grabbed the final spot. Part of the problem, said Mattei came from confusion based on information spectators were yelling to him. "I was getting different answers from everyone...you’re in fifth place...you’re in sixth place and top five go, so I wasn’t sure and I turn the corner for the final and I kind of glance over my shoulder and I see how far back he is and I just push it and I ended up having enough to hold onto it." Mattei hit the line six seconds in front of Scott Clay from Durand. All members of the top two teams qualify, along with the next five fastest runners not on those teams. Nekoosa, put up the best team score with 23 points and Westby was next with 86. Those two schools also had six runners among the top 10 finshers.