Post Messenger Recorder -

Sweet Sixteen might refer to the number of cross country teams in our division at the State Meet. We carry the excitement of being sectional runner-up, right to the starting line at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids. The banners and flags snap in the chilling wind so we wait until the last moment to take off our sweats. One minute to go and 182 of the best small school runners toe the line. We earned our way here by running smarter than our years. At sectionals, the wannabes sprinted for the first mile then faded. We ran smarter and finished ahead. Against older teams we can only try the same technique but it's unlikely any of them will run foolishly.

Thirty seconds into the race and the course bends to the right. The top competitors fly through the quarter mile to escape the bumping and jostling of the main pack. We struggle to stay in touch with members of the slower teams. As we round the course and head to the first mile mark we're shocked by two facts: our mile times on this flat section are fast and...no one ahead of us is slowing down. These older teams enjoy more years and miles of training than our young New Glarus-Monticello boys. The elders don't sprint their first mile and fade, their first mile speed IS their racing speed.

The State Meet cross country course winds back on itself several times. The smart spectator travels a straight line from start to the finish and sees the teams three times, then once more at the finish. With half a mile to go, the runners are led by David Vannuccchi (15:55) from Luther and spread out over five minutes. David finishes, two minutes pass then our number one, Conor McCoy (18:02), scoots through in 40th. In that period of time, Durand and Darlington both put five guys over the line to capture the top two State trophies. Adam Nelson (18:39), Rudy Wicker (19:19), Joe Quaglia (19:32), Ty Ready (19:38), Garrett Grossen (19:44) and Dane Duerst (20:10) follow as NGM holds down the final and sixteenth team position.

In all sports, athletes improve with the proper training but in distance running the potential to go from good to great is huge. A basketball player might increase free-throw percentage by a few points, a football running back might shave a tenth of a second in the timed forty, but a cross country runner can drop one or two or even three minutes off his or her 5,000 meter time during their high school career. In the years to come, as this New Glarus-Monticello boys team gets closer to the age of sixteen, we need to get our times closer to the time of sixteen. That's the true meaning of "Sweet Sixteen" in this sport.