Saturday, November 5, 2011

High School Cross Country-Inside Look at a Great Program: Stevens Point Area High School

We can celebrate the fact that we ran a good solid race and only 6 teams in our state finished ahead of us. All of our guys ran times close to their season average and our 16:50 team average was close to our season average of 16:47. In the 22 times we have run the state meet on this course we have only finished with a faster average 8 times. The state meet has been run here for the past 24 years and during that time 7 teams have won the meet with a slower average than the one we ran today.

I've been following progress of the Stevens Point Area Cross Country team all season at SPASH CC- coach Donn Behnke, a teammate of mine at UW-Stevens Point, has established somewhat of a dynasty with 9 Wisconsin state titles and 6 runner-up finishes. Check out the JV results, and you'll see how Donn is able to reload and stay competive year in and year out. The depth is amazing! The JV team has won every Wisconsin Valley Conference (WVC) meet since 1977! The varsity lost once- in 1987, and I think that is the year Donn did not coach.

This year SPASH finished 7th at the state meet- almost a disppointment by SPASH standards, but the future looks bright.

Only Madison West and LaCrosse Logan had better 6th runners than Hatton.

Only Madison West, Logan, and Marquette had better 7th runners than Hansen.

Arrowhead’s average time of 16:09 is the best average ever on this course. The previous record was set in 2008 when we averaged 16:23 for 1st, and Madison West 16:21 for 2nd.

Despite running an average time of 21 seconds faster Arrowhead scored only 11 fewer points than last year, an indication of the quality of the field and the fact that 8 of the top 10 runners were members of qualifying teams.

We are one of only 5 teams to return 6 runners for next season.

Of the 9 teams that return at least 5 runners we have the lowest point total (after removing seniors) with 103, Logan is next with 110, and then Waukesha South with 154.

Of the teams with 4 returners Logan has the best total with 64, we have 66.

Of the teams with 3 returners Arrowhead has the best total with 33, we have 36, Craig 39, and Logan 40.


Any high school coaches out there looking to see how it's done can start by surfing through SPASH CC

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