10/2/2008 8:00:00 AM Runners Reedsburg champs Card girls shine at 5-team dual
Liz Berkholtz won Tuesday's Portage Invitational -- Warrior Challenger -- in leading the SPHS girls cross country team. Photo by Tim Neuenschwander.
By Karl Raymond
Sports Editor
It had all the makings of a state tournament atmosphere- a well-groomed and fast course, over 1,000 spectators, parked cars everywhere and hundreds of runners. All were present last Tuesday afternoon at Sheehan Park for the running of the Big Eight 5-Team Dual.
With the addition of Verona to the Big Eight, the 5-team dual eliminated the cross country triangulars of the past.
Sun Prairie hosted one of the two 5-team duals with Middleton, Janesville Craig, Madison West and Madison La Follette joining the Cardinals.
"It was a lot of fun with that kind of atmosphere," said Sun Prairie boys cross country coach Jim Buhr. "It was circus with nearly 500 runners and no place to park and people all over the place. But that's what made it fun. The course was as fast as blazes and hard as a rock so the times were fast. It was groomed like a golf course and was in beautiful shape."
Buhr said whether the format would be used next year or not was up for debate and will be discussed at the conference meeting at the end of the season.
"There will be some debate whether we do this next year," he said. "It's a tremendous amount of work for just two races. But it was incredibly impressive, too, to have that type of atmosphere."
Middleton won the boys race with 41 points. Sun Prairie followed with 47 points with Janesville Craig 53, Madison La Follette 96 and Madison West 115 next in line. West and La Follette both ran without its top runners - Brett Kelly and Alex Brill, respectively.
"Middleton ran well and has a very good team," said Buhr. "Personally, I felt we should have won the meet. But it's a step up where we've been the last couple of weeks."
Without Brill and Kelly, Spencer Houk took first place with a winning and season best time of 16:32. Ryan Connelly was next in line for Sun Prairie, placing fifth in 16:53. Other top finishers for Sun Prairie were Mike Wipperfurth 6th-17:00, personal best; Tyler Hart 17th-17:43, personal best; Will Goss 18th-17:45; Dylan Walsh 23rd-17:53; Dillon Weber 26th-17:57, personal best; Matt O'Connor 29th-18:00; Tyler Beduhn 33rd-18:09; and Derek Brandt 35th-18:12.
"I thought it was our best meet of the year, overall," said Buhr, "considering the caliber of competition."
Considering the caliber of competition, was pleased his runners won last Saturday's Reedsburg Invitational, but not overly excited by the end result.
"It was a good meet for us for building confidence and giving our younger guys a chance to show what they can do. It's exactly the type of meet we needed after banging heads with teams in our conference that are some of the best in the state," he said in putting everything into perspective.
Several Sun Prairie runners battled through illness, but still the Cardinals prevailed with a low score of 38 points. Following Sun Prairie were Portage 77, Baraboo 81, Sparta 86, Reedsburg 105, Tomah 131.
Battling illness, Spencer Houk still managed to place runner-up with a time of 16:50. The first-place finisher, from Tomah, finished second at state last year. Sun Prairie finishers behind Houk were Wipperfurth 4th-17:31: Connelly 5th-17:38; Goss 13th-18:14; Walsh 14th-18:14; Hart 15th-18:16; and O'Connor 16th-18:42.
Sun Prairie's JV team scored a perfect score of 15 and would have placed second in the varsity race, according to Buhr.
Dillon Weber won the JV race with a time of 18:07. Finishing behind Weber for Sun Prairie were Tyler Beduhn 2nd-18:20; Derek Brandt 3rd-18:25; Joel Kaminski 4th-18:52; Garret Houk 5th-19:06; Sam Moran 7th-19:22; Bryce Opps 8th-19:38; Joe Miggins 14th-20:07.
"All in all, we had some nice results and it was a good meet for us to be in," said Buhr.
The Cardinals competed in the Portage Invitational Sun Prairie will compete in the Beaver Dam Invitational this Saturday. Oct. 4 with the first race at 10 a.m.
Berkholtz leads SP girls By Karl Raymond
Sports Editor
Compliments were aplenty, according to Sun Prairie High School girls cross country coach Steve Riggins, following last Tuesday's Big Eight 5-Team Dual at Sheehan Park. The 5-team dual was implemented this season with the addition of Verona to the Big Eight Conference. It replaced the conference triangulars of past years.
"The course was in great shape thanks to Bob Holling and the Parks and Recreation Department. And Athletic Director Jim McClowry did a nice job organizing the event. I'm being conservative, but there had to be over 1,000 people in attendance. For the first try, it was a good event," said Riggins.
Janesville Craig won the 5-team dual with 44 points. Following the Cougars were Madison West 45, Middleton 63, Sun Prairie 87 and Madison La Follette 115.
Middleton's Maggie Bollig posted a winning time of 14:41.
Liz Berkholtz led Sun Prairie as she finished second with a personal best time of 15:17. Other Sun Prairie finishers were Maura McManus 11th-16:32, personal best; Tamara Wolfgram 18th-16:45, personal best; Jennifer McCabe 25th-16:56, personal best; Brianna Stacey 50th-18:20; Tanya Dring 52nd-18:25; Caitlyn Berndt 57th-18:36; Melissa Assalone 60th-18:54; Allison Ives 66th-19:04; Lizzie Bartow 68th-19:14; Nikki Henderson 69th-19:18; Raechel Vandehey 71st-19:22; Quinn Watson 72nd-19:22; Shannon Lynch 75th-19:25; Angela Knauf 84th-20:06; Kati Ford 90th-20:36; Courtney Ollerman 96th-21:15; Kelly Kohrs 103rd-21:41; Grace Thompson 108th-22:01; Paige Butler 110th-22:07; and Shifee Vang 112th-22:19. There were 123 girl runners.
Maybe it was the fact last Thursday's practice was more strenuous than it should have been or the intensity wasn't equal to Tuesday's 5-team dual meet. Whatever, last Saturday's third-place finish at the Reedsburg Invitational did not go as well as Riggins had hoped.
"We ran the girls hard on Thursday and pretty much trained through this meet," he said. "Arguably, third place is probably the best we could have done. Reedsburg won it and a strong, balanced Baraboo team beat us. Our times and places did beat all the small schools.
"But I was a little disappointed because we are a better than what we showed."
Reedsburg won the meet with 39 points, followed by Baraboo 49, Sun Prairie 71, Port Washington 79, Tomah 131, Portage 137.
Sun Prairie's JV team did come out on top in its race.
In the varsity race, Sun Prairie had a pair of medalists. Berkholtz finished third in 15:32 and Wolfgram was 11th in 16:49. Other Sun Prairie varsity runners included McManus 15th-17:10; McCabe 19th-17:39; Berndt 27th-19:00; and Dring 28th-19:27. There were 41 varsity runners.
In the JV race, Stacey was runner-up and a medalist in a personal best time of 18:08. Other Sun Prairie finishers were Assalone 8th-19:21; Watson 10th-19:33; Lynch 11th-19:35; Ives 12th-19:44; Henderson 13th-19:52; Bartow 19th-20:16; Ollerman 31st-21:35; Knauf 33rd-22:09; Kohrs 34th-22:20; Butler 35th-22:31; and Vang 38th-23:59. There were 43 JV runners.
The Cardinals competed in the Portage Invitational on Tuesday and Sun Prairie will compete in the Beaver Dam Invitational this Saturday. Oct. 4 with the first race at 10 a.m.
