Sectional Recap

It was a quiet and beautiful ride up to Chippewa Falls Saturday morning.  There was one outburst of loud laughter - I was afraid I was going to have go back and yell at Morgan, the outgoing and energetic senior who came to cheer folks on, but it turned out to be the Nelsons and Klinglehofer playing with garbage.  Sometimes a little lightheartedness before a race is a good thing.

We had the gals change their spikes from the usual 3/8" that we've used all year to 1/2" - we were racing on a water-logged golf course after all.  Then we did the course walk through and realized a relatively large portion of the race was on hard packed gravel and cement (the most I have every seen in a race), but the girls handled the terrain like pros.

Prepping for the race we knew Eau Claire Memorial and Menominee would be our competition.  We told our lead runners what to expect from Memorial.  Menominee has been a "pack" team.  Their top 5 run completely together, typically starting slow and then moving up together through the field.  I told the rest of the varsity, "if the Menominee train passes you, jump on!"  Well, at sectionals the Menominee train surprised us with great start.  At the half mile point they were ahead of our #4 runner. Yelling "you missed the train" to our runners seemed a bit premature and negative.  Sure enough, the Nelsons battled back and raced with the train, ensuring Menominee didn't knock us out of our state bid.  Jane followed just behind the Violet and Lilly (with a big 27 second PR!) and then Ally.

Up front, we had a "surprise" of our own.  Sophie and Sara typically run at the front together.  Today they had a guest.  Alex Bruley picked the right time of the season to PR - she dropped her PR by 35 seconds at the conference race and another 34 seconds at sectionals.  This trio should be excited to race together and push each other next week at State.

While coaches and spectators knew it was a great team race, knowing the score isn't always a given.  Claire and Haley did a great job totaling up our score, but we weren't sure exactly where we matched up with Memorial - several different people trying to score the race missed their 5th runner.  She must have snuck in right behind someone.  While waiting for official results, I was impressed with the class of Menominee.  They came over to our tent and congratulated our girls a great race.  We ended up 1 point right behind Memorial to take 2nd place and qualify for state!